According to the Florida Department of Transportation the 18 month $8 million road reconstruction project that starts at the base of the bridge and extends to the Prescott Street traffic light begins Monday, August 5th.
FDOT Project Administrator Edgar Gonzalez says for that first week workers will be spread out through the project limits doing Maintenance of Traffic and erosion control. He says on August 12th they will begin the on the Matanzas Pass Bridge and will begin demo and restoration of the islands on the beach side.
FDOT says the project will relieve congestion in the area between the alternating lights at Prescott/Buttonwood and the Crescent Street light under the Margaritaville walkover. The total length of the project is about 1 mile.
On the Hurricane Bay Bridge, bicycle lanes will be added in both directions and the bridge will be resurfaced. A 5-foot sidewalk will also be added with a barrier wall.
The light at Prescott and Buttonwood will stay alternating during season. It will function as a regular light when traffic is slower, during the off-season.
From the Hurricane Bay Bridge to Main Street, FDOT will be resurfacing and re-striping to incorporate bicycle lanes in each direction. The speed limit will be changed from 45MPH to 40MPH.
Once you get to the base of the bridge and head toward the beach, the curb that bottlenecks the second lane will be removed so two lanes of traffic can continue onto the bridge.
A new traffic signal will be added at the base of the bridge at Main Street and San Carlos. A new bus bay will be added to the southbound approach to the bridge.
On the bridge, during peak season the lane configurations will not change, to allow for public transportation and emergency vehicles. During the off-season drivers will be allowed to use both lanes heading onto the beach. Currently there is one lane going in both directions.
On the Matanzas Pass Bridge the current sidewalk will be widened 5 feet to 8 feet to accommodate pedestrians and bicycles. Currently you’re not permitted to ride your bike in the walking area on the bridge, you must get off and walk your bike over. When the change is made you’ll be allowed to bike on that walkway. There will not be a specific bike lane so bikers and walkers will still need to watch out for one another.
The base of the bridge on the beach side will be totally reconstructed. A new traffic signal will new installed at 5th street. With the additional 2 traffic lights, FDOT says they will all communicate with each other and better be able to flow traffic on and off the island. At the end of the day, once you get onto Fort Myers Beach there is still one lane going in both directions.
There will be an abundance of crosswalks at the base of the bridge on the beach side. That topic has been very controversial with the Fort Myers Beach Town Council and residents who’ve for years experienced drivers stopping and pedestrians darting across the street wherever they can. FDOT says Lee County and Margaritaville have worked out an agreement for landscaping which FDOT says will prevent pedestrians from crossing will-nilly. FDOT says the landscaping will steer the pedestrians to clearly marked crosswalks, where the drivers expect them to be. Margaritaville will maintain the landscaping. There will also be a pedestrian crossing close to Crescent Beach Park.
The empty lot in front of Margaritaville, which was donated by TPI to Lee County, is also part of this project. That area will be turned into a wider road that connects with the current roadway to help flow traffic onto the bridge and off the island. Lee County and FDOT are partnering on that portion of the project. The state owns the bridge and the roadway off the bridge. Lee County owns Estero Boulevard.
The project started in design back in 2019. The original plan was to have the project begin in 2023 and be done by the end of 2024. That plan was delayed with a targeted start date of April 2024 and then it was pushed back again to August due to a supply shortage.
The estimated cost for the project is $8 million. All the money is coming from the federal government.
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First step to reduce the traffic problem is to face the reality that this small island cannot accommodate so many people. The city must stop approving any more high density projects. I would hope that the city focus more on quality of life for the residents and not on attracting more tourist. This is the only way to fix the traffic problem.
not going to improve anything
Please state the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of the Lee County people who approved this. Would love to drive them over the bridge in the right lane when on I want to get in the left lane to go South on Estero!😝😝😝😝
I believe it should be mandatory to use catwalk at Margaritaville there’s no reason to have a crosswalk there when traffic is backed up for 8 Miles this would alleviate a lot of problems.. you should not be able to turn left at Margaritaville the only way to get that street would be to hang a right towards the lighthouse Tiki Bar this would also alleviate a lot of problems.
2 lanes of stopped traffic on the bridge. It’s going to be interesting watching ambulances, fire engines and police cars navigating their way over the bridge during season.
All the money is not from the federal government. It’s from We The People!
Raised pedestrian bridges by Times Square would have provided the most safety. A walking ramp up would encourage pedestrians and the handicapped to use it.
Great idea, to bad the engineers didn’t think of it years ago.
I believe that idea has been debated for several years.
I don’t believe there is anything that will actually help traffic. Traffic backs up from pedestrians crossing thecstreet, people trying to turn left on Esteem Blvd. and drivers rubbernecking while they drive 5 mph down the street. Tying up the traffic for another 18 months to “relieve congestion” is a pipe dream. I have lived my whole life in tourist destinations, both in Ohio and Florida. I have never seen anything other than off season make traffic any better.
I sincerely hope that I am proven wrong.
Only a small portion of the empty lot was donated, by TPI, to the Town, which then donated to Lee County. The majority of the lot was purchased by Lee County in 2010, from Fifth Third Bank,which had foreclosed on the previous owner.
I’d be curious to know how much the cost has increased since they first started planning it in 2019.
Double? Or more?
This older BTR article gave it as 7.9mil; the current article says $8mil. I agree that it’s probably gone up significantly; perhaps FDOT just hasn’t updated the cost??
https://beachtalkradionews.com/changes-coming-to-foot-of-the-bridge-project/