City Council finds agreement in series of unanimous votes
Lance Shearer
Columnist
The City Council meeting on Monday was something of a love fest, with every vote taken by the councilors coming in at 7-0 in approval of whatever the motion was.
That included not only the discussion of rental properties and noise, the only agenda item that sparked any heat or conflicting viewpoints, but a raft of other business that the council dealt with. Along with a pro forma approval of a proclamation declaring the week of May 22-28 National Safe Boating Week, clearly timed for when on the water activity up north is getting underway, as opposed to Florida where it has been in full swing all winter.
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Collier County commissioners unanimously approved on Tuesday the replacement of 10 bridges east of Immokalee and Ave Maria for nearly $27 million.
The source of funds for the bridge replacements is the one-cent infrastructure sales tax, which was approved by voters in 2018 to enhance safety, mobility and hurricane preparedness, according to an executive summary of the project.
In Collier, bridges are replaced when they fail to meet certain standards, Marlene Messam, principal project manager with the Transportation Engineering Division, wrote in an email Tuesday.
Five bridges on Immokalee Road, four on Oil Well Road and one on Countyline Road were built between 1948 and 1953, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
All 10 bridges have a sufficiency rating lower than 80, according to FDOT data.
The bridges on Immokalee Road have annual average daily traffic, or AADT, between 3,200 and 4,635 vehicles, and the ones on Oil Well Road have an AADT of not more than 450 vehicles each, according to FDOT data. The bridge on Countyline Road has an AADT of 110 vehicles.
The new wider, sturdier bridges on Immokalee Road are designed to include wildlife shelves below them to allow animals to get across the road safely, Messam wrote.
Each new bridge will have one 12-foot travel lanes in each direction and 8-foot shoulders, Messam wrote.