LOS ANGELES (KNX) — California officials are ready to break ground next month on what will be the largest urban crossing over a Southern California highway, state officials said Thursday. The idea is to offer wildife, specifically large animals, the freedom to roam without being disrupted or killed by highway traffic.
"The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon over the 101 Freeway, which will be the largest wildlife crossing in the world, will reconnect a long-fragmented ecosystem, a biodiversity hotspot, and help protect the endangered mountain lion population and other wildlife that make their home in the Santa Monica Mountains," officials with the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF) said in a statement.
The concept was designed, in part, to protect the lives of California mountain lions and other wildlife. Not only from cars, scientists said, but from inbreeding do to lack of diversity on "their side" of the 101.
The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon will be located at the 101 freeway where it runs through the city of Agoura Hills, Calif.
"This location is a formidable and virtually impenetrable barrier for many wildlife species including mountain lions, bobcats, gray foxes, coyotes, and mule deer that inhabit and travel between the Santa Monica Mountains, the Simi Hills, and the Santa Susana Mountains – over 300,000 cars pass through this freeway site daily," NWF continued.
The NWF's Bett Pratt said crossings aren't new, and are in fact used in Yosemite National Park.
However, this particular crossing will be the the first to go over "one of the busiest freeways in the world."
Pratt told KTLA the crossing will be 210 long, spanning 10 freeway lanes just 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Groundbreaking information
A groundbreaking ceremony for the one-of-a-kind crossing will take palce at 10 a.m. on Earth Day, April 22, 2022 at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas, Calif.
Pratt said most contstruction for the $90 million project will take place at night, when it will disrupt the least amout of drivers who frequent the highway.
Once complete, it will be named the "Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing," after the philanthropist who donated $25 million to the project.
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