Editorial: Coconut Road interchange

Let need, not fundraisers, steer I-75 improvements

Daily News

Sunday, April 23, 2006

So now we know.

An Interstate 75 interchange at Coconut Road in Estero is on a $10 million fast track not because of systematic transportation planning and priorities, but rather because of Washington-style politics.

We were naive enough to think that U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young of Alaska was impressed by sheer traffic overload when he appeared at Florida Gulf Coast University last spring as the guest of two freshmen committee members, U.S. Reps. Connie Mack IV of Fort Myers and Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami. Both represent Collier County.

They, and others connected with the transportation public forum, said Young also was impressed with FGCU's ideas for studying and solving traffic problems.

While we'll concede that I-75 does provide a living laboratory of traffic problems, the answer is more lanes rather than more study.

It seems Young was more impressed by re-election campaign contributions he gathered during his visit from people with interests in development on the east side of I-75, which depends on a Coconut overpass.

We are struck by these points:

• The obfuscation about the source and reasons for the $10 million, in a congressional transportation bill, for a study of overpass plans.

• The apparent low value placed on public money. The $10 million earmark cost the local business interests only $42,000 in donations, public records show.

• The absence of requests by Mack and Diaz-Balart for corrections when we repeatedly praised them for their hard work in securing $81 million in other I-75 funding included in the same transportation bill.

We believe we know what most motorists think of traffic on I-75. They think it's unconscionable and they know the widening is years overdue. We're not sure what they think of another intersection to interrupt the smooth traffic flow between the Bonita Beach and Corkscrew roads exits.

Now we'd like to know what officials from Lee County and its municipalities, such as Bonita Springs and Cape Coral, think about the background of the Coconut overpass — a project which they rejected twice before coming around only last month. Members gave in to the pro-business drum-beating set into motion by the $10 million earmark. Will Lee's Metropolitan Planning Organization stick to its criteria of need and available funding to prioritize road projects? Will the MPO care that Coconut-I-75 worked its way up the list by working the system?

As Estero civic leader Don Eslick puts it: Will Washington-style power brokering be allowed to corrupt home rule?

© 2005 Bonita Daily News and The Banner. Published in Bonita Springs, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.