Anchorage Daily News

As Anchorage speeds into the season when the moose start to drop their calves and the bears go on the prowl, the roadway that was to have been a model of how the city could design for wildlife is shaping up as anything but. Wildlife biologists Rick Sinnott and Jessy Coltrane - whose job it is to police the animals in the city of the "Big, Wild Life" - envision a day they'll be called to the new Elmore Road to try to do something about a moose, or maybe just a frightened calf, trapped in traffic by two bridges and an 8-foot fence intended to keep the animals off the road.

Somewhere between design and construction, it appears that what was to have been a new, wildlife friendly road between Tudor Road and the Hillside took several wrong turns. The biologists see a bunch of problems:

• One-way gates designed to allow a means of escape for moose that wander into the fenced road corridor were improperly installed. The turnstiles on the gates are so far apart an inquisitive calf could easily walk between them, then end up trapped in traffic while its mother, caught behind the fence, goes crazy.

• Fences that should steer wandering moose toward the gates and away from motorists instead funnel the animals into box corners where the only option is to do an about-face or jump into the roadway.

• Bridges built lower than design specifications are sure to discourage moose from making ready use of them as wildlife underpasses. And calf-size openings between the fences and the bridge abutments are - as with the gates - perfect places for separating cows and calves, particularly if the animals venture up to the bridges only to mill around while trying to decide whether to go under or not.

Sinnott tried to get the state Department of Transportation to do something about these things in March but got nowhere. Only after he and Coltrane began talking to the Daily News about the issue in recent days did anything start to happen.

DOT response

DOT project manager Tim Croghan initially defended the project with the claim that "a lot of people reviewed the design" and accepted it. On Tuesday, however, he said the agency had looked into it further and concluded "the moose gates were not installed as per plan."

The department now is trying to figure out happened and who is responsible, he said.

DOT, he said, is now consulting with Fish and Game to make what changes are possible. He said the contractor for the project will narrow the turnstiles so moose calves can't sneak through the gates, fasten the fences to the bridges to close gaps there, and adds five new gates so moose that follow the fences into boxed corners have a ready means of escape back into the Campbell Tract.

Across Anchorage, when moose meet fences, they follow them looking for a place to cross. It is not usual, biologists say, for cows and calves to walk on either side of neighborhood fences, unable to reconnect.

Calves get scared and start bawling. Cows get increasingly frustrated and angry.

Before Elmore Road was built, years were spent coming up with a design aimed at eliminating this and other problems for the animals trying to negotiate the urban environment. On paper, the plan looked great, but as it turned out there were some devils in the details.

"During the planning process, we were initially told the southern bridge would be at17 feet high in the center to accommodate moose passage," Sinnott wrote DOT in a March letter. "Without further input, the environmental assessment stated that approximately 200 feet of the bridge would be at least 13 feet high. In the end, the completed bridge is less than 13 feet high and only a short span appear to be greater than 12 feet above the ground."

Icy relationship

Biologists now wonder if the moose will use the underpasses at all. They have yet to see one do so, and they worry what will happen if a cow with calf approaches the underpass and balks. Fences between the bridges won't allow an adult moose to get on the road, but a calf can easily get between the fence and the bridge.

Croghan said DOT hopes to get the gaps in the fences closed sometime this month but wouldn't commit to a firm date.

DOT and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, for which Sinnott and Coltrane work, have never had a particularly good relationship. DOT has long considered Fish and Game something of an impediment to road construction, particularly when it comes to the protection of anadromous fish streams. The wildlife agency has consistently pushed for better environmental design.

Requirements for maintaining proper wetland drainage and bridging even the tiniest salmon streams have driven up road costs. The design of Elmore Road with the long bridges over the branches of Campbell Creek to not only stay away from that stream but to allow moose and bears to pass beneath boosted to nearly $40 million the cost of a three-mile connection between Bragaw Road and the old Abbott Loop Road.