U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig was in New Mexico Tuesday where he talked with local leaders about the federal funding available for improving highway safety along busy wildlife corridors.
It may seem like a funny photo-op to send a cabinet secretary to go hang out under a highway underpass in the rural Mountain West. But the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 allocates $350 million to fund a pilot program that will issue grants to build more of these wildlife culverts, which will large animals to cross roads without interfering with traffic. Roughly 200 people are killed nationwide each year such collisions, say the feds, and those collisions cost an annual $8 billion. Spending a little on public infrastructure can save the country a lot, Buttigieg said.
