5 ms·

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

71 points by hbarka 3y ago

janikvonrotz 3y ago
They are quite common in europe and none of them have such a fancy website for politicians to celebrate their involvement.
kjkjadksj 3y ago
Its a amazing how costly these are, rebuilding an entire mountainside basically and terraforming it. Then you will see videos of animals using cheap wooden human bridges all the time. Animals are smarter than we think, they understand how bridges and underpasses work already. You probably don’t need to make a man made mountain, although I’m sure the contractors involved aren’t interested on a study comparing their solution to something cheaper where they wouldn’t be supremely qualified to build.
hbarka 3y ago
Construction on “the world’s largest wildlife crossing” will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday.
- hbarka 3y ago
  “Construction on ‘the world’s largest wildlife crossing’ will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday. The crossing will span 10 lanes of highway and aim to provide safe passage for wildlife – especially mountain lions – from the Santa Monica Mountains into the Simi Hills of the Santa Susana mountain range. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began constructing the crossing in April 2022, CNN previously reported. As the project nears completion in 2025, the bridge will be covered in soil and native plants to blend in with the natural surroundings.” *from CNN: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/14/us/california-wildlife-crossing-road-closure https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/14/us/california-wildlife-cr...
gnabgib 3y ago
Wide overpasses are good[0], this isn't the world's largest (the Ecoducts in the Netherlands average 50m wide, and the longest is 800m), nor North America's largest (many in Banff National park are 50m+ wide)... but then there's nothing on the linked page that claims that (title: 101 Wildlife Crossing, h1.. well there's multiple [seo fail], but the first non-navigation one is: The Wallis Annenberg [which is a terrible title]) [0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753749/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753749/
- quonn 3y ago
  > but then there's nothing on the linked page that claims that The video does.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- RandallBrown 3y ago
  The 800m crossing in the Netherlands isn't really an 800m long bridge. The span over the roadway and railway looks considerably smaller than most wildlife crossings I've seen on interstates in the United States. Measuring on Google Maps, I needed to include the golf course in the crossing just to get anywhere close to 800m.
simonsarris 3y ago
It's just a bridge for animals? Or a tunnel for humans, depending on how you look at it. Looking through the FAQ, it's very funny that it began planning in 2016 and completed environmental reviews in 2018, and that the NEPA review got a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). So its cleared the bar. ...But the whole point of a wildlife crossing is to impact the environment! That's its job! So its kind of amusing it might have needed a "finding of no impact", first. OK reading around more: I don't get it. Why this website? Why did it take so long to build a bridge? Have they been funding guys playing with LEGOs or is that just a hobby? This news piece they link to says it took the lego guy a year: https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/environment/2024/03/13/designers-create-a-model-of-the-wallis-annenberg-wildlife-crossing-brick-by-brick https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/environment/2024/03/13/... that might explain why it takes almost a decade to build a bridge? I'm more confused than when I started. What percent of projects like these is grift?
- pvaldes 3y ago
  > Why this website? Could educate the public about the need to keep spending more solid money on this kind of things. > Construction will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday. We should cheer that less people will have a car crash against a deer or a puma in the area from now on.
  - pvaldes 3y ago
    This claim in particular is impressive "Data collected from crossing structures with wildlife fencing throughout North America indicate up to an 86-97% DECREASE in wildlife-vehicle collisions upon affected roadways.”
- WalterBright 3y ago
  It took 6 years to build the first transcontinental railroad - by hand.
  - harywilke 3y ago
justrealist 3y ago
They could have spent the time they used building this website building 1 actual mile of high-speed rail.
- MOARDONGZPLZ 3y ago
  My guess is that the web developer skills needed to build this website and the rail building skills needed to build high speed rail are highly orthogonal. Plus their project isn’t high speed rail, or rail at all as far as I can tell. Do you mean “building [one] actual mile of animal crossing” maybe?
  - kjkjadksj 3y ago
    The skills are orthogonal but the money used to pay for the skills is fungible.
  - justrealist 3y ago
    CALTRANS is the largest contributor to this animal crossing.
    - labster 3y ago
      So not the California High-Speed Rail Authority, then.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  This whole project (includes additional bridges once this main one is done) has a budget of $92m. For CA HSR, I saw a quote of $200m per mile, but the article is old enough that I imagine the costs have gone up even more in the meantime.
linuxandrew 3y ago
There's one in Brisbane, Aus near where I live. Lots of big roads and motorways carve up remnant bushland and a few of those roads now have wildlife underpasses and/or overpasses for animals. Unfortunately new motorways are still being planned and constructed further dividing up bushland and the region keeps sprawling out further with large greenfield developments on farmland and bushland. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/koalas-tunnels-and-bridges-prove-effective-on-busy-roads-20160726-gqdsi2.html https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/koalas-...
throwaway2037 3y ago
See also: Singapore's Mandai Wildlife Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandai_Wildlife_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandai_Wildlife_Bridge
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  And of course the Nutty Narrows Bridge in Longview Washington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Narrows_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Narrows_Bridge
jumploops 3y ago
Passing under the wildlife bridges in New Jersey was one of my favorite car trip moments as a kid. Not until I was an adult did I realize how uncommon this idea actually was… Glad to see more!

