World's largest wildlife crossing is on track to open this winter unless El Nio intervenes
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Set us as preferred The world’s largest wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills is barreling toward a Dec.2 completion date.
Perhaps the only thing that could stop it is a fierce winter storm.Already a concrete bridge stretches across 10 lanes of whizzing traffic.Atop that, there’s a lush landscape sewn with 6,000 native plants.
Recently, crews completed another overpass over adjacent Agoura Road.A big remaining to-do is to fill in the gap between the freeway and the road — and the freeway to the land to the north — with millions of cubic feet of soil to create a seamless pathway for animals.
The idea behind the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is to provide a lifeline for mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, locked in by traffic and suffering from the effects of inbreeding.“We’re just hoping El Niño‘s on our side,” said Beth Pratt, president of the Wildlife Crossing Fund and public face of the project.
“I keep saying, ‘Mother Nature, we’re trying to help you.Let’s not throw any more complications our way.” A super-sized version of the climate pattern is looming, and there’s a good chance Southern California could be doused.
Some rain is not a big deal but flooding would shut down work for safety reasons.At a final construction update held near the crossing Thursday, Robert Rock, lead landscape architect and principal designer for the crossing, explained that the soil in the area is rich in clay and silt.
When wet, it gets dangerously slick and slippery.Heavy precipitation can also derail the soil compaction process, where crews lay down the soil in layers and go over each with a construction vehicle known as a roller.In the distance, workers were busy doing just that as the fierce late morning sun beat down.“If you’re trying to compact a mud puddle, it wouldn’...