What to expect when the Airport-Pulling Road extension progresses

Traveling along Airport-Pulling Road between Immokalee and Vanderbilt Beach Roads can cause considerable congestion in the vicinity of Pelican Marsh Elementary School and several residential areas.

By increasing the number of lanes on this section of Airport-Pulling Road from four to six, the Collier County Transportation Management Services Department is now attempting to address this problem, according to a recent article by Bella Line of Fox4.

“We naturally want to assist whenever we have increased capacity or anticipate increased traffic,” stated Connie Deane of the Community Laison, Collier County Transportation Management Services Department. “We need to add the ability to take care of that capacity.”

The current 30% plan calls for the extension to extend inward toward the median, with a budget of more than $34 million. According to Deane, the new concept enhances the existing sidewalks and traffic signals in addition to enlarging the roadway.

There are some worries, nevertheless, for a lot of people who reside close to Airport-Pulling Road.

Joanne Ziccarelli, a resident of Crescent Lake Estates, stated, “There will be more traffic, and our concern is that the school, which is right in front of my community, will be an active light year-round, not only during the school year. Otherwise, we are stuck in our community and we can’t get out because there is such major traffic jams on Airport now.”

Many attendees of the public meeting on Tuesday expressed excitement about the revisions, but with some reservations to Fox 4’s Bella Line.

A member of the Pelican Marsh Foundation, Russ Gomes, stated, “Our concern is sound mitigation, which they have currently started a study on, so we need to make sure that the noise level hitting the community is reasonable.”

When all is said and done, Deane says, it might take until the end of 2027 to see the road extension.

This article originally appeared on Fox4