CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Lee County leaders are presenting the next step toward upgrading the Cape Coral Bridge to Cape Coral City Council members.
Council members will get new information and have a chance to ask questions about the $184 million project.
More than 20,000 drivers go across this bridge every day, and the project wants to improve access to the bridge, not only for drivers but pedestrians as well.
The proposal will widen road lanes and improve intersection access to the bridge.
There is also a plan for bicycle access and a pedestrian bridge that many people have been asking for.
PDF: See all the proposed plans
Improvements to the bridge have been broken down into six sections.
Section one is where construction would begin at the intersection of Del Prado Boulevard and Cape Coral Parkway.
It would end in section six on College Parkway and McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers. That's a total of 2.3 miles that is expected to be upgraded.
The plan also has options for replacing the Westbound bridge and widening lanes on the Eastbound bridge.
The Cape Coral Bridge Westbound lanes on the bridge went up nearly 60 years ago.
We talked to Lee County commissioner Keven Ruane in May. He agreed that these improvements have been long overdue, but it’s just taken time.
"I just think it’s purely the rate we’re growing and obviously come up with the design. you just don’t come up with 'how do you do it?' Do you do a new bridge? Do you do a new lane? How do you do it?"
This project has been fast-tracked.
Lee County commissioners are expecting to break ground on the project in 2026.
