FDOT is temporarily fully closing the LaBelle Drawbridge carrying State Route 29, locally known as Bridge Street, over the Caloosahatchee River in Hendry County to perform urgent repairs to the bridge.
To minimize the closure's impact, the repairs will run over two consecutive weekends, starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19 and July 24 through 26.
Crews expect to have the bridge reopened before Monday morning rush hour on both weekends.
The work will require a 53-mile truck detour and a shorter detour for all local traffic.
Beginning Friday, July 17, a strict 17-ton weight limit will be enforced on the bridge. All vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 17 tons or more are prohibited from crossing until repairs are complete and engineers certify its safe load capacity.
In the meantime, commercial truck drivers exceeding this limit must utilize a 53-mile detour with significant extra travel time.
S.R. 29 through LaBelle serves as a vital regional corridor, moving an average of 17,300 vehicles per day. Commercial trucks account for 18 percent of this daily volume, consisting of heavy-duty transport such as semi-trailers, double-trailers, agricultural-haulers moving cattle and produce, and heavy dump trucks. This intense concentration of heavy-tonnage routing has placed tremendous stress and cyclic loading on the bridge’s bearing stiffeners, resulting in structural fatigue that requires immediate, proactive intervention.
To safely restore the structure to fully operational health, specialized crews must isolate the bridge from all traffic loads to execute critical engineering repairs. Due to the precision nature of these steel repairs, the bridge cannot accommodate moving traffic while work is underway.
DETOUR ROUTES
FDOT has established two designated detour routes to safely redirect traffic during the closure periods:
Law enforcement will be in full force on both sides of the bridge to observe commercial drivers and enforce the TRUCK ROUTE Detour.
Traveler Advisory & Reminder
FDOT recognizes the critical role this bridge plays in regional agriculture and local commerce, and crews will be working expeditiously to complete these repairs safely and quickly.
All motorists are strongly urged to plan alternate routes well in advance of the July closures, allow significant extra travel time, and utilize regional navigation tools like FL511.com, mobile mapping applications, or GPS devices to monitor real-time traffic conditions. All scheduled work is weather permitting.
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