Camino Safety Project
Using mitigation to construct wildlife crossings
Under California Law, Caltrans must mitigate a project's significant effects if alternatives to lessen those effects are feasible.
Many of the wildlife crossings that exist in California were able to be constructed because they qualify as "mitigation" for the negative impacts a project will cause to the environment.
In El Dorado County, Caltrans proposed to improve safety on a U.S. Hwy 50 by installing a concrete median barrier, widening outside shoulders, and installing acceleration/deceleration lanes. However, these safety measures also increase difficulty for wildlife trying to cross the roadway.
The area contains a numerous array of wildlife species, like this coyote, bobcat, and gray fox spotted near the project site.
In addition, Highway 50 also has a history of wildlife-vehicles collisions within the project limits that also had to be addressed to effectively enhance public safety.
The most common occurrence of wildlife-vehicle collisions is recorded with deer.
To enhance safety and mitigate the project's impacts to wildlife movement, Caltrans will install a 12'x12' concrete box culvert wildlife undercrossing, 8' tall wildlife fencing, escape ramps, wildlife passageways in the concrete median barrier, and wildlife monitoring.
The culvert will also likely provide safe passage for other species of wildlife, like opossums and rabbits, that are not generally the source of vehicle accidents, but nevertheless are impacted by roads.
The wildlife crossings, fencing, and monitoring, is expected to cost an estimated total of $1.6 million, which is a relatively low cost when compared to the costs associated remediating barriers to wildlife movement as a stand-alone project.
The Camino Safety Project is an example of how Caltrans, by considering the impacts road projects have on wildlife movement early in the process, effectively utilized mitigation to implement wildlife crossings. We applaud District 3 for working internally to make sure infrastructure is designed to accommodate wildlife. Thanks to Caltrans, California will have a wildlife crossing on U.S. 50 in summer 2022!
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