Highways are increasingly understood as barriers to wildlife and pedestrian movement, and as significant causes of landscape fragmentation – especially in suburban, and peri-urban areas. The US Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Transportation, Community and System Preservation Program (TCSP) encourages innovative solutions to reduce the impact of highways on the communities they link and traverse. This paper is based on research and public participation as part of a FHWA-TCSP sponsored feasibility studyfor a combined wildlife and pedestrian crossing to mitigate the impacts of a state highway on wildlife and recreation, and in general to mitigate highway impacts on the communities of Concord and Lincoln, Massachusetts. The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team including landscape architecture, urban planning, wildlife biology, civil engineering, and landscape history. The study process explicitly included diverse public participation and collaboration throughout the project. Based on this study we define significant planning issues likely to pertain to similar projects, and offer a transdisciplinary method for conducting planning or feasibility studies for combined wildlife-pedestrian crossings. The method presented is innovative regarding its interdisciplinary integration, and for its meaningful inclusion of public officials, non-governmental representatives,citizens and other stakeholders.
Abstract