The Colorado Department of Transportation is starting work on a wildlife mitigation project on Highway 160 west of the County Road 223 east end intersection at Dry Creek.

The project has a $6.5 million budget, according to CDOT spokeswoman Nancy Shanks. Crossfire LLC will do the work. It will include an underpass for large animals, shoulder widening and wildlife fencing on both sides of the highway. The goal is to make wildlife migration safer for the animals and reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions.

"Between 9,200 and 9,600 vehicles travel this stretch of US 160 each day," CDOT Program Engineer Ed Archuleta said. "Crash data over the last five years show that 58 percent of all collisions are wildlife-vehicle crashes at this location. Reports also show a high number of single-vehicle overturning crashes are occurring here. The underpass and wider highway shoulders will help prevent these types of collisions."

CDOT reported recently that La Plata County led the state in vehicle-wildlife collisions in 2013.

Crossfire began mobilizing at the site on June 19. Shanks said traffic impacts should be minimal.

The project includes a pre-cast concrete arch structure with a natural earth bottom for the animal underpass. This arch span bridge will be 37 feet wide and 13 feet high. Crews will construct a paved, two-lane detour on which two lanes of traffic will travel during construction of the first half of the underpass. Two lanes of traffic will then be switched onto the existing alignment while the other half of the arch span bridge is under construction.

Once construction is complete, the detour alignment will be fenced off but will remain in place to accommodate future road widening from two to four lanes, as called for in the US 160 Environmental Impact Statement finalized in 2006. The road above the underpass will remain a single lane in each direction with widened 10-foot shoulders.

Crews also will install some 10,700 linear feet of wildlife fencing and eight wildlife escape ramps.

This underpass is the first of 24 large-animal crossings recommended in the US 160 EIS between Durango and Bayfield. In addition, small mammal crossings are recommended every 1,000 feet. Wildlife features were identified in the EIS in coordination with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Work will be done between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. each day, though much of it will be accomplished off the highway and with the use of the detour. Lane closures are not anticipated until the end of the project, when the new alignment is tied to the existing one.

Once construction gets underway, the speed limit will be reduced to 40 mph during work hours. Construction probably will be suspended for the winter, with completion expected in May 2016. For more information or to ask questions, contact the contractor's public information line at (970) 828-2897.