SLOW GOING—A rendering shows what the portion of the Annenberg Bridge will look like as it crosses over Agoura Road in Liberty Canyon. Work is progressing. Courtesy Rock Design Associates and National Wildlife Federation
Despite recent talk to the contrary, there are no new delays in the timeline for completion of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills, according to the project’s most prominent spokesperson, though headwinds have added perhaps $21 million to the original price tag of $92.6 million.
Beth Pratt, California’s regional director for the National Wildlife Federation, went live on the project’s Facebook page on Jan. 20 to address what she called “misinformation put out about the crossing recently.”
Standing atop the surface of the bridge that spans the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon—and is currently being covered with native plants—Pratt said that on such major construction projects “overages happen all the time.”
She added, “And given the times we’re living in, that we’re possibly looking at about a $21 million increase from 2021, even factoring in for inflation, that’s not that bad.”
But the crossing—intended to provide safe passage for mountain lions and other wildlife between habitats in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills— remains on track for a ribbon-cutting in November or December of this year, Pratt said, “absent some major natural disaster.”
OVER, UNDER—P-64, the famed “culvert cat,” crosses under the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills. Having a full-fledged wildlife bridge on top will be a safer, more tenable option for the cougars, wildlife experts say. Courtesy NPS
In 2022, the project’s publicity materials stated that funding would be split roughly evenly between public and philanthropic dollars. That figure has changed. According to Pratt, construction funding will be about 35 to 37% private, with the remainder coming from public sources, most of it earmarked for conservation projects.
When ground was broken in 2022, the project was expected to be completed in 2025. But two years of record rain and flooding in Los Angeles County—as concrete was being poured and soil compacted for the bridge’s supports—“wreaked havoc” on that schedule, with the ground “becoming a muddy mess” and some work needing to be redone multiple times, Pratt said. As a result, it was announced in spring 2024 that the completion date was pushed back to early 2026.
“It has been late 2026 for over a year,” Pratt said.
Regarding costs, Pratt said that since groundbreaking, “there have been no funding issues holding up this project.” However, the total project budget of $92.6 million estimated by Caltrans in 2021 is no longer accurate, and hasn’t been since the spring of 2025.
Budget estimates were done separately for the project’s two stages—the first spanning the 101 Freeway and the second reaching over nearby Agoura Road. Stage 2 includes a complicated, multi-agency effort to relocate adjacent utility lines, currently in progress.
According to Pratt, stage 1 came in 8% under Caltrans’ estimate. Design work for stage 2 proceeded concurrently with construction on stage 1. But by the time Caltrans finalized its budget estimate for the second phase, economic conditions had changed, and the contractor returned with a bid Pratt described as “wildly high.”
She attributed this to a confluence of factors that affected “every construction project”—tariffs, inflation and labor problems.
Project managers responded by redesigning some elements to bring the estimate down. Pratt said the current figure for finishing up stage 2 work is $18 million, though the contractor has not yet confirmed this.
To ensure there is no work stoppage, the project will dip into millions of private reserve funds—intended for long-term, non-construction work—with the state covering the rest of the shortage using “environmental mitigation money.” This funding, administered by the California Natural Resources Agency, must be used for conservation.
Additional fundraising will be required to replenish those private reserves that had been intended to pay for research, habitat stewardship and the project’s plant nursery.
“There’s no boondoggle, there’s no people stealing money,” Pratt said, stressing that everyone at work on the project is trying hard to keep costs down.
“As the person who has to raise every penny, I’ll tell you there is not stuff being wasted, or any fraud,” she added. “It’s what it takes to build this.”
Agoura Hills Mayor Jeremy Wolf affirmed his support for the crossing.
“This is an extremely complex project, and while the costs have increased, the timeline for completion has not been affected by funding,” Wolf said. “I’m confident this project will be completed by the end of the year to ensure wildlife and biodiversity thrive in our region and in the Santa Monica Mountains.”