A new wildlife crossing is under construction on I-40 in Western North Carolina. The construction project is being built on I-40 at the Harmon Den exit. The North Carolina Department of Transportation will replace the existing bridge. Under the new bridge will be a wildlife passage. The new bridge/wildlife passage construction will be located on Interstate 40 over Harmon Den Road, at Exit 7 in Haywood County, NC. The new project begins the second week of November.

New Wildlife Crossing On I-40

The project will take until May of 2022 to complete. There will be a detour around the bridge for the next 6 months. Drivers on I-40 will detour onto the exit and on-ramps. Work to improve the on-ramp and off-ramp, to be used by traffic while the new bridge and wildlife crossing, has already begun. By mid-November, all traffic will be funneled into a one-lane pattern prior to the bridge. Then traffic will use the ramps as a detour around the bridge. Traffic on I-40 will remain in this pattern until May 2022 while crews remove and replace the deteriorating bridge structure.

Wildlife and Vehicle Collisions

The Harmon Den area has been a trouble spot for wildlife-vehicle collisions. When the NCDOT announced plans to replace the existing bridge structure, Safe Passage and its partners collaborated with the NCDOT for a solution to fit this particular area. Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project has for a while advocated for building a wildlife crossing at this location. When the NCDOT announced plans to replace the existing bridge structure, Safe Passage and its partners eagerly collaborated with the NCDOT so wildlife could safely migrate without having to cross the busy interstate.

There has been a huge increase in traffic volume on Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the last few years. Wildlife mortality caused by vehicle collisions is rapidly rising. Safe Passage and its partners collaborated with the NCDOT for a safe solution to the problem. Wildlife such as black bears, elk, whitetail deer, and other animals live in the area. The animals migrate and in doing so cross the interstate. Crossing the interstate is dangerous to the wildlife as well as to vehicular traffic.

The plans for the new Harmon Den bridge will include two paths.  One path on each side of Cold Springs Creek to help wildlife migrate from one side of the interstate to the other without encountering vehicles. A 9-foot tall fence will guide animals to the trails and under the bridge. The NCDOT is also evaluating the use of wildlife guards that should prevent deer and elk from walking up the ramps and onto the interstate. The wildlife guards will hopefully encourage wildlife to cross under the bridge and reduce the possibility of wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project 

On their website the Safe Passage mission states…

Safe Passage is a large group of people and organizations working toward a common vision. We believe it’s possible to balance the needs of native wildlife with the ever-growing human population in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. We are local, state, tribal, and federal agencies, land managers, conservation organizations, nonprofit park partners, and other invested community members, all working in the region of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project 

Ensuring our public lands are interconnected is critical to protecting the variety of unique wildlife that live in the Southern Appalachian mountains, which include Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Increasing highway permeability in the Pigeon River Gorge will be a giant step toward improving animal population health. But this will represent only the first project in a series of much-needed regional mitigation efforts. The I-40 corridor could serve as a model for other interstate highways that also disrupt the Southern and Central Appalachian corridors.

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