The final piece of the new loop at the base of the Matanzas Pass Bridge is the landscaping in front of Margaritaville. This is a State Department of Transportation project. Here’s when they say the beautification will begin…
A bit of history about that land. Margaritaville donated a portion of the soon-to-be-landscaped land to the town as part of their public benefit. The town then donated the land to Lee County. FDOT will be paying for and installing the landscaping and Margaritaville has a deal with Lee County to maintain the landscaping once it’s installed.
The reason Margaritaville was recruited to maintain the landscaping is because the town wanted landscaping enhancements to exceed county and state guidelines. The only way the enhanced landscaping would be installed is if the town took on the obligation of maintaining it. If the landscape wasn’t enhanced then the county would have taken on the maintenance responsibility. The town approached Margaritavlle to take it on and they accepted the obligation because they also supported the enhanced landscaping.
The bid due date for the landscaping project is October 15th of this year. According to FDOT, that typically takes 30-60 days to process the contract for acceptable bid submittals. That would put the project start date into 2027. It’s expected to start mid-January to early February, contingent upon that bidding/award process.
Putting the landscaping in is expected to take 4 months which means the work is expected to be done mid-July 2027. FDOT believes the new landscaping will prevent pedestrians from crossing whenever they see a traffic slowdown in that area. The locals and local elected officials have been very skepitcal of that plan.
The land behind the fence at the base of the bridge, also donated to Lee County by TPI, will eventually be turned into a secure parking area for golf carts and bikes.
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What really needs to happen is picking up all the trash at the base of the bridge on the north side AND the trash ON the bridge, I ride over a couple times a week and there are metal items that have been laying up there since January.
The extortion of TPI continues
Agree! And yet the Town demands nothing from the post Ian developers. The TPI public benefits should have been a minimum for any post Ian developer.