Signs warn drivers to slow down on SR-82, changes in the future

IMMOKALEE, Fla. – The last deadly crash on State Road 82 was the last straw for emergency responders and even people who drive the road every day.

“There’s always something new being added to 82 when it comes to memorials,” Rick Maus said.

Maus and his family live right off of the notoriously dangerous SR-82. In his front yard, he’s posted signs begging drivers who use his side street as a safer alternative to SR-82 to slow down. His children are only allowed to play in the backyard because of the excessive speed on Meadow Road. He’s built a fence and planted trees that he hopes will grow into an added barrier from the highway.

“When I put my fence up in the backyard, I had to stay within 25-feet of my property because of the potential expanding to 82 one day,” Maus explained.

He says he would like to see two lanes going each way on SR-82. At the intersection of Corkscrew Road, improvements are already underway.

“In a short time, in a few months, that intersection should be under construction,” Immokalee Fire Chief Paul Anderson, Jr. said. Right now, an environmental study is being done.

After a number of deadly crash, signs telling drivers to be more alert have started popping up.

“I think it makes an impact, it made you stop and look at them so other people stop and look at them, realize them,” Maus said. “But for the most part people who don’t pay much attention to them and take this road everyday, that’s not going to phase them.”

Chief Anderson says he’s already seen an improvement on SR-82 in the last month now that Collier County deputies and Florida Highway Patrol are on the lookout.

“There’s usually deputies out there at all hours of the day and night.”

Chief Anderson plans to meet with county officials in late December to discuss the expansion of SR-82. Right now, construction is slated to begin in 2020. He hopes to divert funding from other road projects to SR-82 to get the project started by as early as next year.