Central City road is wildlife-friendly
Prior to construction of this new parkway, the Central City Business Improvement District’s parkway consultants met with state wildlife officials to discuss methods of mitigating wildlife impacts during construction and after the opening of the Central City Parkway. A number of helpful suggestions were adopted from that meeting including:
- The
elimination of median barriers to prevent trapping animals in
traffic lanes;
- The addition of concrete jersey
barriers strategically placed alongside the road to keep large
animals, such as bighorn sheep and deer, off the roadway, and to
permit escape routes for small animals from the roadway;
- The addition of several large culverts in natural
drainages to permit passage of animals under the roadway;
- Use of plant species disliked by bighorn sheep for
revegetation of roadside slopes so as not to provide an attractive
food source for wildlife and lure them near the road.
Joe Behm
Central City, Colorado
The writer is chairman of the Central City Business Improvement District.
