Lee County’s Daniels Parkway Diverging Diamond: what to expect

Lee County drivers should prepare for a new construction project that could take some time.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is planning a diverging diamond interchange on Daniels Parkway, where commuters access I-75.

The bids for the Daniels Parkway diverging diamond project will open in May.

“Once we get the bids, we’ll know who the contractor is going to be and when they once it gets awarded and executed, we’ll have more information on when the actual startup construction will be,” said Juan Carrillo from FDOT.

FDOT plans to break ground sometime between August and December.

“It’s a three-year project,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo addressed concerns about the length of the project by comparing it to the ongoing construction at Colonial Boulevard, which has lasted over four years.

“The thing with Colonial is that one’s a bigger, it’s a bigger monster. That one, we had work on I-75, we had work at the intersection of Colonial and Six Mile with the continuous flow intersection. At the intersection of I-75, we did the divergent diamond, and then at the forum we did the r-cut,” said Carrillo.

The Daniels Parkway project is smaller in scale.

“This one’s just a divergent diamond. We’re going to see some backup, traffic backups like in any like any other construction project, because we have to do some traffic shifts. But the good thing is that we’re not going to reduce any capacity during the day. All the lane closures are going to happen during the night time,” Carrillo said.

When asked why this construction is beneficial, Carrillo explained the advantages.

“Diverging diamonds are good because it helps with the traffic flow. It eliminates conflict points. It increases the traffic flow by about 30 to 35% of the flow,” said Carrillo.

WINK News will update the community when construction begins, which is expected between August and the end of the year.