LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Lee County Commission on Tuesday approved a street expansion project in hopes to alleviate some traffic in Estero.
“It’s absolutely vital that they expand it, because it’s just getting outrageous,” said Steve Invidiato, Estero resident.
It would widen Corkscrew Road from Ben Hill Griffin Parkway to Alico Road from two way traffic to 4 lanes.
“We want to make sure we build a road that can handle all of the planned growth and also the communities that are already built out there now,” said Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman.
It’ll be broken up into three phases. The first phase will be the design of widening the road to 4 way traffic which will take about 18 months.
The project would also include adding sidewalks and bike paths.
“we are planning on starting construction immediately after that in 2021,” said Hamman.
The first phase of construction would be from Ben Hill Griffin Parkway to Bella Terra.
It’ll cost more than 4 million dollars for the design phase, but it's money the county budgeted for.
The funding will come from the general fund, which means it won't cost the taxpayer additional money.
People in the area are worried the expansion won’t be enough,
“It doesn’t make any difference, you still have tons and tons of traffic, it’ll probably reduce it a bit, but there’s still going to be a lot of traffic, but its better than what it is today because that’s just ridiculous,” said Invidiato.
Phase two would start in 2023 after the competition of the first phase, which would widen the two way road to 4 lanes from Bella Terra to Alico Road.
