In about 30 days, Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor will install a temporary traffic signal at its entrance, the resort’s senior project manager told members of the Charlotte County-Punta Gorda Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Neil Wilkie of Suffolk Construction, who oversees the signal project, said the temporary system will consist of a strain pole system, in which the lights will be suspended by wires. It will take about a year to obtain permanent support brackets, he said.
Johnson Engineering designed the permanent signal, and the temporary system will operate the same way as the permanent system, he said.
MPO member and Charlotte County Commissioner Stephen Deutsch expressed surprise when Wilkie said the temporary signal would take about 30 days to install.
“With all due respect, nothing with [the Florida Department of Transportation] has ever happened in 30 days. We’re looking at four to six months,” he said.
Deutsch said he would be amazed if the temporary signal, which costs less than $100,000, could be installed in less than four months.
Sunseeker Resort is covering the entire cost, Commissioner Chris Constance said.
FDOT District Secretary L.K. Nandam, who sits on the MPO board, said the department has been working with Sunseeker’s traffic engineer, and because of the long lead time in securing parts for the permanent signal, FDOT permitted the installation of a temporary signal.
Before the resort was built, FDOT allowed a left-hand turn from the resort and into the resort, but as the design plans and construction began, the state realized a traffic signal would be needed and it was planned by Sunseeker Resort.
“It would be untenable to have a left in and left out with no signal there,” county Commissioner Joe Tiseo said
Leah Holmes, of Johnson Engineering, said the signaling would be on a timer and detection zones will detect vehicles on the roadway in addition to closed circuit television cameras.
The barrels and cones will be removed before the signal is installed, but Sunseeker Resort has hired off-duty police officers to assist in traffic at the resort from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Wilkie said.
Before the signal is installed, there will be a left turn exiting the resort to go northbound on U.S. 41 won’t be permitted, he said.
