Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing

Highway 17 is an essential corridor for people to commute between the Bay Area and the Santa Cruz regions, but this highway also creates a barrier between wildlife territories, fragmenting their habitats and stranding animal populations on either side. The lack of crossing infrastructure along Highway 17 forces wildlife to attempt to cross the highway into oncoming traffic, causing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) which endangers the lives of motorists and animals alike. In order to address this problem, the team designed a precast, concrete culvert crossing underneath Highway 17 to provide a safer passageway to increase habitat connectivity as well as safety for both motorists and wildlife. The design included the general layout of the culvert and retaining structures, construction planning with temporary transportation design, the design of the retaining structures, the foundation selection, and environmental considerations. The team delivered the design package in Spring 2023 along with AutoCAD drawings for the structural and geotechnical aspects of the culvert design, analysis for the environmental impact, and cost estimate of the proposed wildlife crossing.