Kenny McCourt, a North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer, recently found inspiration from an unlikely source to help bats roost underneath I-40 bridges in Haywood County: his kitchen table, by way of his daughter.
[Above photo by NCDOT]
McCourt – overseeing the replacement of those I-40 bridges, which were severely damaged in 2024 due to heavy flooding in the Pigeon River Gorge – sought ways to address a delicate situation: Roosting boxes that accommodated endangered bats underneath an old Pigeon River bridge near Exit 15 didn’t fit into the new bridge design.
Roosting boxes are critical to help support bat species living in the area; animals that help disperse large amounts of seed and pollen, which aids in plant reproduction and forest regrowth. Northern bat species can have a major impact on controlling harmful insect populations as well, NCDOT noted.
Yet with a little help from his daughter, Harper, McCourt found a solution that just might be replicated across the state and maybe even the nation.
“Me and my little girl, Harper, were sitting around the kitchen table actually watching Animal Planet,” he said in a statement. “And I was sitting with the notebook drawing up some ideas on how to take it [the roosting box] off the bridge – and it hit me.”
McCourt realized the natural aesthetics NCDOT already planned to incorporate into the side wall that supports the bridge approach could be the answer. “We took a piece of paper and started drawing these bat habitats right into the wall of the bridge to give them more of a natural habitat,” McCourt said.
The idea gained traction at McCourt’s office and beyond. Engineers and wildlife experts soon started collaborating to design these roosting spaces for different species – including the endangered gray bat – all built into the new bridge wall for what locals call the High Bridge.
“Bats have been observed roosting in the bridge here crossing the Pigeon River, and the new bridge isn’t going to have suitable roosting habitat like the old one,” said Holland Youngman, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist. “So, we’re putting bat roosts in this retaining wall to give the bats somewhere else to go. I think it’s very new and innovative and creative.”
This project brought together NCDOT, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, prime contractor Kiewit Construction, sub-contractor Boulderscape, and others.
NCDOT said Kiewit crews used excess materials to shape and build the small habitats before a Boulderscape crew added a layer of “shotcrete” to the outside – a method of applying concrete projected at high velocity primarily on to a vertical or overhead surface that helped create a natural-looking space the bats could call home.
“This has been a phenomenal collaboration just to make sure we’re all on the same page,” said Katherine Etchison, wildlife diversity biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission. “We can all brainstorm and give our ideas about how this should go together.”
Within days of installing the roosting holes, several bats flew in to explore the new space, including an endangered gray bat. While most of the bat species living in the area have migrated for the winter to locations in Tennessee, they return in the spring. Before then, NCDOT will add a half-acre flower bed near the bridge that will be full of native flowers that bloom at night and attract insects – bat food.
“A project as successful as this – for the bats, for our bridge maintenance teams, for our construction team, and wildlife partners – is something that I can see growing in western North Carolina, across the state and when word gets out, across the country,” McCourt said. “It’s pretty cool that so many folks are supportive of thinking outside the box.”
