North American bats face growing threats from habitat loss, wind turbine mortality, and disease. As populations decline, transportation structures like bridges and culverts have emerged as important roosting habitats. Departments of Transportation, which manage hundreds of thousands of these structures, often must remove bats for safety or during maintenance projects. This necessitates effective methods for either temporary or permanent exclusion. However, data on the cost and effectiveness of current exclusion or deterrent techniques remain limited. To address this gap, field studies were conducted at 36 bridges (12 each in California, Florida, and Ohio) from 2023–2024. In Florida and Ohio six sites in each state tested physical exclusion methods, and six tested acoustic deterrents, with half receiving control (sham) treatments. The 12 bridges in California consisted of six acoustic treatments and six controls. Acoustic deterrents did not fully exclude bats but sometimes reduced bat presence or delayed roosting. In contrast, bridges with physical exclusion had few or no bats post-intervention. These findings reinforce physical exclusion as the preferred method for bat removal during structure demolition or major repairs. Acoustic deterrents may serve a limited role in short-term scenarios where bats need moved to facilitate physical exclusion, temporary removal (and eventual return) of bats is acceptable or desired.