Buck up, motorists. things aren't as bad as you think. It's true that the road-widening work across the Imperial River Bridge in Bonita Springs is running behind by up to a year. The crawl there will continue to irritate into late 2006 or early '07. But that's only one of three parts; the rest of the $32-million project is basically on time. And it's almost done.

Crews started six-laning U.S. 41-from four lanes-between Corkscrew Road and Old U.S. 41 in September 2002. A year later, workers followed suit on the leg from Bonita Beach Road south to Old 41 in Collier and the stretch from Old 41 in Lee County to just north of Bonita Beach Road.

The north segment is almost complete, and the southern part will be finished by summer, says Debbie Tower, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation. The two pieces are falling within the two-and-a-half-year goal officials set.

It's the middle section, however, that's grabbing all the attention-and ire. Troubles there began only six weeks into the project, when construction equipment ruptured a natural gas main along U.S. 41. It took several days to fix, effectively setting the project back two months.

Another blow came during last summer's hurricanes; work was halted to keep the roadway unobstructed for evacuations. The driving rains also muddied up progress. All told, that cost about 15 days.

Along the way, workers encountered digging problems when they hit rock. Another month's delay. Then there was time off for holidays.

The biggest setback came when a contractor couldn't get the necessary permits to work on the bridge. Eight more months in the hole.

"What we're seeing on that job is unusual for us," Tower says. FDOT just fired the bridge-segment superintendent. Officials hope to speed up work on that section.

For motorists, however, the roadwork seems to drag on and on.

"The public judges by how fast they see the lanes added," Tower says. And that happens relatively quickly, within six months or so, she says.

But the prep work takes longer. "They just didn't see what we did the first 18 months," she says. -Phil Borchmann