Barfield-Collier Intersection Opens Ahead of Schedule

It’s not often you hear about major roadwork finishing early, but the Collier Boulevard-Barfield Drive intersection project did just that. Marco Island public works director Justin Martin was justifiably proud when the intersection reopened on Friday, July 10.

"Notice to proceed was issued in September of last year,” Martin said, "and it was supposed to take a year. It finished ahead of schedule and on budget. The reason it was scheduled for a year is because the project involved a substantial amount of underground water main and reclaimed water main work. There are now new water mains underneath all that asphalt pavement. The previous pipes were very brittle. They were installed in the 1970s. That work extended the contract time for the project. That's why it was scheduled for a year. But the contractor did a good job and we kept things on schedule. We were very responsive when questions came up and came up with solutions to resolve issues to keep the project moving forward. So that paid off, and we finished two and a half months ahead of schedule."

Martin is happy for everyone who was inconvenienced by the project.

"Especially the people that live on Fairlawn and Waikiki,” he said. “We’re glad things are going back to normal now. There was disruptions to people that lived on Collier where the cones were. Some of the mail carriers didn't want to deliver and navigate the cones. So they had to pick up their mail from the post office.”

Martin is confident that the new intersection will greatly improve traffic flow at the intersection.

“The intersection project at Barfield and Collier was a much needed thing,” he said. "It'll pay dividends in season. We've got a turn lane on Collier that's triple the length of the one that was there before. That's what caused all the traffic backups in the past during season, all that left turn traffic would stack up in the short turn lane and then spill over into the southbound lanes of Collier, causing vehicles to go around it and causing backups. Now you have a long left turn lane, which has enough room for all those vehicles to queue and stack in and not be blocking the southbound Collier Boulevard lanes. That's the key. And we've added a dedicated thru lane on Barfield where it used to be a shared left turn and thru lane where you could either turn left or go through. If you were the one going through and you had a car that was turning left in front of you, you had to wait until that car finished turning before you could go straight. You don't have to do that anymore. You now have your own lane to go through. It gets traffic moving through the intersection.”