Researchers to study how road building affects animals

Sometimes the only way drivers in rural northeastern North Carolina can tell that there is wildlife in the woods they zip past is to see the animals' carcasses along the road - or worse, under their tires.

As preparations begin for work on the last leg of U.S. 64 from Raleigh to Manteo to be expanded to four lanes, researchers are studying the crossing patterns of bears, deer, red wolves and other animals so they can plan countermeasures to prevent collisions.

Ultimately, wildlife crossings - large under-road openings for bears and deer and tunnels for smaller animals - will be incorporated into the project, which is to begin in 2012.

Surveys are being conducted on stretches of the two-lane highway east of Columbia to the U.S. 264 intersection near Manns Harbor, including where the road dissects Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, said Anne Burroughs, a North Carolina Department of Transportation environmental program consultant.

"They've been putting barbed wires on top of the guardrails in the refuge," Burroughs said. "Primarily what we're looking at is bear hair. It just grabs a little bit of hair."

Evidence of bear and deer movement has already been found on the wire since it was installed last week, she said.

Besides the study of bear and deer crossings through about 12 miles in the refuge, a second study will focus on red wolf activity and a third on animal activity on about 16 miles of roadway outside the refuge.

The cost of the studies, which will be done in two years by three different contractors, is about $885,000.

In 2007, there were 49 collisions with animals reported in Tyrrell County and 12 in Dare County, according to a DOT statement. About 90 percent of the wildlife-vehicle collisions reported statewide involve deer.

The surveys will include use of tracking collars on bears and wolves within the refuge, Burroughs said. Outside the refuge, researchers will collect tracks made on a special substrate.

Burroughs said wildlife underpasses have proved effective in Washington County, where work making U.S. 64 four lanes was completed in 2005. With motion-sensitive cameras and a "track bed" to record footprints, researchers found that 17 bears and more than 3,000 deer used the crossings in a year.

Ted Devens, DOT project planning engineer, said construction on the $546 million widening project is expected to begin in 2012 with replacement of the Lindsey C. Warren Bridge over Alligator River.

Results of a long-delayed hurricane evacuation study, which projected tourist occupancy through 2030, showed that the project is needed to evacuate the Outer Banks within 18 hours, which is considered a reasonable length of time.

Devens said the DOT is working with more than nine government agencies on issues related to making the roadway through environmentally sensitive wetlands a four-lane road. He said that although U.S. 64 is expected to be expanded at its current location, the new bridge's location, length and cost is still uncertain.

The new four-lane, high-rise, median-divided bridge will be similar to the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge between Manteo and Manns Harbor, Devens said, except that it will have wider bicycle lanes.

Corridors being studied are to the north and the south of the existing Alligator River bridge because the additional width will be incompatible with the current landings. The recommended alternative is expected to be selected in late 2010.

"We are not so much studying a new bridge itself," Devens said, "as we are where it lands."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com