DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Department of Transportation and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet gave our sister station FOX31 a preview of what’s set to be the largest wildlife overpass in the world.
Colorado likes to lead on a lot of things. State and transportation leaders said by the end of the year, wildlife overpasses will be added to that list.
“This funding was part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that we passed in Washington. Colorado put together an excellent proposal for a competitive grant program that was for wildlife crossings,” said U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.
State leaders said an overpass being built on Interstate 25 south near the Greenland road exit will be the biggest wildlife crossing in the world once it’s complete.
“It’s hard to quantify how many because there are pieces of the formula funding going into virtually everything we do. You know we won dozens of grants for major projects like this one because of that law and you are starting to see those projects coming online,” said CDOT’s Shoshanna Lew.
The project is covered by funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) that was passed by Congress during the Biden administration. Leaders said the project is under its initial budget of around $30 million. Bennet says the state needs continued investments from the federal government to keep roads safe.
“That money that was in the bipartisan infrastructure bill is still in the budget and we’ve got to make sure that budget gets out to the states. I do think we are going to see much less investment from the national government going forward. States are going to be much more on their own, whether it’s healthcare, education or infrastructure. We’re going to have to figure out how to deal with that,” Bennet said.
The announcement of the overpasses halfway completion comes a ay after Colorado State Patrol warned drivers about a rising trend in wildlife collisions and two days after the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Colorado a ‘C-‘ on its infrastructure report card. Both Director Lew and Senator Bennet acknowledge budget constraints at the state and federal levels could slow more of these projects from coming online in the future, but they would still like to see more of these structures across the state.
“We’re going to continue to see increases, not decreases, in these kinds of events, but that’s actually a good thing because that means there is more wildlife overall. But one thing we can also do is slow down,” said Bennet.
Leaders say the $20 million effort should be completed by the end of this year.
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