Wildlife crossing project featured in Wyoming PBS Trapper's Point documentary

WYDOT's project to build two overpasses and six underpasses on a 12-mile section of WYO 191 west of Pinedale to provide safe crossings for pronghorn, deer and other wildlife is featured in the a new episode of the Wyoming PBS show Main Street Wyoming.

The "Trapper's Point" episode explains how an archaeological study of in Sublette County helped researchers better understand wildlife movement along a major pronghorn migration corridor and helped facilitate new developments in methods of roadway safety for both motorists and wildlife.

The program features WYDOT Archaeologist Julie Francis, Nicole Waguespack, associate professor of archaeology at the University of Wyoming, and Hall Sawyer, a wildlife biologist for Western Ecosystems Technology.

The two wildlife overpasses are the first built in Wyoming, and were designed primarily for pronghorn, which are reluctant to use underpasses. About 30 miles of special fencing was installed to direct animals to the safe crossings.

The overpasses Also mark the first time WYDOT has placed long-span precast-concrete arch culverts over a highway, essentially creating a tunnel. The arch culverts allowed for creation of a more natural crossing for the wildlife with high earth berms connecting the ridge tops on both sides of the highway. The earth berms are supported on each end of the tunnel by large precast-panel retaining walls built higher and more perpendicular than WYDOT’s previous use of the walls.

In the documentary, Sawyer says monitoring documented nearly 85,000 wildlife crossings at the overpasses and underpasses during the first three years they were in operation, and wildlife-vehicle collisions in the area dropped by more than 80 percent.

The Trapper's Point project has earned awards from the Wyoming Engineering Society, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Federal Highway Administration.

The project was initiated and funded by WYDOT, designed by WYDOT and Valley West Engineering of Jackson and built by Reiman Corp. of Cheyenne.