Collier County accepts study for improving traffic congestion along Immokalee Road in North Naples

Collier County has a roadmap for improving safety and traffic congestion along a busy section of Immokalee Road after acceptance of a corridor congestion study by commissioners.  

The Immokalee Road Corridor Congestion Study focused on a two-mile stretch of Immokalee Road between Livingston Road and Logan Boulevard in North Naples.  

“The growth projections between now and 2040, that capacity is going to be reaching critical levels,” said Bill Gramer, a consultant with Jacobs Engineering. “Something is going to have to be done at these intersections.” 

The need for the study and improvements along Immokalee Road are obvious as drivers are already experiencing delays along the corridor, Gramer said. 

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Traffic volume is expected to grow by 67% by 2040 along the corridor, Gramer told commissioners.  

“As you know, Immokalee (Road) is a critical east-west network for your overall roadway network,” Gramer said. “It also provides the northernmost connection to I-75.” 

The study evaluated conventional solutions, such as adding or extending travel lanes, and non-conventional solutions for improving seven intersections along the corridor. Public safety, crash history and design constraints were used to analyze and develop recommendations for improving the intersections, Gramer said.  

“One of the first things we came up with is adaptive traffic signalization,” Gramer said. “What this does is it ties the signals in the corridor together. This way you can adjust traffic in real time as opposed to the signals just being preprogrammed.” 

If there is an incident at one of the intersections, the adaptive traffic system will adjust traffic signals to help eliminate delays, Gramer said.  

Commissioners approved the installation of the adaptive traffic system and unanimously voted to accept the study at their Tuesday meeting. Installation of the adaptive traffic system will begin in November. 

Commissioners' approval also allowed for modifications to begin on the Immokalee Road westbound right-turn lane and shoulder area to create a right-turn lane for the entire corridor. This portion of the project will be done in phases by 2025.  

The study recommends the county pursue construction of an overpass on Livingston Road that will go over Immokalee Road by 2025.  

"Conventional intersection improvements are not going to work at this intersection,” Gramer said.  

The study recommends two other non-conventional solutions at the intersections of Immokalee Road and Interstate 75 and Immokalee Road and Logan Boulevard.  

By 2040, the plan recommends construction of a diverging diamond interchange at the intersection of Immokalee Road and I-75. This project would be coordinated with the Florida Department of Transportation and be similar to what was recently approved by commissioners for the I-75 interchange at Pine Ridge Road.  

In addition to restriping lanes at the intersection and adding a second westbound on-ramp to I-75 north on Immokalee Road, the diverging diamond project would cost $9 million. The Livingston Road overpass project would cost $38 million, according to the study.  

The third non-conventional solution recommended in the study is the construction of partial displaced left-hand turn lanes at the intersection of Immokalee Road and Logan Boulevard.  

“It looks odd, but it functions very well,” Gramer said. “It's not going to be one of the immediate projects. It will probably be one of the last projects to come online.” 

Conventional solutions recommended by the study include adding or extending travel lanes at the intersections of Immokalee Road and Strand Boulevard/Juliet Boulevard, Northbrook Drive/Tarpon Bay Boulevard, Oakes Boulevard and Valewood Drive.

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In total, all of the recommendations in the study would cost $82.3 million. Commissioners will have to approve funding allocations for each recommendation in the study through the annual budget process and adoption of the county’s Capital Improvement Plan each year.   

"We are recommending continued public involvement and coordination through all the additional phases of design and construction,” said Lorraine Lantz, a principal planner with the county.  

To create the study, county staff and Jacobs Engineering reached out to the community online via a survey and virtual public meeting. 

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“The feedback was pretty good for the overall project,” Gramer said.  “Most people understand there is a need out there and understand something has to be done.”  

Commissioner Burt Saunders said he remembers being at a public meeting in February 2020 where traffic issues on Immokalee Road were discussed by members of the audience.  

“We promised the audience we would start a corridor study for Immokalee Road just like we had done with Pine Ridge Road and that fixes were going to be on the way,” Saunders said. “These are things that have to be done. This is a project that directly affects three county commission districts, but it indirectly affects all of us. Just like Pine Ridge Road this is a very, very important corridor.”