Arizona Cancels $1.25M Bridge for 250 Squirrels

June 18, 2010 -- Arizona abruptly canceled plans today to spend $1.25 million to build bridges for a colony of 250 squirrels so they would not have to cross a rural road and could avoid becoming road kill.

John Halikowski, director of Arizona's Department of Transportation, halted the bridge project that was being paid for with federal highway funds.

"ADOT will not spend funds simply because they are available," he said in a statement.

"Protection of the red squirrel may be an appropriate effort," Halikowski said, "but not with transportation funding."

The money was being spent, officials said, because cars kill about five of these squirrels each year. The Mount Graham red squirrel is on the endangered species list.

The cancellation came after news reports, including one from ABC News, highlighted the planned expenditure.

Halikowski did not specify how the $1.25 million would be used now, but said in his statement "if necessary, the department will forfeit the $1.25 million project cost and return the funds to Washington, D.C." rather than spend it on squirrels.

David Kincaid, city manager of the nearby town of Safford, welcomed the news.

"People were just bewildered about why would we spend $1.25 million on a project like this," he said. "I think it's probably best that it was handled this way."

The DOT planned to install 41 "canopy tunnel crossings," essentially ropes over the road, at a cost of $400,000. Another $160,000 was to be spent on cameras to monitor the bridges, and the rest of the money will fund a project to monitor the rodents.

They are called "canopy tunnel crossings" because they were to include a mesh tunnel through which only the Mount Graham red squirrels – and not other larger squirrel species – could fit. The tunnel would have protected the squirrels from predators like birds of prey.

The bridges also were to have an easy release mechanism to allow workers to disconnect them from the trees in the event that a tall truck needed to drive up to the Mount Graham International Observatory at the top of the mountain, or in the case of a forest fire.