PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation has received a $566,000 federal grant to support its continuing efforts to reduce the number of crashes involving wildlife and to better connect habitats. 

ADOT will use this grant, through the Federal Highway Administration’s Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, to develop an online mapping tool that will help identify wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots, analyze data about collisions and identify wildlife corridors for habitat connectivity. This will help the department develop and prioritize projects and build cost estimates to support future projects to protect wildlife and drivers. 

Geographic information systems (GIS) mapping technology will enable ADOT to combine habitat connectivity information, crash data and strategies developed through the years to reduce collisions with wildlife. The final product will help ADOT efficiently identify and evaluate wildlife crossing locations. 

It’s an important undertaking when it comes to ADOT’s vision of safely connecting Arizonans. In 2023 alone there were 2,014 collisions with animals, resulting in 241 injuries and four fatalities, according to statewide crash figures reported by ADOT. 

This system will build on a 2006 Arizona Wildlife Linkages Assessment that ADOT developed with partners to address wildlife connectivity needs during project planning. It also will draw on a 2021 Statewide Wildlife Vehicle Conflict Study that used crash data to identify collision hotpots, as well as using Arizona Game and Fish Department data from GPS collars used to monitor wildlife and other sources of critical information from within and beyond ADOT. 

ADOT’s is one of 16 projects selected nationally for fiscal year 2024-25 using funds provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which makes a total of $350 million available over five years through fiscal year 2025-26 under the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. This grant requires a $32,000 state match. 

In the first round of grants awarded in late 2023, Arizona received a $24 million grant for a wildlife overpass and other improvements designed to reduce crashes involving wildlife and better connect habitats along Interstate 17 in northern Arizona. That project, which is expected to begin this spring, includes double cattle guards at interchanges and 8.4 miles of fencing between the Munds Park traffic interchange, about 25 miles south of Flagstaff, and the Kelly Canyon traffic interchange to the north. The new 8-foot-tall wildlife fencing will tie into existing culverts and ramps to help wildlife escape fenced areas..

Other efforts by ADOT and partners to reduce collisions with wildlife include constructing wildlife overpasses and underpasses along US 93 near Hoover Dam; a system of fencing and wildlife crossings on State Route 260 east of Payson; a wildlife overpass and underpass on State Route 77 (Oracle Road) north of Tucson; and two wildlife underpasses and 6 miles of fencing on State Route 86 between Tucson and Sells.