Burnt Store Road safety project to start construction in June

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) — The Lee County Board of Commissioners has approved the bid for a 5-mile safety project along Burnt Store Road.

The $3 million project will add 4-foot-wide paved shoulders on both sides of the road, new right and left turn lanes at Caloosa Parkway, rumble stripes on the edge of pavement and center lines and required guardrail, roadway signs and pavement markings.

The agreement is a new task work order to an existing contract with Ajax Paving Industries of Florida LLC, which submitted the lowest competitive bid.

Burnt Store Road safety plan scaled back to avoid multi-year permitting delay

The Lee Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to scale back previously approved safety improvements on the remaining two-lane stretch of Burnt Store Road in order to avoid a multi-year permitting delay.

Work is expected to begin in June and be completed in about nine months. The project will install safety measures along the remaining two-lane section of Burnt Store Road without impacting the eventual four-lane widening project for that segment.

Steve Retzloff has lived along Burnt Store Road for 10 years. He has seen the area grow, and with it, traffic.

"We've had fatalities over here because they didn't have those outlets to bail out to the right, to have a turn lane," Retzloff said.

Neighbors said they are most excited for the new turn lanes at Caloosa Parkway. Retzloff said the turn lanes will make traffic more efficient.

"In the morning time, you know, it's really easy to sit here for five minutes and wait for the... go back and forth, especially if you want to go left. So to have turn lanes, to have things like that to make traffic more efficient, I think, is a great idea," Retzloff said.

Marc Ehlers has lived off Burnt Store Road for less than a year, but it didn't take him long to notice how dangerous and fast drivers are. He said dangerous situations happen when people stop too late.

"There are very dangerous situations where people stop too, too late, and it's really, you know, you hear the back of your car turn, and then you always pray, 'Please do not crush me,'" Ehlers said.

Ehlers said the project is a positive thing and the start of making the road safer. He said more should still be done to slow drivers down.

"Every day we have so many dangerous situations here, while we are also always driving on Burns Road. Yeah, the main problem is speed and people who do not pay attention to traffic," Ehlers said.

The county said the project is expected to take about nine months to complete.