Dive Brief:
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An eight-legged spider the size of a dime has padded the price of a San Antonio highway construction project by $30 million.
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The endangered Bracken Cave meshweaver—only the second of its kind ever discovered—halted construction of an underpass, originally priced at $15 million, when construction workers found its spider cave beneath a job site in 2012. They still haven’t gotten back to work on the underpass, according to the San Antonio Express News.
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The project is set for a new groundbreaking in early 2015, now that the underpass has been redesigned as an overpass that will leave the spider’s cave undisturbed.
Dive Insight:
This latest tug-of-war between an endangered species and much-needed highway construction in Bexar County, where the population has more than doubled over 40 years, has brought attention to a joint effort among builders, the city, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create a Habitat Conservation Plan.
Under the plan, the city and county will pay most of the cost of the expensive studies that become necessary when an endangered species turns up on a job site, and will create a local sanctuary for endangered species.