The World's Largest Wildlife Crossing Will Help Animals Walk Safely Over

April 27, 2024 10:13 AM

The World's Largest Wildlife Crossing Will Help Animals Walk Safely Over Eight Lanes of California Traffic. The 210-foot-long bridge across a busy freeway in Los Angeles County is expected to be finished in 2025.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (6 comments total)

There needs to be another on the 101 around the Cahuenga Pass, and another over the Sepulveda Pass.

I'm always amazed how they get animals to use these pathways.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:18 AM on April 27, 2024 [1 favorite]

We have a few of them in Canada.

Banff National Park Crossings
"In the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff National Park’s six overpasses, 38 underpasses and 82 kilometers of associated wildlife fencing over, under and along the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) is likely the most famous and most researched wildlife crossing success story in the world

wildlife-vehicle collisions along this segment of the TCH have decreased by 80% overall, with crashes involving elk and deer falling by an astounding 96%.
--
In Ontario we have the Highway 69 crossing complex

When you drive on that stretch you also notice miles and miles of a very small fence.
It's designed to protect the Massasauga Rattlesnake
93 eco-passages (large crossings underneath the highway that provide safe passage for wildlife) which will include approximately 140 kilometres (km) of fencing designed to keep the Massasauga Rattlesnake off of the roadway and to funnel them towards the eco-passages.

--
The Wonderful World of Wildlife Crossings
scroll down to an interactive map of wildlife crossings in North America.
posted by yyz at 12:25 PM on April 27, 2024 [4 favorites]

How delightfully well timed. Mr. eirias and I are on a road trip and were just musing a couple of hours ago about how these work (prompted, sadly, by a number of dead animals alongside the road, including a porcupine). Thanks for the link.
posted by eirias at 4:04 PM on April 27, 2024

The I-78 interstate highway links eastern Pennsylvania with NYC metro. A segment in central New Jersey remained unbuilt for decades because it was going to blast right through the Watchung Reservation, a wildlife refuge in a a region that was otherwise thoroughly developed. Local environmentalists tied it up in the courts and eventually got the government planners to include multiple wildlife bridges. I don't know the dimensions of them but they look just as big as these across the 101 in California, so I'm a little skeptical of the headline.

That was 40 years ago, though, and they've definitely gotten smarter about these bridge designs since then.

EDIT: yyz's ArcGIS link above doesn't even list it, SMH
posted by intermod at 7:57 PM on April 27, 2024

The crossings in Banff are very impressive and yes, there are lots of fencing leading up to the crossing that would seemingly funnel the animals to the overpass.
posted by mmascolino at 6:08 AM on April 28, 2024

Animal Crossing: LA
posted by otherchaz at 11:46 PM on April 28, 2024