The Caloosahatchee Bridge is now officially open to both pedestrians and drivers. The Florida Department of Transportation hosted a ribbon-cutting at Centennial Park in Downtown Fort Myers Friday afternoon to mark the end of the construction of the bridge and opening the new 8-foot-wide sidewalks to help pedestrian safety.
People took advantage of the new sidewalk. NBC2 saw dozens of bicyclists and people walking across the bridge throughout the day. This comes after months of road closures.
Randy Haffy remembers those closures like it was yesterday.
"Well, there's not very many bridges around here and it was it wasn't fun. And even when they had it, when they opened it back up and they only had to run down to one lane. It was horrible," Haffy said.
"It was all about safety for one. Two, I think this is going to help, you know, develop economically North Fort Myers. We already know that downtown Fort Myers is booming. It's coming back, is being revitalized and so it was twofold," said Janella Newsome from FDOT.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Greg Bueno says this is a huge win for Southwest Florida.
"We know we live in a state of 24 million people. Our roads are very busy and as we see, as we constantly are expanding them and anything that we can do to bring an extra avenue of safety, yet still allow everybody to enjoy Florida sunshine because we are the Sunshine State," Bueno said.
Linda Hines, who is visiting Fort Myers, says she is glad that the state of Florida is taking care of the people who want to enjoy the outdoors.
"I think it will make it much safer for people that want to walk over the river and see the beauty of the river," Hines said.
Others are thankful that the construction period for this busy bridge is now over, making their commute much easier.
"I mean, hey, at least it's open, and it's a straight shot across," Haffy told NBC2.
FDOT says they need to install new lights along the bridge and should be completed within a few weeks.