Street sign replacement begins on Longboat Key

What’s the deal with the temporary street signs along Longboat Key? 

Workers took down all the island’s old street signs and replaced them with temporary signs standing about three feet off the ground. It’s a project tangential to the town’s utilities undergrounding project, said Public Works Director Charlie Mopps. 

Wilco Electrical, one contractor on board for the undergrounding project, is working to replace all the street signs along Gulf of Mexico Drive with new, backlit street signs. The signs will match the black style of the new poles and lights installed along Gulf of Mexico Drive as part of the underground project. 

Construction & Facility System Manager Guy Matricciani said they will install 40 backlit street signs and six block number signs as part of this project. 

As of the town’s last undergrounding project update on March 3, the project was about $6 million under the original $49 million budget and, with some of that surplus, the town pursued the new backlit street signs. 

The project was expected to cost around $483,245. 

During the last week of April, they removed the old signs, and Mopps said the replacement work is to take place through the beginning of May.

“It should be a fairly quick job,” he said. 

Most of the sites already had electrical connections, Mopps added, which makes installation easier. 

Now, Wilco will move to install new bases and street signs throughout the coming weeks. 

This project relates to the town’s undergrounding utilities project, which is near completion after years of construction and delays. 

At the last town update on March 3, Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman said all electrical conversions were complete for the project and only a few switching orders remained. After that, the next priority would be to remove all the overhead wires and poles. 

Brownman said in his last update the project team hoped for the overhead poles and wires to be removed no later than June.

The town has been engaged in active construction for the underground project since 2019 and is now past the initial three-and-a-half-year timeline to get most of the underground infrastructure installed. 

Along the way, delays included easement acquisition, storms, supply chain issues and an oversight that caused contractors to realize later some existing underground transformers would not be compatible with the new system. 

Now, though, it looks like the project is closer to the finish line.