Sean Duffy bashes Newsom over $21M overbudget 101 Freeway wildlife crossing

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attacked Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over an unfinished wildlife crossing bridge in the Golden State that was $21 million over budget.

Duffy shared a post from X account End Wokeness showing video of the unfinished project spanning 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. The video shows the unfinished bridge, which is intended to allow animals such as pumas to cross the highway safely.

Duffy wrote to X: “Bridges to nowhere. Trains to nowhere. Leave the building to us @GavinNewsom.”

Construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC) was supposed to be completed by 2025, and the total cost of the project was estimated at $92 million. That cost estimate has since increased to $114 million. In the press release from the governor’s office, it is stated that the project should be completed by autumn 2026.

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At a groundbreaking ceremony in April 2022, Newsom pledged $54 million in state funds to build the crossing and later added another $10 million. But in February, the California Transportation Commission announced it would allocate an additional $18.8 million to complete construction.

Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, after which the bridge is named, provided $25 million for the construction of the bridge 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 on . X.

Pratt told Fox News Digital that the transit project “has experienced significant increases in costs” related to “tariffs, inflation and other factors” that are responsible for delaying construction.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy arrives at BlackRock’s 2026 Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2026. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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These increased costs are consistent with other construction projects, he added. FHWA National Highway Construction Cost IndexThis 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 Critics of the project’s ballooning costs also point to the Trump administration’s tariffs as the culprit.

“Cost estimate valid until last year, when inflation resulting in part from TRUMP’s tariffs increased construction costs. The increase is much LOWER than the national average increase in highway construction costs of 67%,” Newsom’s team wrote to X.

The governor also said the delay was due to “severe weather conditions.”

“The timeline was only changed by ONE YEAR due to severe weather last year; five years of work is far from ‘good’,” Newsom’s press office wrote to X.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Groundbreaking Celebration on April 22, 2022 in Agoura Hills, California. (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

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The increased interest in building the wildlife crossing bridge comes as the state faces continued scrutiny of other failed projects. Last year the Ministry of Transport canceled $4 billion in federal funding after the state spent $15 billion on high-speed rail construction projects despite not laying a single line.

Newsom, who is running for president in 2028, also has to deal with a projected $2.9 billion budget deficit for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.