Thousands of street signs in Cape Coral still need repairs after Ian

Street signs ripped down by Hurricane Ian add to the problems that remain after the storm. Eight thousand stop signs are down in Cape Coral. For months the Cape has been working to replace them.

Progress has been made in getting all the signs back to where they belong, but city leaders wanted the stop signs repaired in six weeks; that was back in December.

Cape Coral took a beating from the hurricane, and the scars from that storm are still evident, especially when you drive around the city, as street signs still need repair.

“Here in the Cape, it’s just everywhere. I mean, it seems like they’re really behind on getting these up,” said Jim Miller, who lives in Cape Coral.

There was a lot of damage to the city’s road signs. 80% of the city’s 57,000 signs were damaged, with 8,000 being stop signs.

WINK News followed a crew from Broward County in December as they repaired those signs. As of Tuesday, January 31, nearly 5,000 stop signs have been fixed, with 3,000 still to go.

“They’re still laying on the ground, a lot of them. Over in our neighborhood, there are still stop signs that aren’t erect yet,” said Miller.

People who live and work at the intersection of Country Club and SE 10th Street want to see the no u-turn or left-turn sign reinstalled. They said it was damaged in the storm; without those signs, there is confusion.

“You would think there should be a turn lane there because the store’s right there. And I think that’s the reason why people do turn. They think they can,” said Danielle Simpson.

Also being looked at are traffic lights. The 81 signals in the city are managed and maintained by the county. Nearly every single intersection has been repaired, and those efforts will continue. That effort includes timing adjustments.