AGOURA HILLS (KNX) –As the world celebrates Earth Day, in Agoura Hills officials celebrated the groundbreaking of a bridge that is expected to help wildlife cross the streets safely.
The Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which is expected to be the “largest urban crossing over a Southern California highway”, broke ground Thursday.
The bridge will be located at Liberty Canyon and will extend over the 101 Freeway and run through the city of Agoura Hills.
Beth Pratt with the National Wildlife Federation told KNX the bridge is crucial to keeping wildlife in the area alive.
“This is crucial if we want to keep mountain lions in wildlife and if we want to keep the Santa Monica Mountain’s ecosystem home,” she said. “The 101 Freeway…when we put it in we didn’t know what we were doing but science has shown us we made a big mistake and we need to connect the Santa Monica Mountains to the rest of the world.”
Pratt did call the ceremony bittersweet, as just one day a prior a mountain lion named P-97 was killed on the 405 Freeway.
“I don’t want to lose any more of these remarkable animals,” she said. “It’s quite a moment to know the shovels are about to go in the ground.”
Construction on the bridge will take three years.
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