Abstract Manager

Atlantic Industries is a leader in designing and supplying wildlife overpasses.  Atlantic Industries Limited has designed and supplied a number of wildlife crossings across Europe and North America, including the recently constructed wildlife overpass at Stoney Nakoda Exshaw crossing.  Wildlife crossing structures across highways have been shown to be some of the most effective means of reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions while facilitating wildlife movement across the landscape. Yet the use of such structures, especially wildlife overpasses, has been hindered by their perceived and actual expense.

A facilitated workshop was held in October 2014, gathering many of the best wildlife crossing practitioners in North America. I participated in the workshop which resulted in a compilation of the best design considerations and construction techniques based on the experience of the practitioners and the relative potential for each to reduce costs.  This work was published in 2021, with myself as one of the authors.  At the 2017 TAC conference, I presented a summary of the innovative strategies to reduce the cost of wildlife overpasses during the planning, design and construction, as well as the procurement, delivery method and cost accounting stages. Although not all ideas or considerations are applicable for every wildlife crossing or situation, the recommendations will certainly help both in the design, construction and procurement of future wildlife overpass structures as well as provide ideas to designers and highway agencies for minimizing their costs or avoiding unnecessary expenditures, without compromising biological effectiveness. Some of these recommendations are based on International experiences, and some recommendations were incorporated into the Stoney Nakoda Exshaw crossing. 

My expertise lies in Atlantic Industries Canadian and International wildlife crossing experience, with a focus on design and construction.  The majority of wildlife overpasses are buried structures.  I am currently the Chair of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code Buried Structure subcommittee.