Yeah, you definitely gotta do your searches for both spellings of the name (Hallman vs Hallmann). This piece is from the same publication as the last letter in the post above (from earlier the same year), mentions the same intersection/community entrance and the same woman, but her name is spelled with only one "N" this time.
Scroll down towards the very end for the mention.
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By JOHN HENDERSON,
jfhenderson@naplesnews.comSunday, March 13, 2005
Each morning, Leon Normand gets a bird's-eye view of a parking lot stacked with a seemingly endless stream of dump trucks and cars.
Normand, who works at Subway in Golden Gate Estates, isn't referring to the actual parking lot outside of that shop at G's General Store.
He's talking about Immokalee Road.
"At about 7 o'clock in the morning, I call it 'The Immokalee Road parking lot.' That's what it is," he said.
As he sees it, traffic has doubled in the five years he's worked at the store at the intersection of Oil Well and Immokalee roads.
"They are building all these things and no one ever thought about roads," he said.
Residents making the rush-hour commute into Naples say a trip of 10 miles or less can often take an hour to 90 minutes. And that's without an accident or inclement weather.
Collier County officials acknowledge that the two-lane road, one of two primary links between Golden Gate Estates and Naples, is way beyond capacity. Several road projects are in the planning stages to ease the burden on Immokalee Road, but are years away. Some are conceptual lines on a map and may never come to fruition.
County officials say growth in the Estates occurred much faster than projections. Little commercial development is planned there, meaning residents have to travel west for basic shopping needs.
Eugene Calvert, interim director of the county's Transportation Engineering and Construction Management Division, said a lack of central water and sewage services in the Estates is a factor.
"You can't have a big restaurant out there on a septic tank," he said.
Joseph Quinty, a county transportation planner, said growth in the Estates is far ahead of projections in the long-range plan, with traffic volumes exceeding what was expected in 2015 and beyond.
"Basically, (the plan) had very little happening at all east of 951 (Collier Boulevard)," he said.
County traffic counts show that, from 1999 to 2003, there's been a more than 84 percent increase in average daily traffic measured on Immokalee Road west of Collier Boulevard. Traffic on Immokalee Road east of the interstate has spiked more than 55 percent; south of Oil Well Road on Immokalee Road it's jumped almost 63 percent.
Quinty said there could be a variety of reasons, including the quest for affordable housing.
"You've got folks coming over from the Miami area who want a single-family home," he said.
Transportation officials say they are trying to cope.
Plans call for widening Immokalee Road in various phases to six lanes from U.S. 41 to Oil Well Road. But the earliest any of the sections are expected to be ready — if all goes as planned — is 2½ years.
Immokalee Road widening from Collier Boulevard to 43rd Avenue Northeast is under way, and according to county officials, ahead of schedule. But it isn't slated to be complete until 2008. Collier Boulevard to Oil Well Road will go from two lanes to six, and Oil Well Road to 43rd Avenue Northeast from two lanes to four.
The opening of another lane in this project area could ease some gridlock, Calvert said. County officials plan to add a westbound lane in August or September between Collier Boulevard and Oil Well Road, which they say could help the morning commute into Naples.
County officials are discussing other possible improvements and extensions of Estates roads to help relieve Immokalee Road and Golden Gate Boulevard, the corridors people most often take into Naples for shopping, work and entertainment.
But these are long-term proposals, and some may never overcome permitting hurdles and opposition from residents.
A study is under way of possibly extending Vanderbilt Beach Road east to Wilson Boulevard. County officials acknowledge this idea has hurdles and may never happen.
"This is just a study at this point. We don't have any alignment," said Connie Deane, community liaison for the Collier County transportation division.
County officials are concerned that gridlock could grow even worse along the stretch of Immokalee Road between Collier Boulevard and Interstate 75 due to planned new development.
This past Tuesday, the County Commission agreed to advertise for firms to make "design-build" offers to widen this stretch to six lanes. The process can often get lanes built more quickly than hiring different companies for each of these tasks.
"We can cut off six months to a year (in completing the project) with design-build," Calvert said.
Two major stores planned near the I-75 interchange could add thousands of cars into the congested mix. A Super Target will be built at the southeast corner of Immokalee Road and I-75.
