Flat Rope Ladder Crossing

Flat Rope Ladder Crossing has been designed for the glider, squirrel, and ringtail possums. This ladder is cheaper and made out of 20mm external ropes with a 12mm silver rope weaved through.

The Flat Rope Ladder can also have a fauna refuge placed along the ladder. It has been designed with PVC piping around 50 to 100mm diameter, fixed beneath the crossing.

Aside from Box Rope Ladder Crossings, Flat Rope Ladder are the most preferred fauna bridge crossings in Australia. The ladder is connected to trees on either side via stout ropes & is suspended halfway under the bridge by steel supports.

To lessen the impact of roads on animal death and habitat fragmentation, wildlife crossings over or under roadways may be provided. They are usually in the shape of tunnels or other types of bridges. These may not be appropriate for mammals who spend the majority of their time in higher-altitude trees.

Rope bridges have been tested in the United States and Australia. They are used to interconnect habitat and reduce road mortality for arboreal mammal species. Rather than looking at population-level effects or implications on road fatality, most monitoring takes the form of tracking the use of crossings.

The usefulness of these rope bridges was demonstrated in a study done on four roads in Queensland, Australia, between 2000 and 2010. (Weston et al. 2011). In the seven rope bridges that were being used, 5 mammal species crossing the bridge were being recorded.