A new study funded by federal dollars will investigate solutions to reduce the number of wildlife collisions on Alaska's busy Glenn Highway. The Alaska Department of Transportation plans to analyze existing mitigation strategies and explore potential solutions like wildlife crossings.
New federal funds will help Alaska 's Department of Transportation develop a plan to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife on one of the state's busiest highways. The department plans to conduct a wildlife-vehicle collision study along the Glenn Highway corridor stretching between Anchorage's Airport Heights neighborhood to the Glenn and Parks interchange in December.
Mark Eisenman, the Anchorage area planner for the department, hopes the study will help generate new ideas to reduce wildlife crashes on the Glenn Highway. 'That's one of the things we're hoping to get out of this is to also have the study look at what's been done, not just nationwide, but maybe worldwide,' Eisenman said. 'Maybe where the best spot for a wildlife crossing would be, or is a wildlife crossing even the right mitigation strategy for these crashes?' Eisenman said the most common wildlife collisions are with moose. There were nine fatal moose-vehicle crashes on the highway between 2018 and 2023. In the late 1980’s, DOT lengthened and raised a downtown Anchorage bridge to allow moose and wildlife to pass underneath, instead of on the roadway. But Eisenman said it wasn’t built tall enough for the moose to comfortably pass through, so many avoid it. Moose typically die in collisions, he said, and can also cause significant damage to vehicles. There are several signs along the Glenn Highway that tally fatal moose collisions, and he said they’re the primary signal to drivers to watch for wildlife. 'The big thing is, the Glenn Highway is 65 for most of that stretch, and reaction time to stop when you're going that fast for an animal jumping onto the road is almost impossible to avoid,' he said
WILDLIFE COLLISIONS GLENN HIGHWAY ALASKA TRANSPORTATION WILDLIFE CROSSINGS
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