CAPE CORAL — The Cape Coral City Council is looking at a funding shift that could keep a major sidewalk project on track without costing taxpayers a dime.
The Florida Department of Transportation committed $872,470 for a sidewalk project along Santa Barbara Place, designed to bring safer streets to the area.
Right now, a sidewalk on one side of Santa Barbara Place stops abruptly, with more than a mile of road left before reaching Southwest 20th Street, where the project is set to end.
To keep things moving, the City Council must approve an agreement with FDOT to move $170,000 from the project’s construction budget to its construction engineering and inspection budget.
Both of those funds were already part of the original budget from FDOT, but the city says the construction engineering and inspection portion of the project ran into unexpected shortfalls.
Rather than adding more money to the project, this shift would keep it fully funded by FDOT.
If the council does not approve the amendment, the city would have to cover that $170,000 out of its own budget.