Animals moving across the landscape present a hazard to drivers and to themselves when their movements take them over a road. Sometimes, animals won’t attempt a crossing if traffic volumes are high, preventing them from reaching important seasonal habitat or finding a mate. While new bridges and culverts with fencing specifically designed for wildlife passage (wildlife crossings) can be constructed to facilitate safe passages, new infrastructure is expensive and should be constructed where it will do the most good. Therefore, the functionality of existing structures should be factored into the need for and design of new structures. These existing structures often provide a variety of safe crossing opportunities along a stretch of highway that can contribute to the movement needs of a diversity of species. Additionally, it is often more expedient and economical to upgrade existing bridges and culverts to provide for wildlife and ecosystem processes rather than design and build new structures.

Recent research resulted in a new tool called the Passage Assessment System (PAS). This tool is designed for highway staff to use to assess how well existing highway structures are likely perform at passing a wide range of wildlife. The result will help direct investments to the highest priority projects and identify opportunities for making modifications to existing structures to facilitate wildlife movements. The PAS was field tested and showed promising results. This study seeks to develop a digital version of the PAS or application for use on a hand held device and a database structure for storing the data entered on hand held units. Accomplishing these objectives will make it easier to use PAS to evaluate existing transportation infrastructure and to store the information for easy access for multiple transportation planning purposes. Field verification of the PAS application would be completed in participating member states.

Development of the study scope of work would involve all of the participating states. It is anticipated that the participating states would convene periodically to share expectations, review product development and provide feedback to ensure a quality end product.

WSDOT will commit an initial $20,000 in FFY 2013, and will request approval for an additional $20,000 in FFY 2014. State participation is suggested at $20,000 for each of two years.