Completed Research:

Attention Motorists: The Bats Have Landed on Our Bridge (Completed 1996)

Performer(s): Public Roads Magazine
Sponsor(s): FHWA

To order:

Judy Dakin. FHWA/Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101-2296.
Tel: 202-493-3192; Email: judy.dakin@fhwa.dot.gov
Order No.: Public Roads Magazine (Winter, vol. 59, no. 3)
URL: Full text available online at http://www.TFHRC.gov/pubrds/winter96/p96w12.htm.

Abstract

This magazine article written by Paul Garrett (FHWA) tells about the well publicized population of Mexican freetail bats that roost between beams under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, TX. It also discusses aspects of bat ecology, their status as endangered and declining species worldwide, and a program established by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to enhance highway structures as bat habitat. The TxDOT is conducting continuous studies on the bridge and its bat population.

Emerging Issues in Transportation and Water Quality (Completed 1996)

Performer(s): Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at N.C. State University
Sponsor(s): FHWA

To order:

Patricia Cazenas. FHWA , HEPN-30, 400 Seventh St., SW., Washington, DC 20590;
Tel: 202-366-4085; Fax: 202-366-3409; Email: Patricia.cazenas@fhwa.dot.gov.

Abstract

This teleconference was targeted at State transportation environmental officials and other transportation and environmental agency employees who are interested in seeing examples of cooperative efforts in the transportation/water quality issues. The conference began with overviews of water quality issues from representatives of the FHWA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These overviews were followed by two case studies. Representatives from Pennsylvania’s transportation and environmental agencies addressed ways in which they worked together to come up with successful strategies for performing bridge maintenance while protecting water quality. Representatives from Oregon’s transportation and environmental agencies discussed their attempts to work together to modify the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit process to apply on a watershed basis rather than a population basis. The broadcast was held May 23, 1995, from the Center for Transportation and the Environment at North Carolina State University.