FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Scott Gilbertson, Lee County Transportation Department,
                (941) 479-8580

FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 24, 2001) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners will break ground Friday (July 27) on the final three-mile stretch of Veterans Memorial Parkway Extension to Burnt Store Road.

The groundbreaking will be at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Miracle Parkway and Surfside Boulevard.

The $7-million project will be completed years in advance of original projections due to a $6-million, no-interest loan from the state-funded State Infrastructure Bank Program. In addition, it will be a four-lane, instead of a two-lane, connection.

The construction will take Veterans Memorial Parkway from where it now ends at Surfside Boulevard west and north to Burnt Store Road. Construction is scheduled to be completed by Winter 2002. The loan will be repaid from 2003 to 2008 using surplus toll revenues from the Cape Coral and Midpoint Memorial bridges.

"Once Veterans Memorial Parkway is linked with Burnt Store Road, motorists will have a continuous transportation corridor approximately 30 miles long, running from Punta Gorda to Lehigh Acres," says Scott Gilbertson, the county’s transportation director. "The extension is a critical component of the central travel artery for Lee County, and the SIB loan allows the project to be completed years in advance of when it would otherwise be possible."

The project has been pursued as a joint effort between Lee County and the City of Cape Coral, with a 1988 interlocal agreement designating the County as responsible for the design and permitting phase and the City as responsible for the right-of-way acquisition. Under existing agreements, the Cape is entitled to 40 percent of the future surplus toll revenues, so the use of those revenues to ultimately pay for the construction phase through repayment of the loan continues the partnership effort between the two jurisdictions.

The four-lane divided roadway will include a signal at the intersection of Burnt Store and Pine Island roads. Existing residences will be protected by a six-foot-high earthen berm. The mitigation for the extension required the dedication of 900 acres for preserve west of the project and adjacent to the Charlotte Harbor Preserve. In addition, two known eagles’ nests will postpone construction during nesting season, October through May.

Lee County has been working to complete construction of the corridor since the completion of the Midpoint Memorial Bridge in October 1997 made the connection possible. The corridor extends from Lehigh Acres via Colonial Boulevard to the bridge, and then to Chiquita Boulevard via Veterans Memorial Parkway. At Chiquita, the Parkway ties into the existing four-lane Miracle Parkway, which leads to Surfside Boulevard, and now will connect to Burnt Store Road. The entire Midpoint Memorial Bridge and Corridor project has cost about $175 million.