The Estero Boulevard lighting project was expected to begin yesterday. It did not. Mayor Dan Allers says the project has been delayed. The reason he was given was a problem with the FPL contractor getting parts and equipment.
Allers has been saying for months; materials are being ordered and stored at 2 staging areas on the beach. FPL has also been meeting with Lee County to get all the required permits. It’s also possible the delay could have to do with FPL not yet getting all the permits needed from Lee County. Estero Boulevard is a Lee County road.
When the project does get underway, between Estero Boulevard and the side streets there will be 730 new light poles installed, 405 on Estero, 295 on side streets and 30 downtown. The lights will be turtle-friendly amber lights and the space between each pole will be about 100 feet. The 20-22 foot high poles are going in first and the lights will be installed after Hurricane season. The entire project is expected to take 15 months.
The first poles will go in the ground on Estrallita Drive on the very south end and FPL will work north from there.
There are 178 existing light poles on Estero Boulevard now, many of which have to be turned off during turtle season. They will all go away.
Back in February the Fort Myers Beach Town Council accepted a $7.8 million grant from the Florida Division of Emergency Management to pay for the new lights.
Once the lights are installed the town will have a 10-year maintenance contract with FPL. After that the town owns the system and is responsible for its upkeep. The town does not own the lighting system in place now.
The project was expected to be completed by September of 2025 but that was with a July 15th 2024 start date.
Amber lights will result in pedestrian deaths. But at least the turtles will be safe..l
Maybe FPL will finally remove downed transformers left in front yards since Ian too! Repeated phone calls to FPL don’t seem to work.
The iinsuffientcy of of these turtle friendly lights will do little if anything to protect our motorists or pedestrians. To the contrary, pedestrians, who erroneously assume that they can be seen in darkened crosswalks, often step into the path of oncoming traffic with little warning. While suitable in town, the placement of unlit crosswalks in areas to the south is tantamount to extreme recklessness.
More traffic backups with this project! Yuk.
Will FPL clean-up the downed poles they still have laying around from Ian as they’re installing the new ones?
I think its like 10 years now that the back and forth has been going on about the Estero Blvd lights. What’s another year or 2. One of the worst run projects I’ve ever seen.
We should have put the Women’s Club in charge of the Estero light project. It would have been done by now.