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FDOT gets creative to manage an unusual adversary... birds

When man and nature collide, sometimes things can run afoul.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When you think about the responsibilities of the Florida Department of Transportation, you think about roads, bridges, turn lanes and potholes. But engineers have come up against an unusual adversary -- birds.

When man and nature collide, sometimes things can run afoul. Bird strikes on cars have been a problem along A1A near the Fort George Inlet. It all centers around the Laughing Gull, but for drivers and FDOT, the number of bird strikes is no laughing matter.

The birds gather in a conservation area on one side of A1A.

"It is flocks of them," FDOT's Troy Roberts explained. "You will see hundreds, sometimes thousands, of them out there and you will see a freshwater retention pond on the other side of the road. So they will go back and forth between those."

Leading to bird strikes and dangerous driving for people on A1A. So how do you change a bird’s flight path?

Create an obstacle. In this case, a wall of trees.

"What it will do is redirect them up over the trees and get them out of the path of the oncoming vehicles," Roberts said.

The project to plant the trees is underway and hopefully will be completed by the fall.

 So birds of a feather can still flock together, just a little higher. Hopefully saving lives in the air and on the road.

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