Crews ready to spruce up medians on Corkscrew Road

Medians decked and trimmed in time for the holidays are the newest additions drivers will see along Estero's future main street.

This week crews with contracting company Big Tree in Fort Myers plan to begin planting about $200,000 worth of vegetation in the medians along a 1-mile section of Corkscrew Road that stretches from Sandy Lane to Three Oaks Parkway.

"It looks a lot better with shrubbery and ground cover," Big Tree President Kit Block said. "You actually get to see it and enjoy it."

The project is the second phase of a continuing venture with Lee County to beautify the road.

Big Tree began working on the road about eight months ago, installing drip irrigation systems and a pump for the water supply.

The second phase will expand the landscaping and build upon the current trees in the medians.

"We are just enhancing what is existing there," Block said.

About 30 landscapers will plant an additional 185 trees and 700 shrubs, Block said.

The plants include such varieties as 152 oleander shrubs, evergreen plants known for long leaves and bright blooms, and 22 dahoon holly shrubs, a native plant with shiny, dark green leaves and red berries.

Landscapers also will incorporate 45 bald cypress trees, 33 live oak trees, 140 sabal palms, 36 key thatch palms, and seven paurotis palms.

The paurotis palms were the most expensive plants at $675 a piece, while the oleander shrubs were the least expensive at $30 a piece.

Rebecca King, 20, lives on a more rural part of Corkscrew Road, several miles past Interstate 75, but she said the new landscaping and development along the road is beneficial for the community.

"I like having it look nice," she said. "It would be a good street to make it the center of Estero."

Block said the new landscaping will improve the road, but drivers should be prepared for the practical design.

"It's not going to look like a garden center," Block said, "but that's because the practicality of having a roadway, you have traffic drive into your median."

Instead, Block said the crews will plant trees and shrubs that will increase safety while still being visually appealing.

"We want to make sure there's not a tree in the way to impede your vision," Block said.

Don Chamblee, of operations with the Lee County Department of Transportation, said Big Tree will complete the job quickly.

"We are poised to try to have it complete in 30 days," he said.

Watering, fertilizing and pruning the landscaping will take an additional year, Chamblee said.

The contract with Big Tree, a total of more than $424,000 since the project began, requires the company to maintain the upkeep for a year before county staff becomes responsible for it.

Drivers along Corkscrew will not face gridlock because of the landscaping project, Block said.

"We just don't want to throw things out and shut down the road," he said. "We've developed a plan to close a small section at a time."

Block said he is sending a crew to Corkscrew during the first or second week of December to avoid Thanksgiving traffic. He wants the project to be completed before Christmas, he said.

"It's going to be a real soft inconvenience to traffic," he said.