JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — The number of grizzly bears killed by vehicle collisions on a stretch of highway in northwest Wyoming exceeds the estimate officials expected when a redesign of the thoroughfare was approved more than a decade ago.

At least two federally protected, threatened grizzlies have been run over on 38-mile stretch of U.S. 26/287 east of Jackson Hole in the past two years.

That is double the allowed unintentional killing of a single grizzly along the road that underwent a seven-year reconstruction at a cost of more than $100 million.

The highway from Moran Junction to the Shoshone National Forest boundary had zero reported grizzly deaths in the decades leading up to the road construction, which took years to complete.

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