Eagle Mountain drivers could see a new, state-of-the-art wildlife advanced warning system as early as next month.

The Eagle Mountain City Council voted Tuesday evening to approve interlocal agreements with both the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources for the placement of a wildlife warning system on Cory B. Wride Memorial Highway.

“In the past, we with our partners, have attempted some wildlife detection equipment that was not foolproof, it had some glitches to it,” Mayor Tom Westmoreland said. “This is a more sophisticated system that takes in a few different technologies.”

According to a staff report, the wildlife advanced warning system will use state-of-the-art thermal and IR/LiDar technology to detect, track and warn motorists that wildlife is either on or near the road.

According to Todd Black, wildlife biologist and environmental planner for Eagle Mountain City, the warning system has a detection rate of almost 100%.

“They can go out a mile, and they’ll pick up these animals, but once they pick them up it will lock on them and track them,” Black said. “And when they get to point X, whatever point X is, that’s when it will kick on the lights and say slow down.”

The warning system will sit 300 yards west of the Cory B. Wride Memorial Highway, west of Eagle Mountain’s Arrival and Sage Valley neighborhoods at a break in the highway fences.

“This is important to us because a lot of work has been done putting in fencing to force the deer to cross in one place,” Westmoreland said. “We’re bringing them across there, so we need to alert drivers when they are present so that we don’t have safety issues.”

UDOT has agreed to provide the city with $150,000 to help finance the wildlife advanced warning system. According to the interlocal agreement, representatives of UDOT believe the project will mutually benefit the department, Eagle Mountain and the general public using the highway.

Upon completion of the wildlife advanced warning system, the UDWR has agreed to reimburse Eagle Mountain up to $62,945. The city anticipates that the project will be fully funded through UDOT, UDWR, Camp Williams and the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership.

The project has been placed out for a bid which is set to be awarded on Oct. 20 and is to be completed prior to deer migration — sometime in late November or early December.

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