Turtle Power

As work goes we are scratching anything we can. It’s not like it used to be, we have to look hard and get real creative to keep going. We picked up a job waaaay out in the middle of nowhere on Highway 93 between Wickenburg and Kingman. Where is Wickenburg or Kingman? Exactly my point.

I have a crew who are filling between the rock, (rip rap as it is called), in the drain areas. The little path along the side is for desert tortoises. The environmental impact study of this road improvement project found that this new road would endanger the desert tortoise should one need to cross the highway. They assume the tortoises will be smart enough to see these little trails and cross under the highway instead of over it. Brilliant!

We are getting paid by the cubic yard of material placed, the animal paths will account for one third of our total volume. In rough numbers the state is paying us tens of thousands of dollars to build little trails for tortoises that no one is really sure if they will be used, or even if the tortoises regularly migrate from one side of the road to the other.