71 points by hbarka 3y ago

They are quite common in europe and none of them have such a fancy website for politicians to celebrate their involvement.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

Its a amazing how costly these are, rebuilding an entire mountainside basically and terraforming it. Then you will see videos of animals using cheap wooden human bridges all the time. Animals are smarter than we think, they understand how bridges and underpasses work already. You probably don’t need to make a man made mountain, although I’m sure the contractors involved aren’t interested on a study comparing their solution to something cheaper where they wouldn’t be supremely qualified to build.

hbarka 3y ago

Construction on “the world’s largest wildlife crossing” will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday.

hbarka 3y ago
“Construction on ‘the world’s largest wildlife crossing’ will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday. The crossing will span 10 lanes of highway and aim to provide safe passage for wildlife – especially mountain lions – from the Santa Monica Mountains into the Simi Hills of the Santa Susana mountain range. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began constructing the crossing in April 2022, CNN previously reported. As the project nears completion in 2025, the bridge will be covered in soil and native plants to blend in with the natural surroundings.” *from CNN: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/14/us/california-wildlife-crossing-road-closure https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/14/us/california-wildlife-cr...

gnabgib 3y ago

Wide overpasses are good[0], this isn't the world's largest (the Ecoducts in the Netherlands average 50m wide, and the longest is 800m), nor North America's largest (many in Banff National park are 50m+ wide)... but then there's nothing on the linked page that claims that (title: 101 Wildlife Crossing, h1.. well there's multiple [seo fail], but the first non-navigation one is: The Wallis Annenberg [which is a terrible title]) [0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753749/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9753749/

quonn 3y ago
> but then there's nothing on the linked page that claims that The video does.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
RandallBrown 3y ago
The 800m crossing in the Netherlands isn't really an 800m long bridge. The span over the roadway and railway looks considerably smaller than most wildlife crossings I've seen on interstates in the United States. Measuring on Google Maps, I needed to include the golf course in the crossing just to get anywhere close to 800m.

simonsarris 3y ago

It's just a bridge for animals? Or a tunnel for humans, depending on how you look at it. Looking through the FAQ, it's very funny that it began planning in 2016 and completed environmental reviews in 2018, and that the NEPA review got a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). So its cleared the bar. ...But the whole point of a wildlife crossing is to impact the environment! That's its job! So its kind of amusing it might have needed a "finding of no impact", first. OK reading around more: I don't get it. Why this website? Why did it take so long to build a bridge? Have they been funding guys playing with LEGOs or is that just a hobby? This news piece they link to says it took the lego guy a year: https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/environment/2024/03/13/designers-create-a-model-of-the-wallis-annenberg-wildlife-crossing-brick-by-brick https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/environment/2024/03/13/... that might explain why it takes almost a decade to build a bridge? I'm more confused than when I started. What percent of projects like these is grift?

pvaldes 3y ago
> Why this website? Could educate the public about the need to keep spending more solid money on this kind of things. > Construction will close a portion of the Los Angeles County’s 101 Freeway overnight on weekdays for several weeks starting Monday. We should cheer that less people will have a car crash against a deer or a puma in the area from now on.
- pvaldes 3y ago
  This claim in particular is impressive "Data collected from crossing structures with wildlife fencing throughout North America indicate up to an 86-97% DECREASE in wildlife-vehicle collisions upon affected roadways.”
WalterBright 3y ago
It took 6 years to build the first transcontinental railroad - by hand.
- harywilke 3y ago

justrealist 3y ago

They could have spent the time they used building this website building 1 actual mile of high-speed rail.

MOARDONGZPLZ 3y ago
My guess is that the web developer skills needed to build this website and the rail building skills needed to build high speed rail are highly orthogonal. Plus their project isn’t high speed rail, or rail at all as far as I can tell. Do you mean “building [one] actual mile of animal crossing” maybe?
- kjkjadksj 3y ago
  The skills are orthogonal but the money used to pay for the skills is fungible.
- justrealist 3y ago
  CALTRANS is the largest contributor to this animal crossing.
  - labster 3y ago
    So not the California High-Speed Rail Authority, then.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
This whole project (includes additional bridges once this main one is done) has a budget of $92m. For CA HSR, I saw a quote of $200m per mile, but the article is old enough that I imagine the costs have gone up even more in the meantime.

linuxandrew 3y ago

There's one in Brisbane, Aus near where I live. Lots of big roads and motorways carve up remnant bushland and a few of those roads now have wildlife underpasses and/or overpasses for animals. Unfortunately new motorways are still being planned and constructed further dividing up bushland and the region keeps sprawling out further with large greenfield developments on farmland and bushland. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/koalas-tunnels-and-bridges-prove-effective-on-busy-roads-20160726-gqdsi2.html https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/koalas-...

throwaway2037 3y ago

See also: Singapore's Mandai Wildlife Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandai_Wildlife_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandai_Wildlife_Bridge

Gibbon1 3y ago
And of course the Nutty Narrows Bridge in Longview Washington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Narrows_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Narrows_Bridge

jumploops 3y ago

Passing under the wildlife bridges in New Jersey was one of my favorite car trip moments as a kid. Not until I was an adult did I realize how uncommon this idea actually was… Glad to see more!