Are they really doing the landscaping before they finish the structure?
Posted on 03/18/2026 11:24:59 AM PDT by lowbridge
In 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California.
At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick.
Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project — which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments — would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.
Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”
Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the national Wildlife Federation. In 2021, the group received a $25 million grant from “Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation” for the bridge that bears the late philanthropist’s name.
That money apparently was not enough. This past January, donning a hard hat and a “#SAVELACOUGARS” jersey, Pratt announced a possible $21 million overage. She effectively blamed President Trump, attributing the multimillion-dollar overrun to “tariffs, inflation, [and] labor problems.”
“There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.”
In response to our request for comment on the cost increases, Pratt argued that they were consistent with those faced by other construction projects.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You owe me a bowl of chicken soup that just spilled on my lap.
🤣
The wild animal crossing bridge looks like a VERY expensive Putt-Putt golf course.
Newsom needs to add a Ferris Wheel and turn his Lemon into Lemonade.
I’m hoping to see bridges like this used for herds of animals to perform vegetation management.
Are they really doing the landscaping before they finish the structure?
Well, birds can fly over that bridge, or make nests there.
so far, it looks to me like all they’ve built is a $100 million miniature golf course on top of a freeway ...
I remember that. Funny as hell.
“13,000 jobs are created.”
12,000 of which are probably "no show" jobs.
My deer through the windshield came from the left.
Those signs lie.
Save The Cougers!
.
Just something Terribly Wrong with That !
I see a homeless Island resort, waiting to be invaded by tent wielding individuals. Animal crossings by varmints, nothing larger than a skunk.
Unreal. Give some rednecks a weekend and some beer.
Been many years since having driven S and N on Interstate 5 to/from San Diego and S of San Diego both ways as well. There was, and may still be signage with no words— just a “cartoon” in black on yellow of a “representative migrant family” running across a “road”.
It was a warning sign-— Warning (cartoon) next x miles!! Could not believe it then nor can believe it now. They are probably still there. How insane. A “deer crossing” warning for illegal immigrants. In any case it is quite common to see the animali peeing and pooping out in the open on the side of the road— not even common decency to try to hide it from view with say, a door open to block view.
Animali— a good term for these “undocumented” zoo specimens.
Have they had problems training animals to use the elevator required to access the top deck?
The Dems could repurpose it as the Joe Biden Presidential Library and declare the project ahead of schedule.
So why can't that mega-rich family pay for a bridge named after her, instead of taxpayers?
Okay.
Nice map!
Thanks for posting.
I hunt the bottom right. Wolves on every mountain around me, bear, cougar, wild dogs, coyotes, crazy people. We deer hunters all carry at least 9mm with extra mags.
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