The Arizona Department of Transportation started work in April on an Interstate 17 project to construct an overpass crossing for wildlife south of Flagstaff.

The project, funded through a federal grant, is an effort to improve wildlife habitat connections while reducing the risk of crashes involving animals, especially elk and deer.

ADOT is partnering with the Arizona Game and Fish Department on the $15.8 million wildlife overpass project, 12 miles south of Flagstaff, which also will install 8-foot-tall wildlife fencing along more than 8 miles of the interstate. This stretch has no bridges and only one road culvert suitable for use by elk and deer.

The earth- and native vegetation-covered wildlife overpass north of Willard Springs Road (milepost 327.4) will be 100 ft. wide and designed to allow a variety of animals, ranging from bears to elk, to cross over the highway. Two bridge spans will include steel-reinforced concrete girders. The project is scheduled for completion by fall 2026.

Most funding for the project comes from a grant through the Federal Highway Administration's Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.

Crews will pave temporary I-17 median crossovers in the area to allow traffic to be shifted to one side of the highway, as needed, to limit closures while the overpass is being built. Safety barrier walls will be placed between the two directions of travel.

Drivers should allow extra travel time when I-17 is narrowed to one lane in each direction for the project.

The area that involves the new overpass and fencing construction accounted for 58 percent of crashes involving wildlife from Stoneman Lake Road to Flagstaff between 2018 and 2022. And within that longer 32-mi. stretch, about 75 percent of all crashes with wildlife involve elk, which can weigh up to 1,100 pounds.

(All images courtesy of the Arizona Department of Transportation.)