The state of New Mexico has installed electric fencing and a sort of cattle guard in the Tijeras Canyon area east of Albuquerque to prevent wild animals from crossing in front of motorists traveling on Interstate 40 and nearby old Route 66, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The 7-foot-high fence will deliver a mild shock to animals that touch it, discouraging them from passing through. It’s made of several horizontal strands of ropelike material about a half-inch in diameter that can deliver a quick shock that is enough to sting, but not seriously harm, a human.
The $750,000 project also includes 8-foot wildlife-proof fencing, passages under overpasses, warning signs and solar-powered motion-detecting cameras that turn on highway caution lights, alerting drivers to slow down. Twelve specially designed escape ramps also were built in case animals become trapped inside the fencing along I-40.
The project’s seven 4-foot-wide electro-mats are built into the roadway in five places along N.M. 333 (Route 66) and across the I-40 on-ramps and off-ramps at Tijeras.
The mats won’t shock cyclists or pedestrians who wear shoes, officials said.
The measures are designed to lower the number of traffic collisions with deer. Wayward cattle and horses also are common. And I recall a brown bear being spotted in Tijeras a few weeks ago.
It should create safer travel for two- and four-legged animals.