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The St. Charles Streetcar Line is a historic streetcar line in New Orleans, Louisiana. Running since 1835, it is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world. It is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA). Officially the St. Charles Streetcar line is designated as Route 12, and it runs along its namesake, St. Charles Avenue. It is the busiest route in the RTA system as it is heavily used by local commuters and tourists. On most RTA maps and publications, it is denoted in green, which is also the color of the streetcars on this line.

The Canal Streetcar Line is a streetcar line in New Orleans, Louisiana, operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA). The line originally operated from 1861 until its closure in 1964. After a 40-year hiatus, it was rebuilt between 2000 and 2004, with streetcar service resuming on April 18, 2004.

The Rampart–Loyola Streetcar Line is a historic streetcar line in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA). It is the newest streetcar line in the system, as it opened in its original form on January 28, 2013, with the total length of the line being 2.4 mi (3.9 km). The line is officially designated Route 46 and is denoted with a purple color on most RTA publications.

The Riverfront Streetcar Line is a streetcar route in New Orleans, Louisiana, operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority  (RTA). It opened on August 14, 1988, becoming the first new streetcar line in the city in 62 years. The route runs for 2 miles (3.2 km. along the east bank of the Mississippi River, between Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter and Julia Street near the New Orleans Convention Center.

The Bow Valley Gap Wildlife Overpass, designed by our firm, DIALOG, and completed in 2024, is a modest but innovative intervention designed to reconnect disrupted wildlife corridors in this heavily trafficked region. It’s also the first wildlife overpass in Canada constructed outside of a national park. Quietly embedded in the landscape, this simple structure supports more than animals—it carries the idea that suburban and exurban infrastructure can be both well engineered and contextually sensitive.

Of course, crossings don’t just magically appear out of the mist like a clueless cervid. Infrastructure costs money. A study published in 2021 by Washington State University researcher Wisnu Sugiarto found that the average cost of a wildlife crossing ranged from $500,000 to $6.2 million, depending on the length, materials, and geographic complexity of the project. 
Some would call that a bargain. “There’s virtually no other transportation infrastructure that’s going to get you this kind of return on investment,” says Renee Callahan, executive director of ARC Solutions, a nonprofit organization that promotes the development of wildlife crossings. 
Sure, ARC is an advocacy group, but the research backs up its claims. These crossings netted annual savings of $235,000 to $443,000 per structure in terms of collisions prevented, according to Sugiarto’s study.
The near-term outlook for wildlife crossings is favorable. The infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Congress in 2021 included $350 million in grant funding specifically for these projects. If all that money is actually spent on building new crossings, the U.S. could add somewhere between 56 and 700, which, according to Sugiarto’s math, would save at least $13 million annually — and as much as $310 million. 
That means the investment could pay itself off in less than two years, and you can’t put a price tag on the human and animal lives saved. It’s the rare transportation infrastructure win that anyone can applaud — whether they have hands, hooves, or paws.

Why do animals cross the road? Some are just migrating. Others seek food or mates. But whatever the case, they aren’t likely to pay much attention to traffic — and that can mean disaster. Every year in the U.S., an estimated 350 million animals and more than 400 people die in animal-car crashes. And even crashes that don’t claim lives still cost an average of over $4,100, according to insurers — which all adds up to billions in annual damages. 
That’s why animal crossings have become so popular. These specialized over- or underpasses allow wild animals — from wolves and bears to moose, deer, elk, and even butterflies — to pass safely. They’re typically covered with vegetation and terrain to make them more attractive to animals and may be fenced and off-limits to humans. According to one study, animals are 146% more likely to use one than a random stretch of road. Another long-term investigation showed that crossings reduced accidents by greater than 80%  annually.

Animal Overpasses Save Bambis … and Benjamins

The design and engineering firm Dialog led the structural engineering and landscape architecture of the overpass, which was funded by Alberta’s provincial department of transportation and is now the first wildlife overpass in Canada constructed outside of a national park. It’s in an area where reported vehicle collisions with deer, elk, coyotes, and grizzly bears happen 69 times per year on average. “The very rough rule of thumb is for every collision that is recorded or every carcass that is seen on the side of the road, you can usually double that number,” says Dialog’s Neil Robson, the overpass project manager and lead designer.

Located between Calgary and Banff National Park, this stretch of the Canadian Rockies is sliced in two by the Trans-Canada Highway, one of the busiest roadways in the province. That’s had deadly consequences for the area’s abundant wildlife, as well as the tens of thousands of people who drive through it every day. But now, after years of mounting wildlife-vehicle collisions, the danger to animals and humans is being addressed with a stunning new wildlife overpass.

The Bow Valley Gap wildlife overpass is a roughly 200-foot-wide cap over a four-lane highway, topped with soil and forest-like plantings that creates a bridge almost indistinguishable from the forest on either side.

This stunning wildlife overpass helps animals cross one of Canada’s busiest highways