Authorities in California are celebrating the groundbreaking of two wildlife undercrossings, built as a pair, on Highway 89 between Sierraville and Truckee.Â
The $2.8 million project is the next in a series of planned mitigation and research efforts by the Highway 89 Stewardship Team along a 25-mile stretch of State Route 89 through the Tahoe National Forest. The Team formed in 2002 and has been working collectively to increase driver safety and decrease wildlife mortality by reducing wildlife/vehicle collisions, and to preserve wildlife movement corridors.Â
The Highway 89 Stewardship Team's first wildlife undercrossing, on Highway 89 at Kyburz Flat, was completed in 2009.
According to Ted Zoli, engineer of an award-winning wildlife overpass design, "We spend $8 billion per year running over wildlife. Â If we took that cost and quartered it, we could build 200 animal crossings a year and the problem of road kill would disappear within a generation".
To learn more about the Highway 89 Stewardship Team, go to http://www.fs.fed.us/wildlifecrossings/case-histories/public-lands/Highway89StewardshipTeam.phpÂ
KTVN Ryan Canaday will have more on this project on Monday night’s Channel 2 News at 5pm.
