Earth Day April 22, 2022 Los Angeles - New Wildlife Corridor

On Earth Day 2022, groundbreaking is set by Cal Trans to construct a wildlife corridor crossing over the busy Ventura Freeway.

The bridge will be the first of its kind near a major metropolitan area and is billed as the largest in the world, stretching 200 feet long and 165 feet wide.  It will span above 10 lanes of the U.S. 101 freeway, one of the busiest freeways in the world, northwest of downtown LA.  Some 300,000 cars a day travel that stretch of the 101 in Agoura Hills.

The bridge will be lined with rock, brush, trees and flora making it indistinguishable from the surrounding hillsides. Berms and hollows with high edges will block sound and light from the lanes below.  The crossing will allow mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, deer, lizards, snakes and other wildlife hemmed in by urban sprawl a safe route to open space and better access to food and potential mates.

It will be the first of its kind in the world to be built near a major metropolitan area.  Cost of the project: $90 million, 60% funded by public donations, the rest coming from public funds set aside for conservation.

The span will be named the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, for the philanthropist whose foundation donated $25 million.