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Innovative Wildlife Crossings for Denver’s Perilous I-70 West
Posted By
Bridgette Meinhold
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Architecture,Design,Landscape Architecture |
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The ARC International Wildlife Crossing Design Competition asked architects and designers to come up with beautiful and compelling designs able to meet the needs and improve the safety for both the people and the wildlife. The competition also highlighted the desire to implement solutions that used materials that would give way to less costly infrastructure improvements.
In the last 15 years, vehicle-wildlife collisions have increased by 50%, posing dangers for both the wildlife and humans, and ultimately costing Americans $8 billion annually. The competition sought to generate feasible design solutions geared specifically for the I-70 highway corridor West of Denver and just after the Vail Pass, as well as ideas that could be implemented all over North America.
Five architects and their teams were selected as finalists this last week and include, Janet Rosenberg & Associations from Toronto,HNTB Engineering with Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates from New York,The Olin Studio from Philadelphia, Zwarts & Jansma from Amsterdam, and Balmori Associates of New York. Many of the designs follow a similar pattern of a large landscaped bridge that crosses the interstate and funnels wildlife across a safe path. Some of the finalists include modular and prefabricated construction as well as techniques used for green roof plantings.
Via Bustler
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The journey out of Denver west on the I-70 is a beautiful and scenic drive, but it’s also one that’s fraught with peril for drivers, and more importantly, for wildlife. The corridor between Denver and the resort communities of Vail, Aspen and is an path
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Landshape by Zwarts & Jansma
The Landshape wildlife crossing is based on the concept of three curves – the first connects the vegetation on either side of the highway, the second curves away from the road forming the bridge, and the third curves
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Landshape by Zwarts & Jansma
The bridge utilizes proven technologies for construction and materials, but integrates the natural landscape and curves to keep the animals safe.
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Wild (X)ing by The Olin Studio
Wild (X)ing utilizes a lightweight modular system of rhombic pieces to create the arched bridge to cross the interstate.
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Wild (X)ing by The Olin Studio
The modular units are used as like in some green roofs and each are planted with a variety of native plants and trees.
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Wildlife Crossing by Janet Rosenberg & Associations
This crossing system provides multiple pathways and variations for crossing rather than just one single path. The lightweight structure also minimizes the footprint size on either side of the
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Wildlife Crossing by Janet Rosenberg & Associations
The crossing structure was designed keeping in mind the animal’s perspective. The structure of the crossing is red in color, which registers as gray to most species, but is clearly perceived as
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hypar-natur by HNTB Engineering with MVVA
hypar-natur is a modular system of hypar forms
that allow for minimal site disturbance and easy creation, assembly, and deployment. It can be easily expanded or adapted to meet migration an changes in migration and capacity.
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hypar-natur by HNTB Engineering with MVVA
A forest and various other natural features, like wetlands and meadows would be created to blend the crossing into the surrounding ecosystem.
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Modular Crossing System by Balmori Associates
The MCS wildlife crossing is a freeform timber structure that is constructed out of modular parts made from beetle kill pine found in the surrounding mountains of Colorado.
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Modular Crossing System by Balmori Associates
The bridge is designed as a wide continuous beam whose section height varies with stress demands. The structural system is designed with a high redundancy and robustness without any joints.
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