MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (SNN TV) — With the scoop of some shovels, the final and most expensive part of the 44th East Avenue project began Monday morning.
“We’ve been working on this for over 30 years and now we’re at this point where we’re looking to go over I-75,” said Manatee County Commissioner At-Large Jason Bearden.
The 44th East Avenue Extension Project was incorporated into Manatee County’s 1989 Comprehensive Plan.
The first of six parts began in 2013. Four parts have been completed so far, with a fifth to be completed this February.
This sixth part will add an I-75 overpass to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, making it the most expensive part of the project at $160 million.
“There are a lot of material pieces. We got the pylons for the flyover and so forth, and some of that takes time to get done,” said Manatee County Commissioner At-Large George Kruse.
The goal is to alleviate traffic from the two main state roads as population growth continues. On the project’s website, Manatee County said the full 44th Avenue East project will reduce traffic on State Roads 64 and 70 by a combined 21,000 vehicles per day.
“We’ve got to plan for the future,” said Manatee County Commissioner Ray Turner of District 5. He added that this part of the project will be a boon for his constituents who get stuck on the two state roads.
“The main artery is State Road 64 and State Road 70,” he said. “With the expansion and everything [developing] further east, we have a lot of people moving up and down these corridors.”
“If at any point of time we see jam traffic on [State Roads] 64 or 70, they’ll be able to use this 44th extension to get to the beach,” Bearden said.
The commissioner added that the road would head all the way to Beach House, an Anna Maria restaurant.
Why has this taken so long? Besides delays with COVID, we were told it’s due to the commission figuring out which project makes the most sense at a given time.
“We can’t just focus 100% of our dollars and 100% of our time on one road for some people,” Kruse said. “In theory, did we have all of the dollars to build all of this and maybe have been done five years ago? Sure, but it would be at the expense of other parts of Manatee County.”
Work will be conducted Monday through Friday between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The anticipated completion date for the I-75 overpass to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard is spring of 2026.