Traxpalco integrated wildlife connectivity into a major road project in Uruguay

Traxpalco began by recognising the ecological sensitivity of the area crossed by the Route 9 project. The company reviewed the relationship between the road alignment, nationally protected areas, biological corridors, watercourses and other habitats used by native fauna. The assessment focused on two principal operational impacts: 

• the increased risk of wildlife–vehicle collisions; 
• and the increased barrier effect created by the widened road. 

Traxpalco worked with biodiversity specialists to identify locations where road infrastructure could interfere with wildlife movement. This analysis informed the selection of four bridges where wildlife connectivity measures would be introduced. 

Rather than treating biodiversity measures as corrective actions to be added after construction, the company sought to incorporate them into the planning and implementation of the road project.

Traxpalco recognised that road engineering teams did not hold all the ecological expertise required to design and validate the proposed interventions. It therefore adopted a collaborative model involving public institutions, technical specialists and environmental organisations.

The initiative received support from the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, Corporación Vial del Uruguay, UN Global Compact Network Uruguay and ECOBIO Uruguay (a non-governmental organization specializing in ecology and biodiversity conservation). 

The partners played different roles in the initiative. Public authorities provided institutional support and helped align the interventions with the wider objectives of Uruguay’s transport and environmental policies. ECOBIO and other biodiversity specialists contributed technical knowledge on habitat fragmentation, wildlife movement, ecological restoration and monitoring. 

Within Traxpalco, the initiative involved senior leadership and teams working in engineering, environmental management, construction, operation and maintenance. Senior management supported the inclusion of measures that were not yet common in Uruguay’s road sector and enabled the company to allocate resources to pilot solutions and monitoring activities. 

Technical and operational employees then had to translate ecological recommendations into measures that could be constructed, inspected and maintained as part of an operating road.

With the support of biodiversity specialists, Traxpalco designed dry passage areas beneath four bridges located at priority connectivity points. The passages were created by conditioning the natural ground beneath the margins of each bridge, wherever the physical conditions allowed. The purpose was to maintain a dry route that animals could use to move beneath the road without entering the carriageway. 

The design sought to use natural surfaces rather than introduce unnecessary artificial structures that could affect wildlife behaviour. The dry strips were intended to remain distinguishable from the active water channel and accessible under normal operating conditions.

Using existing bridge structures also allowed Traxpalco to create wildlife crossing opportunities without constructing entirely separate crossing structures. However, each location required adaptation to its particular hydraulic, topographic and ecological conditions.

Traxpalco understood that providing a crossing structure would not necessarily ensure that wildlife reached or used it. The company therefore complemented the dry passages with measures intended to influence animal movement and reduce the likelihood of wildlife entering the road. 

A pilot perimeter fence was designed to guide animals towards a safer crossing point rather than allow them to approach the carriageway directly. 

According to Traxpalco, this was the first pilot of its kind in Uruguay. The company used the location to begin testing how guiding fences could be adapted to local fauna and road conditions. Vertical signs warning drivers about native wildlife crossings were also installed at locations associated with higher wildlife mortality.

Traxpalco treated ecological restoration as a functional part of the wildlife-connectivity system. The objective is to recover vegetation affected during construction, improve habitat continuity and create conditions that would encourage fauna to approach and use the crossing locations. 

The company is using native species or species considered compatible with the local ecosystem. Restoration was intended to connect the entrance and exit areas of the passages with surrounding habitats. Maintenance was incorporated into the longer-term road-management period, recognising that planting vegetation alone would not guarantee successful restoration.

In addition to biodiversity-specific interventions, Traxpalco introduced environmental practices into the construction process. It also operated crushing plants using renewable electricity and introduced technologies intended to improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions. 

These actions formed part of Traxpalco’s wider approach to presenting Route 9 as an integrated sustainable infrastructure project. However, they were complementary to the central biodiversity objective of maintaining ecological connectivity and reducing wildlife risks.

Traxpalco complemented the road interventions with an environmental education programme aimed at communities within the project’s area of influence. 

The company developed educational materials including a biodiversity memory game, an interactive floor mat and a Route 9 educational booklet. These materials were used to introduce children to local wildlife, biodiversity conservation and road safety. 

The educational component sought to increase local understanding of why the wildlife measures had been introduced and reinforce the relationship between road safety, biodiversity protection and community stewardship.

Traxpalco incorporated monitoring mechanisms to assess whether wildlife was approaching and using the crossing locations. 

Camera traps were installed in the dry passage areas and protected with cages to reduce the risk of damage or interference. The company and its partners also used footprints, tracks and other wildlife signs as complementary evidence of animal movement. 

By combining records from the passages with information on roadkill, Traxpalco sought to better understand whether the interventions were contributing to safer wildlife movement.

Traxpalco shared the Route 9 initiative through road-sector congresses, sustainability forums, academic events and discussions organised by the Uruguayan Chamber of Construction and the UN Global Compact Network Uruguay.

These activities allowed the company to share the practical challenges of integrating biodiversity measures into road infrastructure and contribute to broader discussions with companies, public bodies, academia and environmental organisations. Conceived as a pilot, the initiative also aimed to generate technical knowledge that could be adapted to future infrastructure projects.