Deer Crossed a Wildlife Bridge Still Under Construction. L.A.'s Opens in December.

Cameras caught deer on a new U.S. 97 overcrossing in Siskiyou County; the $114 million Agoura Hills crossing is set for December.

Deer walked onto a new wildlife overcrossing in Siskiyou County while crews were still building it. Motion-activated cameras recorded them on the structure over U.S. Route 97 near Grass Lake earlier this year, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in findings KTLA reported on September 18, 2026.

That stretch of highway runs through private timberland near Klamath National Forest, and it's been lethal. Wildlife officials counted more than 50 deer and 16 elk killed there between 2015 and 2020, a hotspot for collisions between animals and vehicles. Each of those was also a vehicle.

The project has two halves. The overcrossing measures roughly 100 feet long and 140 feet wide. Beneath the lanes, a concrete box culvert gives animals a second option, and the department built the whole thing with the California Department of Transportation and other partners to reconnect habitat the road had split in two.

The tunnel took convincing. It went in back in January and then sat there, barely touched. By late June the cameras were catching deer at the mouth of it, stopping short of the opening, the department said. In early July, one finally went through. Over roughly the next month, 24 bucks followed.

The agency isn't done watching. Cameras and autonomous recording units are still running around the site, tracking which animals use which half of the crossing and how the surrounding habitat shapes where they move. Roads fragment habitat, cut populations off from one another and get animals killed, according to the department; crossings are the attempt to undo some of that without putting a deer in anyone's lane.

Los Angeles County's version is bigger and far more expensive. Construction continues on the $114 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, which is scheduled to open in December and is designed to reconnect ground used by mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and other wildlife.

More are on the books in Southern California, the outlet reported. Two are planned for State Route 62, out by Joshua Tree National Park. Three others are slated for Interstate 15, on the desert run from Barstow up to the Nevada line.

In Siskiyou County it took about six months and a lot of hesitation before one deer would step into the culvert. The Agoura Hills crossing opens in December.

Source: ktla.com, retrieved September 18, 2026.