Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — The state is studying the feasibility of a wildlife crossing spanning a western Nebraska highway after nearly 20 vehicle collisions in recent years with bighorn sheep.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation and the State Game and Parks Commission were recently awarded $400,000 to study ways to reduce vehicle-sheep collisions on the four-lane Heartland Expressway, as it crosses the Wildcat Hills area of Nebraska’s Panhandle.
Between 2009 and 2023, that stretch of Nebraska Highway 71 has had 18 collisions between motorists and bighorn sheep.
Bighorn sheep — which the Game Commission has reintroduced into Nebraska — regularly cross that highway near the entrance to the Wildlife Estates housing area, according to Todd Nordeen, the commission’s big game research and disease program manager.
Traffic increase expected
Nordeen said traffic is expected to increase as the Heartland Expressway is developed further, increasing the risk of crashes and bighorn sheep fatalities.
The study will help determine whether there’s a need for a wildlife crossing, either an underpass tunnel or an overpass, what the cost would be and other possible mitigation strategies.
A wildlife crossing would be a first of its kind in Nebraska, though such overpasses and tunnels have been used successfully in other states, including Colorado, California, North Dakota and Arizona. Grant money would be sought for such a crossing, if recommended, and for other solutions, officials said.
The state has taken steps to mitigate vehicle-wildlife crashes in the past.
Deer, turtle fencing reduced fatalities
In 2011, eight-foot-tall fences were installed, at a cost of $1.4 million, along Interstate 80 in the vicinity of Mahoney State Park and the Platte River to reduce collisions with deer along that forested segment of freeway. The fencing reduced collisions by 85%, the Lincoln Journal-Star reported.
In 2001, fencing was installed in Nebraska’s Sandhills, south of Valentine, to direct Blanding’s turtles into culverts running under U.S. Highway 83. An analysis in 2017 found that turtle mortality in the fenced areas had decreased 66%.
The latest grant will also be used purchase 10 new radio tracking collars for bighorn sheep to follow their movements. That will help determine whether a wildlife crossing would successfully connect the sheep to rocky habitat on both sides of the highway and reduce collisions, officials said.
“NDOT is committed to reducing all crashes on the highway system,” said Doug Hoevet, a district engineer with the highway department.
Grants part of Biden bill
The federal grant for Nebraska is part of $110 million in grants recently announced for 19 wildlife crossing pilot projects. They include a possible highway overpass for grizzly bears in Montana, statewide plans to reduce crashes with wildlife in Missouri and South Dakota, and a study of how to reduce collisions involving mule deer and elk on a stretch of highway in New Mexico.
There are more than 1 million wildlife-vehicle collisions each year in the United States, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which is assisting in some of the wildlife crossing projects.
The funding comes from the federal infrastructure law introduced by the Biden administration. The law makes $350 million available to states over a five-year period for such highway safety projects.