Wildlife Friendly Design of Road Structures Brendon Hyde Technical Adviser, Australia. Brendon has 36 years experience designing bridges and heavy industrial structures, engaged with government authorities and consulting firms both in Australia and 9 overseas countries - from Asia to Africa. He has authored several technical guidelines for the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW Gordon Chirgwin Manager, Bridge Policies, Standards and Records, Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW Australia Gordon has 31 years experience in roads and bridges, and for the last 10 years has been managing technical policy in the bridge and structural fields. 1 INTRODUCTION Many road projects cross watercourses and wildlife corridors that are important for the survival of native wildlife. Insensitive construction of the road structures that cross such watercourses and wildlife corridors can sever both fish and fauna passage. Such practices can cause potentially serious consequences for the local fish and fauna populations (Figure 1). Fig 1: Fish unfriendly design. Piers located in midstream, abutments located too close to top of bank – eliminating riparian vegetation and causing pollution. Construction method pollutes river and destroys riparian vegetation. Where road structures are not ‘fauna friendly’, terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic fauna or flightless birds will attempt to cross over the roadway. Thus a considerable variety of our unique native wildlife, especially kangaroos, wombats, koalas, platypuses and cassowaries, are killed annually on Australian roads. In addition to these wildlife mortalities, road user fatalities occur annually when motorists loose control of their vehicles after hitting or swerving to avoid wildlife obstructing the carriageway. Current road projects provide for passage of identified local wildlife, accommodating issues raised during the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project. However, as Bennett (3) points out, good design and construction cannot substitute for poor environmental planning. This paper adopts the definition of ‘fish’ in the NSW Fisheries Management Act 1994. Thus ‘aquatic fauna’ refers only to air breathing water dwelling animals, including amphibians.