Pima County Wildlife bridge & underpass opens

Crowd at wildlife overpass/bridge. (Source: Tucson News Now)

ORO VALLEY, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Usually Pima County dedicates or celebrates the opening of a bridge. Today, the county celebrated the closing of a bridge. To all human traffic.

Today, the county made it official, wildlife can now roam free at an underpass and bridge on Oracle Road just north of Oro Valley.

For the first and only time, the public was able to take a look at where the wildlife will roam.

Both projects were funded by a voter approved county-wide excise of the Regional Transportation Authority. The bridge and underpass were built by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Colleagues of Ann Day spoke about her work to get this project done and how losing her is a loss for the community.

"She was a mom, a sister and a grandmother and a friend we are going to miss her a lot because we all lost a really good friend," said one colleague.

The bridge and the underpass on Oracle were built to protect the wildlife. According to Arizona Game and Fish officials, during a four month period before the bridge, they recorded about 250 wild animals were killed because of traffic.

Now these animals have a safe way to cross the road.

Many who were at the event said officials should name the wildlife crossing after Ann Day because of all the things she has done to help wildlife in southern Arizona.