The developer has agreed to give the county 2 acres along I-75, which could be used by the Department of Transportation to build a cloverleaf on-ramp from eastbound Immokalee Road onto northbound I-75. Two left-turn lanes could be eliminated under the interstate, allowing all of Immokalee Road to be six lanes. A Wal-Mart Supercenter is under construction on the southwest corner of Immokalee Road and I-75.
Calvert said widening of the westbound lanes between Collier Boulevard and I-75 could occur as early as August or mid-October of this year, but the time frame will depend on the design-build proposal submitted. He said the entire project, including the new interchange, could be finished within 2½ years after work starts.
He said because this phase involves a newly designed interchange, the county is working closely with the state DOT to help secure money for it.
Another segment of Immokalee Road that will become six lanes is from the interstate to U.S. 41.
The County Commission on Tuesday approved a bid package of $26.9 million for the project, which is expected to begin in April and be completed in December 2007.
Drivers heading into Naples on Immokalee Road from the Estates often make a left turn once they reach Collier Boulevard. A widening project south to Golden Gate Boulevard is slated to begin this fall, and will take 2½ years to complete.
To offer another potential east-west alternative for Estates residents to get into town, the county is studying the possibility of building an extension of Green Boulevard to Livingston Road, which could include an overpass over the interstate.
"That is in the very early stages," said Quinty, the transportation planner. "We have plans; we're studying it. But we don't have a dime to do anything but study it." A study is also under way for a possible southerly extension of Wilson Boulevard that could go as far south as Landfill Road or hook into different east-west Estates roads.
Quinty said based on residents' comments, a proposal that is picking up steam calls for a connection between 16th Avenue Southwest and Green Boulevard.
But again, none of these scenarios will provide an alternative route into Naples in the immediate future.
"We don't have any money for the improvements," he said, adding that they could be a decade or more from becoming reality.
Another project that could potentially offer an alternative route for Estates residents into Naples is a new interchange at Everglades Boulevard along the portion of I-75 known as Alligator Alley. County officials are lobbying for the interchange.
They, as well as Golden Gate Estates residents, say the new interchange is critical to relieving traffic congestion on the few roads that allow residents to travel into Naples.
But convincing state and federal officials to build it could be difficult — a condition of approval for Alligator Alley in the late 1980s and early 1990s — was that no new interchanges would be built.
Congestion on Immokalee Road also has created a dangerous situation for some residents trying to pull out into the stream of traffic using the highway.
To head west on Immokalee Road, Saturnia Lakes residents have to dart across two busy lanes of traffic. Often, they wait in the median until they can squeeze into a westbound lane. The construction entrance in the back of the community, which residents were using to exit onto Logan Boulevard, recently was closed.
Sheri Mausen, a Collier sheriff's spokeswoman who lives in the community, said to avoid congestion of westbound Immokalee Road, she often travels east on Immokalee Road after leaving her community.
"I have to backtrack," she said, explaining this route: east on Immokalee Road, south on Collier Boulevard, west on Vanderbilt Beach Road to the Sheriff's Office at Airport-Pulling Road and U.S. 41 East. She said even that drive on Tuesday took an hour one way, and there were no accidents.
Residents of the Orangetree subdivision off Immokalee Road also have problems.
Transportation officials recently posted a sign notifying people that the left turn from Orangetree Boulevard onto Immokalee Road from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays is prohibited. To avoid backups at traffic lights on Immokalee at Oil Well Road and Randall Boulevard, drivers in several communities have been traveling through the Orangetree community of Citrus Greens, then turning left onto Immokalee Road through the Orangetree Boulevard entrance, which doesn't have a traffic light.
As of this past Monday, an illegal turn there could bring a ticket of $115 or more. Two sheriff's patrol cars and motorcycle officers were posted there and an electronic billboard notified drivers not to turn.
Some Citrus Greens residents are miffed that they can no longer turn out of their own community.
Norma Hallman wants signs posted notifying those who don't live in Citrus Greens that they will be ticketed for using that community's exit.
"I pay dues in there, and that entrance was there when I purchased my home," she said.The domino effect of closing that exit at rush hour Monday was that cars backed up for miles with drivers trying to turn westbound on Immokalee Road at the Randall Boulevard traffic signal.
And all that maneuvering just for the opportunity to sit during rush hour in the parking lot known as Immokalee Road.
