CAPE CORAL Fla. — After almost 10 years, Lee County officials announced that construction on Burnt Store Road from Pine Island Road North to Van Buren Parkway will be finished at the end of April. The estimated cost of the project was $72.8 billion.
By the end of the month the 4.5-mile road will have been expanded from two to four lanes. There will be a five-foot-wide sidewalk on the west side and a 10-foot-wide multi-use path on the east side.
The project also included roadway lighting and five-foot-wide bike lanes in each direction.
The county said these new improvements will reduce traffic while also providing an advanced hurricane evacuation route.
Construction crews started working on the expansion project in 2015. It was completed in three sections.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Cape Coral approves Burnt Store Road widening project
Cape Coral residents have been anticipating this for a long time.
“It’s gonna help me a lot. I think it’s a good idea, I think it makes the road not congested and very easy for cars to flow through traffic,” Rene Mendez said.
Stephen James said the new expansion is a big improvement.
“It’s wonderful that they’re finishing it and I hear it’s gonna be done by the end of April. That’ll be a welcome for everyone. They’re big on bike paths and it’s nice — a lot of people ride bikes here,” James said.
“I just think it’s gonna be better for everybody with less traffic,” Gabriel Thevenin said.
The county is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the third and final section on April 27 at 10 a.m. Lee County Commissioners will be there. The address to the ceremony is 3104 Embers Parkway West, Cape Coral, 33991.
The post Burnt Store Road expansion project nears completion after almost a decade appeared first on NBC2 News.
