Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy bashed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over an unfinished wildlife crossing bridge in the Golden State that is running $21 million over budget.
Duffy shared a post from the X account End Wokeness showing video of the unfinished project stretching across 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. The video shows the incomplete bridge, which is intended to provide safe passage for animals such as cougars to cross over the highway.
“Bridges to nowhere. Trains to nowhere. Leave the building to us @GavinNewsom,” Duffy wrote on X.
Construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC) was supposed to be wrapped up by 2025, with the total cost of the project estimated at $92 million. That cost estimate has since jumped to $114 million. A press release from the governor’s office states the project should be completed by fall 2026.
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At the groundbreaking ceremony held in April 2022, Newsom pledged $54 million of state funding to build the crossing and later added another $10 million. However, in February, the California Transportation Commission announced it was allocating an additional $18.8 million to complete construction.
Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, the namesake of the bridge, provided $25 million for its construction in 2021. Beth Pratt, director of the National Wildlife Federation and part of the leadership team overseeing the project, attributed delays in the project’s construction to rising costs in a video posted to X.
Pratt said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the crossing project “experienced significant increases in costs” related to “tariffs, inflation and other factors” that were responsible for delayed construction.
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She added that these increased costs were consistent with other construction projects, citing the FHWA National Highway Construction Cost Index, which shows highway construction costs have increased by 67% since 2021. Pratt said the project team took steps to reduce costs as part of a “rigorous redesign process” funded by private donations, not public funds.
Newsom’s press office rejected criticism of the project’s ballooning costs, also pointing to tariffs from the Trump administration as the culprit.
“The cost estimate held until last year when inflation — in part driven by TRUMP’s TARIFFS — increased construction costs. The increase is vastly LOWER than the 67% national average increase in highway construction costs,” Newsom’s team wrote on X.
The governor also said the delay was due to “severe weather.”
“The timeline shifted by just ONE YEAR largely due to severe weather last year — five years of work is far from a ‘boondoggle,” Newsom’s press office wrote on X.
Heightened attention on the construction of the wildlife crossing bridge comes as the state faces continued scrutiny over other failed projects. Last year, the Department of Transportation canceled $4 billion in federal funding after the state spent $15 billion in funding for high-speed rail construction projects despite never laying a single track.
Newsom, a 2028 presidential prospect, is also having to navigate a projected $2.9 billion budget deficit for the 2026–2027 fiscal year.
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