Traffic relief project, $20M overpass, drives forward

Sarasota County officials are advancing plans to construct an overpass across Interstate 75, with hopes that the project can be earmarked for state or federal funding.

The bridge, once constructed, would connect Lakewood Ranch Boulevard in the east to Cattlemen Road in the west, providing a new east-west connector between University Parkway and Fruitville Road. Preliminary designs show the overpass would be located just north of the southern end of the lake at Nathan Benderson Park, according to a story in the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer.

The project would cost an estimated $20.6 million.

“It's needed to provide relief to the University Parkway and Fruitville road interchanges and to help move traffic from the east and west,” says Paula Wiggins, the transportation planning manager for Sarasota County, in the East County Observer story. “This is something our transportation models have indicated is needed for the operation of the transportation network. There's very few alternatives that are available.”

The county has scheduled a public workshop for Nov. 15 on a change that adds the overpass to county planning documents. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Church of Hope, 1560 Wendell Kent Road, Sarasota.