Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) offer significant opportunities to enhance the design of wildlife crossing infrastructure by improving feasibility, streamlining construction, and reducing maintenance. The Opportunities to Integrate Fiber Reinforced Polymers into the Design of Wildlife Crossing Structures Guidebook supports the integration of novel materials in the construction of wildlife crossing infrastructure by advancing prototyping efforts and building agency confidence in the use of unconventional materials. In addition to considering wildlife crossing overpass elements that could be constructed or enhanced using FRP materials, the Guidebook documents associated benefits, logistical constraints and other design considerations to assist in bridge type selection and effective FRP wildlife crossing structure design. Opportunities for integration outline a gradient of design solutions that can be readily realized using existing technology with few agency barriers to adoption; enhancements and modifications to standard design elements that have the potential to increase function or feasibility; and design solutions and topics for future design research and innovation.
The Guidebook is a joint design-research project of the Western Transportation Institute and ARC Solutions integrating the expertise of an interdisciplinary team of wildlife crossing researchers and practitioners, wildlife biologists, road ecologists, landscape architects, engineers, and agency representatives. The recommendations generated in the Guidebook will be further supplemented by a cost-benefit analysis undertaken by the Western Transportation Institute to inform final design decisions by comparing the use of FRP materials to conventional bridge construction methods of concrete and steel. The analysis leverages and expands ongoing efforts undertaken as part of a 12-agency Wildlife Vehicle Collision Reduction and Habitat Connectivity Transportation Pooled Fund Study led by the Nevada Department of Transportation. The study has identified infrastructure built with fiber reinforced polymers as one of a handful of priority research areas with the highest potential to advance cost-effective solutions that integrate highway safety and mobility with wildlife conservation and habitat connectivity.