The grade-separated intersection at Colonial Boulevard and U.S. 41 in Fort Myers.

Lee County is regarded as one the leading communities in adopting a comprehensive traffic strategy. Here’s one example:

Lee County has made good use to date of grade-separated intersections. 

Further, the county has under design for the Metro Parkway and Colonial Boulevard intersection tolled lanes that pass over the intersections. 

The use of grade-separated through lanes at intersections represents a compromise that provides significantly increased capacity to the roadway network while having significantly less impact on access to adjacent properties than would a fully limited-access facility or a major widening of the arterial. 

An example of grade-separated through lanes in Lee County is shown in the accompanying photograph. 

Because they allow users to bypass at-grade congestion, these grade-separated lanes are referred to as queue jumps. Use of queue jumps will allow the county to upgrade its existing (and future) transportation facilities in a way that minimizes impacts to the surrounding land uses. It also allows the county to take advantage of the benefits of the capacity enhancement characteristics of managed lanes on its arterial roadways.               

— Editor