$194 Million Road Planned

Expensive Road Planned For LaBelle

LABELLE, FL. -- The Florida Department of Transportation showed off its
plans for rebuilding SR80 from Port LaBelle to US27 Thursday night at the
LaBelle Civic Center. The project to widen SR80 to four lanes begins at
Birchwood Parkway in Port LaBelle and continues eastward nearly 20 miles to
US 27. The project is to cost $194 million or almost $10 million per mile.
Twelve percent of the cost is for engineering inspections, while eight
percent is for design costs. So about $2 million per mile will go for
inspections and design costs. The costs for the road are not currently
funded, but construction will be expected after righ-of-way acquisitions are
completed, around 2008.

The DOT says now about two million vehicles travel the road yearly and say
they expect about eight million yearly by 2030. If the road is completed by
2010 and in use for 20 years, the costs of this four-laning ($194M) will
amount to about $2 per vehicle trip along this 20 mile stretch assuming an
average of about five million yearly trips over the 20 years and not
including maintenance costs.