Chris Cifatte
•8/17/2026
LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)— Traffic is getting worse faster than roads can be built, and one viewer came to WINK Listens to find out what's going on with two road projects that have been talked about for years.
Vincent Miller doesn't live too far from the hustle and bustle of the new diverging diamond at Colonial and Interstate 75. But at Country Lakes, off Luckett Road, they have their own traffic troubles.
"Everybody's cutting through Country Lakes to get around because they don't have the Luckett Road extension," Miller said.
It didn't take but a minute with a cell phone to see the number of cars and trucks turning in and pulling out of his neighborhood. Back later with the drone, WINK News saw the same issue. Granted, there are some businesses right off Luckett using that road, but the traffic brings Miller to his first question: What happened to the Luckett Road extension just east of I-75?
"Doesn't that have a priority at some point?" Miller said.
The idea's been around a while. In 2006, WINK News reported that Lee County hired a consultant to look at ways to build a four or six-lane extension to Luckett Road to connect I-75 and Joel Boulevard in eastern Lehigh Acres. This is the general idea: east to Sunshine Boulevard, staying just south of Buckingham. The county approved that as a planning document in 2008.
The project might still get done, but not anytime soon. The project is planned but not funded, so essentially it sits on a list of roads the county needs by 2050 with no specific plan or money allotted. That means it's not likely to happen by 2050.
On Miller's second question, there is slightly better news. He wanted to know what about widening Ortiz north of Martin Luther King Boulevard to Palm Beach Boulevard.
There is a plan to go north, but only about halfway to Luckett Road, and that's 15 to 20 years out. As for the rest of the way to Palm Beach Boulevard, there's no plan to pay for that.
"I know they reallocate the money somewhere else," Miller said.
The county has outlined a lot of needs, but there's not money for all of them.
