- January 3, 2025
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From residents to commissioners, citizens of Manatee County agree on one thing: Traffic can be tough.
However, each new year brings with it new and continuing road projects, and 2025 is no exception.
Over the course of the next year, paving and base construction of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard will begin, and construction on 44th Avenue East will come to an end.
Ogden Clark, Public Works’ communications coordinator, said that while the county’s website says the 44th Avenue East extension will be complete in spring 2026, the work is ahead of schedule.
“We’re very optimistic,” Clark said. “With how fast (the construction company) moved, I feel pretty confident in saying they’re going to be done by the end of this year.”
The 44th Avenue East extension is over a decade in the making. Construction began at U.S. 41 in 2013. When finished, motorists will be able to drive over Interstate 75 to reach Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.
With a capacity of 36,000 vehicles per day, the county estimates the finished extension will relieve State Road 64 and State Road 70 of about 21,000 vehicles per day, combined.
“That will be huge,” Clark said. “(In December), we’ll probably be ready to have it open.”
Of the six projects to complete the extension, the county is down to the final two. The 3.27-mile corridor from 45th Street East to west of Interstate 75 is substantially complete and open to traffic.
Construction of a dedicated right turn lane at the southwest corner of 44th Avenue East and 45th Street East will begin early this year.
The final leg includes an overpass that crosses the interstate, a bridge that will cross a lake at the Southeast Water Reclamation Facility and a roundabout at Lena Road. Construction of the overpass started in December 2023.
When complete, it will be a four-lane curbed roadway with a divided median, sidewalk, multi-use trail and bike lanes.
At the end of October, the county secured a two-year, $140 million non-revolving line of credit, $36 million of which was earmarked for the final leg of the 44th Avenue East extension.
In the first nine months of 2025, the remaining credit will fund improvements to Upper Manatee River Road, the 51st Street West extension, three baseball fields at Country Club East Park and the second floor buildout at the Lakewood Ranch Library.
“The bridge (over Interstate 75) is almost done,” Commissioner Jason Bearden said. “That’s going to be a game changer. It’s going to be a great East-West reliever.”
Work on the Lena Road roundabout is just beginning. On Dec. 10, commissioners executed an agreement with Kiewit Infrastructure South CO for the work to be completed within 142 calendar days at a maximum cost of $3,307,946.92.
While the roundabout is part of the 44th Avenue extension project, the connection of Lena Road from State Road 64 to State Road 70 was placed on a “deferred list” of projects in August.
Construction of Lena Road from the roundabout at 44th Avenue East to State 64 will happen in three phases. The first phase will start from the roundabout. The second phase will start from State Road 64, and the third phase will fill in the middle.
Originally slated to be finished by the end of 2026, Clark said drivers shouldn’t expect that connection to be made until 2030 now.
While Lakewood Ranch Boulevard saw some patchwork improvements in 2024, the real work will begin sometime over the summer.
The base and asphalt will be fully reconstructed on the 2.9-mile corridor from University Parkway to State Road 70.
The crosswalks will be enhanced with new striping, and the sidewalk will be repaired where repairs are necessary.
“The base really came apart on that section of the roadway,” Clark said. “It’s nice to have all that landscaping in the middle of the roadway, but over time, all that water kills the asphalt and makes the road less functional.”
Clark described driving Lakewood Boulevard as bouncy, almost like you’re driving on a sponge. When finished, the road will be brand new.
Accordingly, the work will be much more labor intensive than simply pouring asphalt. Motorists should expect extended lane closures during construction, which is anticipated to be complete before the end of 2026.
The cost to rebuild the nearly 3-mile corridor of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard is approximately $16 million.
The inside lanes of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard from State Road 70 to State Road 64 are scheduled to be rebuilt in 2027. The inside and outside lanes were constructed more than 10 years apart.
The outside lanes were reconstructed from 2017 to 2019. The estimated cost to reconstruct the inside lanes is $13.7 million and is expected to be finished by the end of 2028.
