County officials and community leaders will celebrate the completion of the $11.5 million Dearborn Street improvement project in Englewood with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, Sept. 5. The ceremony will be held on a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Dearborn Street and Sandy’s Island Circle, the same location where the groundbreaking took place March 1, 2007. The public is invited.

As part of the celebration, officials also will mark the $1.287 million replacement of the Overbrook Road Bridge, located several miles away in Englewood. The bridge was incorporated into the construction contract for Dearborn Street to save money – an estimated $600,000 – and expedite the bridge work. APAC-Southeast Inc. of Sarasota handled the Dearborn Street construction and subcontracted the bridge work to Zep Construction, Inc.

The Dearborn Street project involved the reconstruction and widening of the former two-lane roadway from approximately 1,000 feet east of State Road 776 to 200 feet west of Pine Street, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. Construction included four 11-foot-wide travel lanes, with 4-foot-wide bicycle lanes and 5-foot-wide concrete and brick paver sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, concrete curbs and gutters, landscaped medians, stormwater pipes, inlet structures, a stormwater pond and a new bridge over Gottfried Creek.

In cooperation with the Englewood Community Redevelopment Agency, the roadway improvements were enhanced by decorative brick pavers along the sidewalks and in the tree-planted medians and crosswalk areas, and decorative roadway lighting. The new section of Dearborn Street now has the same look as the west end of Dearborn Street in the downtown redevelopment district.

Water and wastewater lines were improved in cooperation with the Englewood Water District.

An $8.3 million Florida Department of Transportation grant was the primary source of funding for the Dearborn Street project. Funding also was provided through a short-term borrow and contributions from the Englewood Water District and the Englewood Community Redevelopment Agency. A portion of the right of way and design was funded by the penny surtax (1-cent sales tax), which also provided most of the funding for construction of the Overbrook Road Bridge. The Englewood Water District contributed $300,227 for the bridge project, which included replacing utility connections.

For more information about the project or the event, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at 941-861-5000.