{"id":302601,"date":"2026-01-25T07:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T07:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302601\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T07:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T07:25:10","slug":"concerns-raised-about-freeway-wildlife-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302601\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns raised about freeway wildlife bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"SLOW<\/a><\/p>\n

SLOW GOING\u2014A 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<\/p>\n

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, ac\u00adcording to the project\u2019s most prominent spokesperson, though headwinds have added perhaps $21 million to the original price tag of $92.6 million.\n<\/p>\n

Beth Pratt, California\u2019s regional direc\u00adtor for the National Wildlife Federation, went live on the project\u2019s Facebook page on Jan. 20 to address what she called \u201cmisinformation put out about the crossing recently.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Standing atop the surface of the bridge that spans the 101 Freeway at Liberty Canyon\u2014and is currently being covered with native plants\u2014Pratt said that on such major construction projects \u201coverages happen all the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cAnd given the times we\u2019re living in, that we\u2019re possibly looking at about a $21 million increase from 2021, even factoring in for inflation, that\u2019s not that bad.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But the crossing\u2014intended to provide safe passage for mountain lions and other wildlife between habitats in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills\u2014 remains on track for a ribbon-cutting in November or December of this year, Pratt said, \u201cabsent some major natural disas\u00adter.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"OVER,<\/a><\/p>\n

OVER, UNDER\u2014P-64, the famed \u201cculvert cat,\u201d 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<\/p>\n

In 2022, the project\u2019s publicity ma\u00adterials stated that funding would be split roughly evenly between public and phil\u00adanthropic 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.\n<\/p>\n

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\u2014as con\u00adcrete was being poured and soil compact\u00aded for the bridge\u2019s supports\u2014\u201cwreaked havoc\u201d on that schedule, with the ground \u201cbecoming a muddy mess\u201d 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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been late 2026 for over a year,\u201d Pratt said.\n<\/p>\n

Regarding costs, Pratt said that since groundbreaking, \u201cthere have been no funding issues holding up this project.\u201d However, the total project budget of $92.6 million estimated by Caltrans in 2021 is no longer accurate, and hasn\u2019t been since the spring of 2025.<\/p>\n

Budget estimates were done separate\u00adly for the project\u2019s two stages\u2014the 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.\n<\/p>\n

According to Pratt, stage 1 came in 8% under Caltrans\u2019 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 \u201cwildly high.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She attributed this to a confluence of factors that affected \u201cevery construction project\u201d\u2014tariffs, inflation and labor prob\u00adlems.\n<\/p>\n

Project managers responded by re\u00addesigning 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.\n<\/p>\n

To ensure there is no work stoppage, the project will dip into millions of private reserve funds\u2014intended for long-term, non-construction work\u2014with the state covering the rest of the shortage using \u201cenvironmental mitigation money.\u201d This funding, administered by the California Natural Resources Agency, must be used for conservation.\n<\/p>\n

Additional fundraising will be required to replenish those private reserves that had been intended to pay for research, habitat stewardship and the project\u2019s plant nursery.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no boondoggle, there\u2019s no people stealing money,\u201d Pratt said, stress\u00ading that everyone at work on the project is trying hard to keep costs down.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the person who has to raise every penny, I\u2019ll tell you there is not stuff being wasted, or any fraud,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s what it takes to build this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Agoura Hills Mayor Jeremy Wolf af\u00adfirmed his support for the crossing.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extremely complex proj\u00adect, and while the costs have increased, the timeline for completion has not been affected by funding,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SLOW GOING\u2014A rendering shows what the portion of the Annenberg Bridge will look like as it crosses over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,19,17,133,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-302601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115954550234742666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}