The Bow Valley Gap Wildlife Overpass has earned Dialog a Minister’s Award for Transportation Innovation at the Transportation Connects Alberta conference. The firm provided structural engineering and landscape architecture for the overpass to advance transportation safety and wildlife conservation.
Dialog designed the overpass to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) in the Bow Valley Corridor while maintaining critical animal migration routes. The Bow Valley Gap Wildlife Overpass is the first wildlife overpass in Alberta located outside of Banff National Park, where crossings are managed federally by Parks Canada.
Located east of Banff between Lac des Arcs and Highway 1X, the overpass will reduce WVCs on one of Alberta’s busiest stretches of roadway. Traffic counts currently exceed 22,000 vehicles per day on average, and up to 30,000 vehicles per day during the summer. In the planning and preliminary design phases, Dialog conducted extensive research on wildlife habitat locations and movement corridors, wildlife-vehicle collision data, and geotechnical and roadway considerations.
The final overpass design consists of twin arches, each spanning over two lanes of traffic and associated shoulders, with an allowance to accommodate a third lane in the future. The arches are covered with soil and vegetation which ties into the surrounding topography and landscape; a crucial design element that encourages wildlife usage. The project also includes 12 kilometres of exclusion fencing along the highway to funnel wildlife to the overpass and a series of “jump outs” to allow animals who enter the right-of-way to exit safely.
“Dialog is proud to advance highway safety and environmental preservation across Western Canada through the successful implementation of seven wildlife overpasses,” states Neil Robson, project manager and design lead. “By creating safe crossings for animals, these structures dramatically cut down wildlife-vehicle collisions, safeguarding both human and animal lives.”
Wildlife overpasses have emerged as a major success in advancing both highway safety and environmental conservation. In Banff National Park, the crossings have contributed to an 80 per cent reduction in large-mammal collisions, according to Think Wildlife Foundation. To further support local ecosystems and driver safety, Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors has engaged Dialog in the design of three additional wildlife crossings.
