Collier struggles to keep roads in step with growth

Collier County’s road infrastructure has encountered difficulty keeping pace with the quickly growing population flocking to Southwest Florida for a piece of paradise.

By design, substantial lag time exists between when a traffic improvement need is initially identified and when a road project is completed. That’s because in between are design phases, public hearings, government meetings, planning checklists, engineering challenges, right-of-way acquisition, project bid letting and the actual construction time. 

A case in point is the project to extend Vanderbilt Beach Road another 7 miles east into Golden Gate Estates. Although actual construction on the first phase began two years ago and is forecast for completion next summer, discussion about the project began at least 15 years ago. 

But the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension was more than a topic of discussion, said Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel, whose district east of Collier Boulevard includes the project. “It was triggered by the GMP. We have a Growth Management Plan that relegates us to do certain things infrastructure-wise in order to support the population that we have. The GMP tells us when we put roads and bridges and stormwater and so forth in. It was triggered by the GMP in 2006.”

At that time, the local road project was planned to extend only to Wilson Boulevard in Golden Gate Estates. The first phase now will extend the local east-west route farther to 16 Street NE. Subsequent phases are expected to continue the extension to Everglades Boulevard and eventually Big Cypress Parkway, a future north-south route connecting proposed villages and the eventual Town of Big Cypress between the Estates and Ave Maria.

“The leadership at the time — and that was at the beginning of what they designated as the Great Recession — they decided to not extend Vanderbilt because they had just spent extra money in expanding Immokalee Road, so they were able to forestall the construction of Vanderbilt’s extension because they had just expanded Immokalee Road to six lanes from four,” McDaniel says. “And the budgetary cuts that were imminent because of the Great Recession didn’t afford them the capacity to do the road construction that was triggered in 2006 for the people who had arrived by 2006. It didn’t start construction until I stepped on the leadership and forced them to build that dang road. That’s just one of many infrastructure needs that are requisite for our community that we’re behind on.” 

Unfortunately, even the best of municipal planners could not have been prepared for the tremendous growth experienced in Collier County in the last 15 years. But McDaniel argues that priorities were misaligned then.

“If the system had been established to budget the money and the priority to support the critical life-sustaining infrastructure needs of the population, we would have been better able to adapt to the unexpected growth that we experienced,” he says. “But the priorities of the spending of the Collier County taxpayers were set to allow for more discretion on pretty and ‘glitty,’ not on necessary infrastructure. Infrastructure’s not sexy.”

That changed a few years ago, when the board of county commissioners adjusted staff priorities and their expenditure of available tax funds. 

“Three years ago, we adjusted the vision statement, the mission statement, the business plan and the budget priorities of Collier County,” says McDaniel, noting that the top priority of local government is “to keep my families and neighborhoods safe.”

“After that, in Collier County’s priorities, it was quality of life,” he says, admitting that people have differing priorities regarding quality of life. “Then, infrastructure and other expenses came after that. 

“In my world, No. 1 is public safety — keep my families and neighborhoods safe; No. 2 is move my people through and through — roads, bridges, stormwater, subsurface, infrastructure, water and sewer; and then pretty and ‘glitty,’ if you have done and funded the necessities in No. 1 and 2 of your priorities. We amended three years ago that budget priorities of our staff that moved infrastructure up to No. 2.”

Of course, many residents might argue that a passable road network is a quality-of-life issue.

“The working-class people, the people who live in the rural areas of our community, have dire straits getting from A to B because of the lack of a grid system that we have in the east,” McDaniel says.

To tackle more road projects, county staff will continue to seek grants and funding resources to meet any unfunded needs, said Collier County Transportation Management Services Department Head Trinity Scott. Funding sources for road construction include impact fees, gas taxes, the general fund and grants. At a budget workshop this summer, the Board of County Commissioners identified a need for additional funding for infrastructure projects to keep up with county growth. 

“Collier County has more than 1,400 collector roadways with an additional 45 lane miles of roadways programmed for construction in the next five years,” Scott says.

County and state road projects already underway or in the pipeline include new lane extensions, overpasses, bridges and Interstate 75 interchange improvements, including creative infrastructure solutions such as diverging diamond interchanges. Most of the major road projects deal with managing the fast-growing area of Collier County east of Collier Boulevard, as well as making improvements to I-75 and its interchanges.

Over the next five to 10 years, Collier County will see some dramatic changes in the way traffic’s handled, said Collier County Commission Chair Burt Saunders.

“We have a tremendous amount of road projects that will be completed, spread over the next 10 years,” Saunders says. “There’s a tremendous amount of road work, most of which will be finished over the next four or five years.”   

The brunt of work will be seen on major intersections and major highways, such as the traffic-clogged Immokalee Road in North Naples.

“We’re making intersection improvements and doing what can be done with Immokalee Road,” Saunders says. “We’ve had so much growth out east. All of that traffic is trying to get out west — mostly folks in the morning going to work and, in the evening, going home from work. That’s mostly traffic on Immokalee Road. That’s the big problem.”

The county is operating in overdrive to serve and keep pace with the influx of local residents and businesses.

