Lee County Answers to Traffic Concerns

As you are aware, the HOA Board has been looking into holding a Town Hall meeting to discuss issues surrounding our community. The Lee County Sheriff’s Department, and our traffic consultant agree to participate in a Town Hall meeting.

Unfortunately, the Lee County Department of Transportation (DOT) did not want to participate. This department is the one that will be making decisions regarding improving the safe exiting of our community.

Lee County DOT did ask the community to provide a sample of questions our residents might ask at a Town Hall meeting. We provided a list of 14 questions. Please click on the following link to read their responses along with pictures of our existing gate. 

• Why is the median so narrow?

• The median is 22’ wide. That is typical median width per the Florida Greenbook, and we did not change it from existing. The median has been 22’ wide since it was originally constructed in 2012. We did not change the median opening at all. See image below of current linework with 2012 aerial. The median was already “finished” with the previous widening in 2012. We only reset the median curb at a different elevation (exact same horizontal location) to provide cross slope correction. The primary improvement in front of Wildcat run was widening approximately 6’ on the outside to make room for 2 thru lanes in each direction. The median may seem narrow at Wildcat Run as it is wider in others to account for future 6 laning. From firehouse lane west the new median is the same 22’ feet. When the roadway is 6 laned in the future, it will all be 22’ wide.  Widening of Corkscrew Road in front of Wildcat Run will require shifting the roadway to the north due to a lack of sufficient ROW to the south as addressed in response to another question. 

• How do we limit the number of cars in the median at the same time?
• I have had discussions with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office regarding this item.  There used to be a statute that prohibited multiple cars from a side street entering the median at the same time.  It appears that statute may have been modified or eliminated.  We would like to see what happens when the roadway construction is complete.  We will monitor this item closely after opening day, and if a safety issue arises we will address it.  Our options for addressing a demonstrated safety issue would be to add some signage exiting Wildcat Run, add some markings within the median, or to eliminate the left turn out of Wildcat Run.  Our preference is not to close the left turn out for Wildcat Run because we believe the maneuver can be made in a safe and efficient manner.  Adding signage and/or markings through a traffic regulation order would be enforceable by the LCSO, so that is an option if a safety issue arises.  We will schedule some monitoring periodically of the intersection over the course of the year.

• Can we have a u-turn lane closer to our exit to the east?
• At this time, there is no plan to provide a u-turn opportunity closer to Wildcat Run.  The nearest u-turn location to Wildcat Run is approximately 0.5 miles to the east at the intersection of Wild Blue/River Creek intersection.  Placing another u-turn movement between the two driveways would introduce potential concerns with traffic from Wildcat Run weaving across traffic in short distances, and this may create unnecessary safety issues.  We feel that the roadway as designed and currently being constructed is safer.

• What determines if we can have a traffic light?
• Traffic signals are evaluated by the County.  We rely upon the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) for guidance on where traffic signals are appropriate.  We have reviewed the traffic volumes generated by the Wildcat Run numerous times at the request of your community.  Most recently, the intersection was evaluated by the County’s design consultant through the design of Corkscrew Road.  The truth is that your community does not meet the minimum warrants to consider signalization.  Unless there were significant changes within your community that significantly increased the amount of trips generated consistently from Wildcat Run, we do not anticipate the signal warrants to ever be met.  If safety became an issue with the operation of your driveway to Corkscrew Road, it would most likely be related to left turn traffic.  In that case, our first inclination would be to restrict the left turning movements to/from Wildcat Run if that would address the safety issues.  Any consideration of signalization of the intersection would require minimum warrants be met.  If those warrants were ever met, it would be at the expense of the Wildcat Run development to design and construct the traffic signal. 

• How soon will Wild Blue have a traffic light?
• It is unclear when the intersection of Wild Blue/River Crossing will be signalized.  We have been working with the Developers of both communities to achieve future signalization of the intersection at their expense.  A recent Zoning action for Wild Blue incorporated a requirement of participation in signalization of the intersection at such time as warrants are met.  We have asked the two communities to work together to achieve signalization of the intersection at their expense.  To date, there is no schedule to signalize the intersection, but the County has received preliminary analyses that show the intersection is likely to meet signal warrants.  We also have received rough plans for signalization of the intersection for review.

• Who owns the land between West bound Corkscrew and Grandezza?
• It is not completely clear which land you are referencing.  There is a vacant, wooded piece of property on the north side of Corkscrew Road that separates Wild Blue from the developed portions of Grandezza.  This land is owned by the Grandezza Property Owners Association.

