Interstate 40 winds through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, disrupting habitat connectivity and creating a significant barrier to wildlife movement from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests to the northeast. This ecologically diverse region is home to a large black bear population, white-tailed deer, and a recently introduced and growing population of elk, along with numerous other species. In addition to wildlife mortality, the severity of vehicle collisions with elk, bear, and deer along the highway seriously threaten human safety. This presentation will focus on the collaborative effort to engage and partner with local, state, and federal agencies, Tribal governments, conservation nonprofits, and other entities in this multijurisdictional region to restore connectivity and protect human safety. Starting in 2017, we have worked to successfully bring more than 20 different partnering groups to the table to work on wildlife connectivity solutions. We have also launched a private mitigation fund to help defray some of the costs of implementing wildlife road crossings, fencing, and other key improvements. We will discuss the insights and lessons learned so far in this promising exercise in collaborative road ecology.