Texans Plan Toad Tunnel In The Interest Of Safe Sex

BASTROP, Texas - Why does the endangered Houston toad cross the road?

For making whoopee.

The 2- to 3-inch toads have been making the risky trip across state Highway 21 in Texas for years, and many have been flattened en route.

The state Highway Department says it has a plan to get the toads to cross under the four-lane highway, not over it.

For humans, the proposal is part of a roadway safety project. For toads, it's safer sex.

On a 5 1/2-mile stretch of Highway 21 just east of Austin, state highway officials want to either build a series of tunnels or modify four drainage lines for the amphibians, which cross back and forth across the road looking for rain-swollen ponds where they breed.

The toad was designated a federally endangered species in 1965. Several thousand of them live in Bastrop County, officials have estimated.

The toad proposals will be reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, which is responsible for protecting endangered species.

The state probably will choose to modify existing drainage lines for the toads, said Randall Dillard, a Highway Department spokesman. That would cost about $51,250 as opposed to $628,000 for fancy polymer concrete tunnels designed by a British firm.

``I don't know if a toad really knows the difference between a tunnel that's built for him or a modified drainage ditch,'' Dillard

said.