LABELLE, Fla. — LaBelle is growing fast, and FDOT says a second bridge across the Caloosahatchee - right next to the existing one - is needed to handle the surge in traffic and commercial trucks.
Fox 4’s Hendry County Community Correspondent Austin Schargorodski works in this area daily, so he stays on top of projects like this. That’s how he found out FDOT released some updates.
Watch to see what those updates are:
FDOT said the second bridge would feed into the intersection at Park Avenue and Bridge Street, which would get a new traffic light. Cars could turn onto Main Street, while trucks would stay on Bridge Street, which would become the designated truck route.
To many, dump trucks have just become a part of life in the area.
“They do make a lot of noise and stuff, but hey, people’s gotta make a living so,” one resident said.
But FDOT said it studied noise and environmental impacts, and plans to offset them with wetland replacement and noise barriers at two communities.
They said no homes would be relocated, it would only impact two businesses, not raise flood risk, and wouldn’t harm endangered wildlife.
Bridge Street south of SR 80 would get wider sidewalks and landscaped medians, while roundabouts at Cowboy Way, Nobles, and Whidden would help traffic flow. FDOT said it was all about improving connectivity and walkability in a growing city.
But not everyone wanted more trucks in town.
“We understand we need to accommodate that. We need another bridge here to accommodate all that flow. But we’re recommending that new bridge not get built here, but some miles up the river,” said Leonard Enriquez, who lives in LaBelle.
Schargorodski met Enriquez in January 2024 when he first reported on this project. Enriquez started the Second Bridge Group, along with a petition to advocate for a bypass route to shift truck traffic out of downtown.
His petition led to FDOT conducting a separate feasibility study for a bypass route. On his plan, the proposed route is shown as a green line that wraps around LaBelle and crosses the Caloosahatchee farther upriver.
Enriquez said the current second bridge plan would fundamentally change LaBelle.
“To take Main Street, which is today a residential street which has a school to a school, a daycare center, a church, two schools actually on the street and and turn that into a busy highway. That's a major impact for us,” he said.
FDOT said it wants to hear your thoughts on the project and is taking comments on the second bridge study through May 9.
Then, on May 7, there would be a stakeholder meeting at the LaBelle Civic Center to review findings from the bypass route study.