“When Bill McDaniel and I got elected to the county commission, we had about $1 billion in shortfall in needed projects,” Saunders says. “We have chipped away at a large amount of that. The $500 million from the 1-cent sales tax certainly was a big piece of that.”

When it comes to transportation needs, communities are generally a bit behind because government entities don’t build an eight-lane highway when only a four-lane highway is needed, Saunders said.

“But eventually, you need an eight-lane highway, so you have to approve it,” he says. “So, it’s not unusual for there to be traffic bumps in the community, and we are addressing those.”

Saunders acknowledged the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension was initially identified as a need 15 years before construction began. Some of that delay can be attributed to funding issues.

“The only way we were able to build that road was with the 1-cent sales tax that we put on the ballot back in 2018. That generated almost $500 million for Collier County construction projects, and Vanderbilt Beach Road was one of those projects,” he says, noting that more than $75 million for that road extension project came from the temporary sales tax increase. 

“So, if we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be building Vanderbilt Beach Road.” 

The road project may be an extreme example, but it magnifies the county’s struggle to keep pace with tremendous growth. 

“We live in a very attractive community. It’s very safe. The school system is very good. So, there are a lot of reasons why people want to live in Collier County,” Saunders says. “We have a lot of people coming over from the east coast of Florida now. We have a lot of people from California moving here. So, the word is out, but we are doing what we can to improve the transportation system throughout the county.” 

Major road projects

Interstate 75 expansion: As part of the state’s Moving Florida Forward infrastructure initiative, the Florida Department of Transportation proposes expanding I-75 from six to 10 lanes for an 18.5-mile Collier-Lee county stretch from Corkscrew Road Exit 123 in Estero to Golden Gate Parkway Exit 105 in Collier County. 

I-75 interchange flyover at State Road 951: FDOT is constructing major I-75 interchange improvements at Exit 101 on Collier Boulevard from City Gate Drive to Business Circle South in Collier County. Single-lane flyover ramp extensions are being built over Beck and Davis boulevards on both sides of Collier Boulevard. 

Diverging diamond interchange at Pine Ridge Road and I-75: FDOT has started constructing a diverging diamond interchange on Pine Ridge Road at I-75 Exit 107. The design reduces traffic delays and the number of conflict points to improve safety. The estimated completion is mid-2027.

Diverging diamond at Immokalee Road and I-75: As part of the interstate widening, FDOT also will construct a diverging diamond interchange at I-75 Exit 111 at Immokalee Road. Construction is expected to begin in early 2027.

Flyover at Livingston and Immokalee Roads: An overpass is planned to be built by Collier County in the next five years to allow Livingston Road to fly over Immokalee Road near the Seed to Table store.

Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Phase 1: The 7-mile extension of Vanderbilt Beach Road from Collier Boulevard to 16th Street NE in Golden Gate Estates is expected to be completed by the county in summer of 2026, weather permitting. 

Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Phase 2: The second phase of the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension will add about another 2 miles from 16th Street NE to Everglades Boulevard in Golden Gate Estates.

16th Street NE Bridge: Coinciding with the completion of the first phase of the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension, a bridge will be built over the canal on 16th Street, creating a new route from Randall Boulevard to Golden Gate Boulevard, including a new traffic signal at Randall.

More bridges in Golden Gate Estates: The bridge network in the Estates will be expanded in the next five years for better traffic flow and emergency response times. This includes new bridges over canals at 47th Avenue NE between Immokalee Road and Everglades Boulevard; 62nd Avenue NE between Everglades Boulevard and 40th Street NE; 13th Street NW between Golden Gate Boulevard and the Vanderbilt Beach Road extension; Wilson Boulevard south of Golden Gate Boulevard; and 10th Avenue SE between Everglades and Desoto boulevards. 

Intersection of Randall Boulevard and Immokalee Road: A proposed improvement is designed to upgrade the two-lane undivided Randall Boulevard to a four-lane divided road on a six-lane footprint, including a continuous-flow right-turn lane from northbound Immokalee Road to eastbound Randall Boulevard.

Collier Boulevard widening: Collier Boulevard between City Gate Boulevard North and Green Boulevard will be widened from four to six lanes, completing a series of widening projects on the north-south corridor. The project will include removal of the existing bridge at 25th Avenue SW and the addition of a new bridge at 27th Avenue SW and Collier Boulevard.

Everglades Boulevard widening: Everglades Boulevard will be widened from two to four lanes from Oil Well Road to Golden Gate Boulevard in Golden Gate Estates. 

Oil Well Road widening: The last section of Oil Well Road between Immokalee Road and Ave Maria also will be widened from two to four lanes on a six-lane footprint between Everglades Boulevard and Oil Well Grade Road.

Wilson Boulevard widening: Wilson Boulevard will be widened from two to four lanes from Immokalee Road to Golden Gate Boulevard and include improvements to those intersections in the Estates.

Airport-Pulling Road widening: Airport-Pulling Road will be widened from four to six lanes with a 22-foot median from Vanderbilt Beach Road to Immokalee Road in North Naples.