The competition seeks to explore creative new approaches, materials, and designs that address the fundamentals of transportation engineering and ecology. Although a site has been selected for the entries, the aim is for the competition to increase the number of potential solutions for cost efficient, innovative crossing designs that can be adapted for widespread use in other locations.

According to the competition information, wildlife-vehicle collisions have doubled in the past fifteen years, which has concentrated transportation agencies' attention on engineering solutions that prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions. Roads have also been acknowledged as a major obstacle to landscape connectivity, it says - a matter of growing concern as climate change portends increasing wildlife migrations.