Q: Have you heard anything about when construction of the 16th Street NE bridge will begin? — Gary Sefcik, Golden Gate Estates
A: Still working its way through Collier County government’s design and permitting process, the 16th Street NE bridge project in Golden Gate Estates is targeted to begin construction in about a year and a half.
“Basically, we’re in design right now. We’re at 60%. We will be finished with design and out of permitting by about a year from now. We’ll probably be under construction by December 2024,” said Dennis McCoy, senior project manager with Collier County Growth Management Department’s Transportation Engineering Division. “We plan like a year and a half of construction. So, we likely will be in construction all of ‘25 and part of ‘26. This ties in with the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension that comes right through the project.”
In addition to building a two-lane bridge to span the Golden Gate Main Canal that bisects 16th Street NE, the more than $22 million project will widen each of the two travel lanes on 16th Street to 11 feet with the addition of 6-foot shoulders and a 6-foot sidewalk along its entire length from Golden Gate Boulevard to Randall Boulevard, where a traffic light will be installed at the intersection of Randall, 16th Street and Approach Boulevard, the entrance into Valencia Golf & Country Club.
The project is being partially funded by a grant of $4.7 million, and the county’s Infrastructure Surtax Citizens Oversight Committee approved the project for receiving county surtax funds of $4.1 million. The remaining funding needed is anticipated to be allocated from gas tax revenue.
“We’re all working within the county right of way. We’re not taking anybody’s property,” McCoy said June 15 during a public information meeting for the project. “A lot of people got the wrong impression.”
The project proposes to help improve safety, as well as emergency response times within the Estates. “The big thing here is the bridge provides emergency access,” McCoy said. “It’s a safety issue and it’s connectivity. So, it’s operational and safety.”
The county’s connectivity plan includes the first phase of the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension from Collier Boulevard to 16th Street, which began construction last fall.
Estates connectivity
In addition to projects on 16th Street and Vanderbilt Beach Road, road widening projects are planned on Randall and Wilson boulevards. Randall will be widened from two to four lanes on a new six-lane footprint from Immokalee Road to Eighth Street about the same time as the 16th Street construction, McCoy said, noting that eventually Randall will be widened to Everglades Boulevard.
The Wilson Boulevard widening project south of Immokalee Road includes the construction of a bridge that will span the canal more than a mile south of Golden Gate Boulevard. “It goes over the canal and right now we’re looking at connecting to Tobias (Street),” said Lorraine Lantz, transportation planning manager for Collier County.
After a public meeting last summer presented three options for the Wilson extension to align with City Gate Boulevard, a subsequent meeting refined the proposal to the central option to extend the road into southern Golden Gate Estates and eventually connect it with City Gate Boulevard North near the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
“We’re looking to have a third public meeting to refine even further. Probably in the late summer/September time frame. We haven’t determined the dates for that meeting yet,” Lantz said.
The 16th Street bridge project follows the county’s 2019 completion of the bridge on Eighth Street Northeast with funding from the Florida Department of Transportation. Both projects were part of the 2008 East of 951 Horizon Study, which included several bridges to improve traffic mobility in the entire Golden Gate Estates area. The 16th Street bridge also was on the Collier County commissioners’ list of projects for funding from the one-cent sales tax referendum, Lantz said.
“And then we did a reevaluation study to look at those bridges again, just to make sure that they were needs for the county, for the network and the importance of them. And what the study found out was 16th, 47th, 10th, 13th and Wilson South were still needed, still very important for emergency management services, the fire stations, all the emergency services, in general, as well as important for the network for traveling to prevent congestion and to allow for a better network. And so, this is one of the first ones to move forward,” said Lantz, noting that the next projects probably will be bridges on Wilson Boulevard South and 13th Street NW.
Immokalee Road median cuts
Q: Can you tell me what the meeting was on June 1 about the medians on Immokalee? — Frank Bevacqua, Naples
A: Because of traffic safety concerns, Collier County plans to modify some of the open median cuts for a half-dozen connector streets on the south side of Immokalee Road east of Collier Boulevard.
Planned changes to the median where Immokalee Road intersects with Richards Street, Rivers Road, Moulder Drive, Catawba Street, Rock Road and Wildwood Boulevard and Krape Road will force motorists exiting these side streets to turn east and do a U-turn at the next possible opportunity if they intend to travel west on Immokalee Road.
“The county has identified some safety concerns from people coming from the side streets and trying to make a left turn toward Naples,” said project manager Mario Puente, who notes that landscaping company trailers that frequently turn out of those side streets sometimes dangerously block up to three lanes of traffic on Immokalee Road while they wait to turn west at the medians. “So, these are minor modifications to the existing median that will force these guys to make a right turn only and to make a U-turn down the road.”
The project, which is in its initial 60% design stage, proposes to construct directional traffic features at these open medians with changes to pavement, curbs, gutters and signage. The construction project is expected to start this fall with an estimated completion date next summer.
The “Tim Aten Knows” weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at tim.aten@naplespress.com.
