Dec 28 – A $9.3 million federal grant secured by the state of Maine could be the key to reducing collisions along a specific stretch of road in Caribou, long known as the site of accidents and near misses between cars and animals.
Caribou City Manager Penny Thompson said local people know to drive slower along a particular stretch of Routes 1 and 164, known locally as Main Street, especially after dark.
“I almost hit a deer” is a common refrain among caribou drivers, she said.
“If you live here, you kind of know where the bad areas are for animals,” Thompson said during a phone call Thursday. “We pay attention to that. We tell our children, ‘Be careful, there is a place where there are always deer.'”
After her shift at City Hall, Thompson says, she occasionally drives south to Presque Isle to pick up groceries in the evening. But there have been times when she has delayed the errand to avoid driving on the dark roads full of wild animals.
According to the Maine Department of Transportation, a large number of deer and elk collisions occur on these stretches of road. In a 2003-2023 study of the area, there were at least 127 collisions over a 2 mile stretch around the culverts, the majority of which occurred on Route 1.
But such accidents are believed to be underreported nationally, and local game wardens estimate that at least a dozen wildlife collisions occur each year at the intersection of Route 164, according to the grant application.
MORE THAN MOOSE
State officials hope the grant will not only reduce the number of collisions, but also help preserve an endangered trout species that lives in Prestile Brook.
“If you build a structure large enough for a moose to go through, there are many other species that benefit from it,” Justin Schlawin, program coordinator for the wildlife department’s Beginning with Habitat program, said Thursday.
That money, plus $2.3 million paid by the department, will go toward replacing the culverts under Routes 1 and 164, which each cross the creek about a half-mile apart.
The existing culverts are old and narrow, making them vulnerable to potential failure and unable to provide proper water flow, the department said in its filing.
The stream flows into the Aroostook River, but the existing culverts are high, meaning they sit above the water’s surface, making it difficult or impossible for fish to swim upstream.
“The fish that are in Prestile Brook are not really connected to the Aroostook River,” Schlawin said.
In his letter of support, Schlawin noted that the stream is home to a local brook trout population, which is among the highest conservation priority species in the Maine Wildlife Action Plan.
IMPROVED DRAINAGE
Expanding the culvert should also improve drainage during periods of heavy precipitation, which has historically left that portion of Route 164 underwater.
“If they (culverts) are too small, they can easily become overwhelmed by flooding,” said Nick Lund, advocacy and outreach manager at Maine Audubon. “That’s when the roads wash away, and that’s when culverts fail.”
On Route 164, the existing culvert will be replaced with a precast concrete arch approximately 30 feet wide, 16 feet high and 100 feet long, depending on the application. That concrete tunnel will include a “simulated natural stream” and a raised shelf large enough to support elk and deer.
The precise plan for Route 1 is still being developed and design work will begin in May 2026, the department said.
Construction of both intersections is expected to take about a year, with the Route 164 project completed in early 2027 and Route 1 construction in late 2029, the department said.
Lund said it’s important to make wildlife crossings appear as natural as possible: “Make it appear to the wildlife and fish that the flow is not interrupted by human intervention.”
That makes it more likely to be used by wildlife, he said. But Lund said it “doesn’t take much” to convince wildlife to travel through well-planned crossings.
“Streams are natural corridors for wildlife,” he said. “Plus, animals know that roads are not safe. … Once it is discovered that there is a crossing, wildlife will use it. You don’t have to encourage them at all.”
Maine is already home to a number of wildlife crossings, but the Caribou project is bigger than most, said Eric Ham, senior environmental manager at the DOT.
Ham said the size of a crossing is largely determined by the characteristics of the specific location. Both routes 1 and 164 are located relatively high above the stream, giving these intersections extra space for a larger arc.
Crossings that are wider than the natural flow provide more gradual shorelines with room for vegetation, making them more attractive to wildlife, Lund said.
ANIMAL CROSSING
According to a five-year Department of Transportation study, deer were responsible for the vast majority of animal crashes in Maine between 2018 and 2022. Maine saw nearly 30,000 such collisions during that time, with more than 6,600 deer crashes in 2022 alone.
Although Aroostook County, where the project is located, saw about the same number of deer accidents as the rest of the state, the county saw the highest number of elk accidents of any county, with 575 reported during that period.
The average repair cost after hitting a deer is $1,840, and elk collisions average $4,000, according to AAA estimates. Typically, the animal that is struck dies during or shortly after the crash, the agency said.
Maine was one of 16 recipients – 15 states and the Pueblo of Santa Ana Tribe – selected for this round of federal funding, the second in the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, the state Department of Transportation said in a written statement. The pilot was established as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and provides $350 million through fiscal year 2026.
The projects are intended to “reduce collisions between motorists and wildlife, create places where wildlife can move safely over and under highways, and help preserve American lives and property,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a written declaration.
City Manager Thompson said the project is bigger than anything Caribou could accomplish on its own and thanked the state transportation department for its help in securing the money and cooperation in planning and construction.
“Living in Aroostook County, you often feel forgotten, our challenges,” Thompson said. “But we do believe that there are several government agencies working hard to ensure that rural Maine is still considered an important investment.”
While Thompson is confident the new crossings will help improve the safety of motorists and wildlife, she said their impact may be difficult to detect.
“I think the proof will be when the number of accidents decreases,” she said. “But also a reduction in the number of police officers letting us know that there are a lot of animals moving around that area, or of our loved ones – when we see them at the end of a long day and they say, ‘Oh my God, I almost hit a deer. ”
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