Update: Construction Starts Next Week on Novelty Hill Road Wildlife Overpass

Construction on a 40-foot-wide, 120-foot-long wildlife crossing over Novelty Hill Road will begin Monday, April 29.

A news release from the King County Department of Transportation emphasized the need for the crossing as more people travel the road, increasing the likelihood for serious collisions with animals.

Officials say approximately 10,000 people have moved into new developments surrounding the area in the past decade, and an additional 15,000 daily trips are expected on Novelty Hill Road by 2030.

The structure will be located between Redmond Ridge Drive and 234th Place Northeast—an area that is adjacent to the Redmond Watershed Preserve and near the county's Wildlife Habitat Network, a collection of 457 contiguous miles of protected habitat that is used by more than 175 animal species, according to the county.

Rochelle Ogershok, a spokesperson for the King County Department of Transportation, said wildlife jump between patches of undeveloped land in the county to get around.

“This is sort of like a network that wildlife navigates through,” she told Redmond Patch in 2012. “By providing that passage, there’s less of a conflict with them crossing the road.”

A new webpage for the project shows a selection of some-40,000 infrared images the county has recorded from 12 video cameras situated near Novelty Hill Road. A YouTube video also shows some of the species that frequent the area.

Native plants, soil and habitat features like boulders and downed logs—along with 5,615 linear feet of fencing—will be used to guide animals to the overpass.

The county says at least 20 major collisions with wildlife have been reported along the roadway since 1999, with many more likely going unreported.

The project is being fully funded by federal grants and should take about a year to complete, according to the county. The project may cause brief weekend closures on Novelty Hill Road but should otherwise have no significant impact on traffic, Ogershok said.

Click here to read an earlier Redmond Patch story about the overpass.