Highway 17 wildlife crossing project moving forward
UPDATE 07/04/2019 5:00 p.m. All funding for the wildlife tunnel near Laurel Curve on Highway 17 has officially been secured.
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, Caltrans and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County are constructing the tunnel.
The purpose is to allow wildlife to cross the highway safely making it safer for both drivers and animals. It connects two habitats that the Land Trust has protected from development.
Executive director of the Land Trust, Stephen Slade, said “t’s basically on a clear path now through the caltrans process for the tunnel to start construction in 2021, you know its been a 7 year process, 700 acres protected on either side, i mean so many steps to have reached this step.”
More than 65,000 vehicles travel Highway 17 each day, and the traffic, concrete median barriers and lack of culvert undercrossings or bridges make it a barrier for wildlife in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Highway 17 at Laurel Road is built over a natural drainage, so the Transportation Commission says it is the ideal place to install a large culvert. Caltrans also used modeling, roadkill data, camera monitoring data and GPS telemetry data to choose the location.
Slade added this will help the long term ecology of the Santa Cruz Mountains by protecting mountian lions genetic diversity. “Already we see the lion population not as diverse as it should be and that of course is about the long term survival of mountain lions as a species in the Santa Cruz Mountains and without them the whole ecological system changes as the deer population explodes, they eat the under story, it effects everything.”
Funding for the project comes from Measure D, the State Highway Operation and Protection Program and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
Construction is expected to begin in 2021.
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PREVIOUS STORY: The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, Caltrans and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County are constructing a wildlife tunnel under Highway 17 near Laurel Curve.
The purpose of the tunnel is to allow wildlife to cross the highway safely. It connects two habitats that the Land Trust has protected from development.
More than 65,000 vehicles travel Highway 17 each day, and the traffic, concrete median barriers and lack of culvert undercrossings or bridges make it a barrier for wildlife in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Highway 17 at Laurel Road is built over a natural drainage, so the Transportation Commission says it is the ideal place to install a large culvert. Caltrans also used modeling, roadkill data, camera monitoring data and GPS telemetry data to choose the location.
Funding for the project comes from Measure D, the State Highway Operation and Protection Program and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.
Construction is expected to begin in 2021.
