Manatee County reveals plans for Upper Manatee River Road

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Manatee County hosted a public meeting for an upcoming roadway improvement project on Upper Manatee River Road, revealing their plans to the community.

The two-lane road is set to undergo construction in early 2024 to become a four-lane road. The project is estimated to cost $22.6 million.

According to Manatee County’s Strategic Affairs Manager Ogden Clark, this is due to the boom in housing moving further east.

“It is one of the available routes for people that are coming from where we’ve seen a really big population boom in the eastern portion of the county,” said Clark. “This is just going to kind of help serve those communities. A lot of residential communities and things connecting them to services, commercial, jobs, things like that.”

The roadway project will begin at State Road 64 and end at the Fort Hamer Bridge. The improvements will include an 18-foot raised median, and 6-foot buffered bike lanes.

The project is estimated to be finished in early 2026.