CAPE CORAL, Fla. — On September 11, Cape Coral council members will be presented with findings from a 2024 Cape Coral Evacuation Route Study by engineering company, CDM Smith.
The presentation online, says improvements such as the Del Prado Interchange, Midpoint Memorial Bridge widening, and CR 951 (Collier Boulevard) extension, would reduce overall evacuation times by 18 hours, or almost 30%.
Watch Colton's full story here:
On Monday, council member Tom Hayden spoke with Fox 4's Cape Coral Community Correspondent Colton Chavez about why staff will ask the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for a memorandum of support and expediency to program funding for these improvements.
“It will be vital for us to improve evacuation routes because we know what we went through with Ian,” said Hayden.
Below, the study shows how much time it believes people will take to evacuate from Cape Coral by 2045:
Hayden said he does feel there is an urgency to support projects like these.
“Storms get stronger we see a greater frequency of hurricanes,” he said.
The proposed I-75 and Del Prado Boulevard Interchange is estimated to decrease estimated evacuation times during a regional evacuation event, both for Lee County and for the City of Cape Coral.
The study will be discussed at the COW meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024.
