North Carolina just made one of its boldest investments yet in keeping animals — and people — safe on state roads.
Last week, the state General Assembly passed its first full budget since 2023, and tucked inside was a landmark allocation: $10.2 million every two years to fund wildlife crossings throughout North Carolina. The funding flows to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), which will use it to design, construct, and co-fund safe passageways for the animals that share the state's landscape.
The stakes are real. Between 2022 and 2024, North Carolina recorded 63,000 wildlife-vehicle collisions. Those crashes injured 2,866 people and killed 23. Wildlife crossings — bridges, tunnels, and culverts engineered for animal passage — can dramatically reduce both numbers.
A Bipartisan Win on a Shared Problem
This is the second time North Carolina has specifically earmarked state funds for wildlife crossings. In 2023, legislators allocated $2 million for the purpose, a pioneering step that put the state ahead of most of the country. The new $10.2 million commitment — five times larger — signals that the first investment worked well enough to justify scaling up.
"Every project has its own dollar amount," said David Uchiyama, NCDOT's western North Carolina spokesperson. Crossings range widely in scope and cost: from narrow salamander culverts just a few inches wide to full overland bridges designed for elk, bears, and deer. The new funding can support standalone construction projects or serve as matching money for federal or partner-funded initiatives.
What These Crossings Look Like
One working example sits in Graham County, where NCDOT built an overpass over NC-143 as part of the Corridor K project. The structure allows large mammals to safely traverse what had been a dangerous stretch of highway. Wildlife use the crossing, collisions drop, and the ecosystem on both sides of the road stays connected.
That connectivity is the ecological heart of the matter. Mountain animals in western North Carolina once roamed freely from peaks to valleys, following seasonal food, water, and weather patterns. Modern roads interrupted that flow, fragmenting habitat and isolating populations. Wildlife crossings don't just prevent deaths — they restore the landscape's natural function.
A Growing National Movement
North Carolina's investment joins a national wave. Earlier this year, Utah, Virginia, Idaho, and Oregon all passed wildlife crossing legislation. The federal government has also channeled infrastructure money toward crossings through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Across the country, these structures are being recognized not as feel-good extras but as cost-effective safety infrastructure that saves both wildlife and taxpayer dollars in reduced accident response and road repair.
Wildlife crossings are also increasingly popular with the public. Camera trap footage from overpasses has shown everything from mountain lions and bears to small mammals and birds using the structures, generating millions of views and a simple, visual proof of concept: when you build it, they come.
North Carolina's biennial investment ensures that the state will keep building. The NCDOT is expected to begin planning specific projects in the months ahead, with construction likely to follow in the next budget cycle. For the state's drivers, its wildlife, and the ecosystems that connect them, that's a genuine win for everyone on the road.
