Wildlife & Traffic
A European Handbook for Identifying Conflicts and Designing Solutions
Contents
- 10.1 Introduction
- 10.2 Developing an adaptive ecological asset maintenance plan
- 10.3. Maintenance requirements for ecological asset and wildlife management
- 10.4 Maintenance tasks sheets
- Maintenance of fencing: meshes and poles
- Maintenance of fencing: escape devices
- Maintenance of cattle grids
- Maintenance of screens installed to reduce disturbances
- Maintenance of amphibian/small fauna fences
- Maintenance of ecoducts, wildlife and multiuse overpasses
- Maintenance of viaducts, wildlife and multiuse underpasses
- Maintenance of modified culverts
- Maintenance of amphibian tunnels
- Maintenance of wildlife awareness signs
- Maintenance of signs activated by Animal Detection Systems (ADS)
- Management of vegetation
- Management of habitats for pollinators and other small fauna
- Control of Invasive Alien Species (IAS)
- Management of verges to reduce forest fire risk in sensitive areas
- Management of retention ponds to wildlife
- Management of road killed animals
- Management of Animal-Vehicle Collisions (AVC) data
- 10.5 References
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
Maintenance of wildlife awareness signs

INSPECTION TASKS
To check
- Signs are clean and well fixed.
- Signs are installed at hazardous road sections according to information provided in the maintenance plan.
- Signs are in the correct location; the distance from the start of the hazardous stretch must be assessed according to the road features and speed limits, and as provided in the maintenance plan.

SPECIFIC MAINTENANCE TASKS
To do
- Clean the signs. Repair or replace when damage is detected.
- Add relevant complementary information for drivers about the length of the hazard stretch. After reevaluation of AVC hazard risk, signs which no longer indicate the correct location of the hazardous stretch should be removed and/or relocated.
- To increase driver awareness, consider changing standard signs to temporal ones where AVC hazard shows a marked temporal variation, increasing during specific times of the year.
- When temporal warning signs have dynamic enhancing devices (e.g. sensors and flashing lights), ensure all these electronics function appropriately.
- Where wildlife awareness signs are painted on the tarmac to reinforce driver awareness, periodically repaint them.

SCHEDULE
- Minimum: once a year, check structural condition and clean.
- Corrections to the locations of signs must be planned every 5 years, after a re-evaluation of AVC risk and identification of any hotspot stretches.
- Temporal signs, when present, must be put into operation just before the critical period according to species involved. Adjust schedule plan in accordance to periodical analyses of AVC risks.
Maintenance of ecological assets on transport linear infrastructure