Fort Hamer Road extension opens to motorists
An extension of Fort Hamer Road officially opened to the public on Friday, completing a chain of road construction projects that connect motorists from Parrish to Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota County without without having to detour to Interstate 75 or U.S. 301.
The newly opened road is a feather in the cap of the many Manatee County and Neal Land and Neighborhoods officials, staff and partners who gathered Friday morning to celebrate the project at a ribbon cutting ceremony.
"Now that we have this section open, it's the longest north-south road east of the interstate," Neal Land and Neighborhoods President John Neal said. "It is a huge reliever. We shouldn't have to get on the interstate in order to drive north and south in this county."
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Neal said the road could potentially extend even farther north in the future, potentially as far as Hillsborough County, if long-term growth plans in Manatee and Hillsborough ever come to fruition.
Manatee County Chairman Kevin Van Ostenbridge and District 1 Commissioner James Satcher spoke during the event, praising the public-private partnership between Neal and the county for keeping construction costs at a low $16 million price.
The Neal family has been involved seven transportation projects since 2006, including the Honore Avenue extension between Sarasota and Venice, an expansion on U.S. 301, and more.
"Unlike Lakewood Ranch where you have one family and they have five square miles and they could plan the entire thing, this was a cluster of large ranches and farms that turned into, most of the time, gated communities that didn't have connectivity," Van Ostenbridge said. "So connecting Parrish became crucial; there's no way that the county could have done that in the amount of time that was needed without the cooperation of local land owners and local developers."
Satcher simply cheered the fact that the Parrish community now has a new road to help alleviate traffic.
"We are opening a road," Satcher said. "I'm just being honest with you: I've been here a long time and to have a significant thoroughfare road, to have it opening up today, and we are going to see cars moving through. People will be spending more time with their family, more time relaxing, getting to work easier and being more productive. You couldn't ask for anything better."
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Key Manatee County Fort Hamer Road extension opens to motorists