• Why is there no acceleration lane going west from our gate?
• Acceleration lanes are rarely used nowadays on non-freeway roadways unless you have specific users (i.e. large trucks) that cannot accelerate quickly.  Our experience with acceleration lanes is that they tend to function as additional stacking areas on the roadway and not as actual acceleration lanes.  They actually result in more crashes and a safety concern.  You tend to get a high number of rear end collisions in acceleration lanes.  The acceleration lane that is present on Corkscrew Road at Firehouse Lane was designed and constructed previously when these roadway treatments were more accepted, but that lane was added in response to the need to provide the ability for school buses exiting the elementary school to accelerate and enter the through lanes.

• Why is the roads so jammed-up at our entrance?
• I believe what you are seeing is the biproduct of the construction activity that is occurring along Corkscrew Road.  There is a need to provide additional capacity on Corkscrew Road in response to the growth that has occurred in the area.  That is the reason the roadway is currently being widened.  A two-lane roadway (i.e. one lane in each direction) is not enough to handle the demand of Corkscrew Road any longer, so traffic bunches up along the corridor.  Our opinion is that once the four-laning from Bella Terra Boulevard to Ben Hill Griffin Parkway is completed, you should see some relief from this phenomenon.  However, that does not mean that there will be long stretches during peak hour travel where there is not some level of congestion on the roadway.

• With 25,000 new homes going in east of us today's problem can only get worse…never better.
• We have several projects intending to address growth in the area.  Primarily, the Alico Connector Project is currently under design.  Additionally, the County has other widening phases under varying stages of planning for Corkscrew Road including future four-laning east of Alico Road to the County Line along with future six-laning phases of Corkscrew Road.  To date, only the Alico Connector project is funded for construction.  We recently awarded the contract to widen Corkscrew Road from Bella Terra Boulevard to Alico Road, so construction of this phase will begin construction this year.  Finally, the Kingston development is providing a new roadway that will ultimately be County maintained that will connect Corkscrew Road to SR 82 through their project, and we anticipate this roadway to provide some relief to Corkscrew Road by providing additional ways in and out of the community as opposed to having all of their traffic access Corkscrew Road only.

• Cars pass our gate going east at 55 to 60 MPH…too dangerous.
• Enforcement issues should be directed to the LCSO.  I understand that they have been performing regular, targeted enforcement operations along this stretch of Corkscrew Road throughout the construction activity.

• Cars turning right into our entrance block the sites of cars exiting, why wasn’t this addressed?
• You have similar conditions on every road at every access point that includes right turn lanes. The stop bar is set where it is to accommodate the Village of Estero’s pending construction of a 10’ multi-use path along the frontage of Wildcat Run and to the west and east within the Village limits.  The stop bar must be 4’ in front of that future pathway.  Line of sight is not measured from the stop bar location.  It is measured from a point 14.5’ from the edge of the intersecting travel way.  It is expected that vehicles exiting Wildcat Run will stop at the stop bar to provide safety to the future users of the shared use pathway, and then vehicles are expected to creep forward to safely see on-coming traffic.

• What happens to our entrance when you add another lane?  Will we be forced to move our gate house?   Who pays?
• The future widening will likely be to the north and not affect the Wildcat Run gate house. The original design (done in 2006-ish) never anticipated 6 laning east of the powerlines. The median was constructed as a 4-lane 22’ buildout in 2012.  In this stretch any future 6 laning would need to be to the outside as there was no room in the median.  Knowing this was going to be a problem, our design team looked at a northerly future widening per the linework in yellow below. This would hold the south edge of pavement (i.e. does not move the road any closer to Wildcat Run) and pushed the future 6 lane construction to the north side of the ROW. The Village’s pathway improvements have been set up with this in mind.  They will be piping that north side ditch and we are pushing the path far enough north to leave room for future lanes.

• What is the safest way to exit our community going west?
• It really depends on the driver.  Some drivers may feel perfectly safe making the two-stage left turn to enter Corkscrew Road going westbound.  Other drivers may feel safer performing a right turn and a u-turn at the Wild Blue/River Crossing intersection.  We feel both maneuvers can be performed safely.  The perception can also change based on the time of day depending on traffic conditions.

• Is channeling an option?
• I assume you are referring to adding a channelizing island in the middle of the median to deter multiple drivers from Wildcat Run stacking in the median to complete the second stage of the left turn.  Unfortunately, channelizing the median and still keeping full turning movements is not feasible due to the width of the landscaped median on the Wildcat Run entrance.  The median is wide, so there needs to be enough space for the entering and exiting drivers such that they can appropriately make their turning maneuvers.  Any concrete island added in the median while still preserving full turning movements would be a very small island, and due to the small size it would become more of an obstruction and safety issue.  If the question is whether we could channelize the median to restrict left turns out of  Wildcat Run, that certainly could be possible while preserving inbound left turning traffic, but we would not propose to restrict left turns out of the community unless it became a safety issue.