"Study after study tells us roundabouts are safer."
That is Naples City Councilor Berne Barton, speaking at the March 4, 2026 council meeting where the Harbour Drive and Crayton Road intersection finally got a final design after eight years of the city changing its mind. If you live in the Moorings or anywhere along Gulf Shore Boulevard North, you already know why that sentence carries weight. What you may not know is that the project just cleared a milestone that turns a long-running argument into an actual construction schedule: the city's bid for the roundabout and its utility work closes next month, on October 22.
This intersection sits at the heart of daily life for Moorings Property Owners Association members, the residents whose association pushed hardest to get the roundabout back on the table after years of the city leaning toward a cheaper fix. Understanding how this project moved from idea to argument to bid document tells you something real about how decisions actually get made on your street, and what to expect on Harbour Drive over the next year.
The Crash That Restarted an Eight-Year Argument
The debate over this intersection is not new. The Florida Department of Transportation flagged the old span-wire signal for years, and in December 2017 the Naples City Council approved staff to design a roundabout. By January 2023, the council reversed course and opted for a less expensive mast-arm signal upgrade instead, with added pedestrian and bike safety features.
That decision held until November 8, 2024, when a landscaping truck driver traveling west on Harbour Drive struck two pedestrians in the crosswalk at Crayton Road. Eileen Smith, 69, was killed. Her husband, Barry Smith, 75, was also hit. The crash became the turning point that brought the roundabout concept back from the dead, with residents, the Naples Pathways Coalition, and the cycling group Naples Velo all showing up to council meetings to make the case that a roundabout would have made the fatal error survivable rather than fatal.
How the Design Flip-Flopped, In Order
The timeline is worth laying out plainly, because the back-and-forth is the story as much as any single decision:
- 2017 to 2018: FDOT recommends improvements. City Council approves a roundabout design.
- January 2023: Council rejects the completed roundabout design and switches to a mast-arm signal, citing lower cost.
- November 2024: The fatal pedestrian crash reignites the debate, with MPOA launching a resident safety survey.
- June 4, 2025: Council votes 4-3 to reverse course again and return to a roundabout, spending an additional $133,382 on final design after already spending $154,123 on the two earlier designs.
- March 4, 2026: Council unanimously finalizes the redesigned roundabout and directs staff to move to the bid process.
- April 2026: Design modifications requested by adjacent property owners delay the bid timeline, pushing the construction contract off the council's June agenda and toward an anticipated mid-August presentation.
- September 2026: The formal construction and utility improvement bid, Solicitation 26-025, is open with contractors required to respond by October 22.
That is not a smooth path. It is eight years of the same intersection getting a different answer almost every time the question came up, until a death made the answer stick.
What's Locked In, What Isn't
Here is where things actually stand as of this month:
| Settled | Still open |
|---|---|
| Design is a roundabout, not a signal | Which contractor gets the job |
| Total project cost projected at roughly $1.5 million, funded through the city's one-cent sales tax | Exact construction start date |
| More than $287,000 already spent on design work through March 2026 | Whether the estimated construction window holds once a contractor is under contract |
Deputy City Engineer Alison Bickett has been consistent on one point through every GSAC newsletter update: the city cannot give residents a real schedule until a contractor is selected. That happens after the October 22 bid deadline, and the council still has to approve whichever contract comes out of that process.
The Ten-Month Number Nobody's Comfortable With
At the March 4 meeting, city staff floated a projected construction timeframe of roughly ten months once work begins. At least one resident who spoke that night called it "shocking and frightening," and the concern was not really about inconvenience. GSAC board members Mark Enger and Michael Critelli raised a more specific objection in the newsletter earlier this year: this intersection is the primary route in and out of the Moorings from Crayton Road, and slowing emergency vehicle access during a ten-month build, even by a minute or two, is not a hypothetical risk. Critelli separately questioned whether the safety benefit justifies a $1.5 million price tag at all.
Bickett's response, reported the same month, was that the city will have a clearer picture of duration and impact once a contractor is actually on board. That answer has not changed since January, which tells you the timeline itself is still more educated guess than commitment.
Gulf Shore Boulevard Is Having a Quiet Construction Season
The roundabout is not the only infrastructure work moving on this stretch of road right now, and the contrast is worth noting. Florida Power and Light quietly finished phase two of its infrastructure hardening program on Gulf Shore Boulevard North ahead of schedule earlier this year, upgrading equipment in 19 vaults and bringing the total rebuilt to 36. The utility also cut in new switch cabinets at the Bordeaux and Madrid Club buildings, giving FPL the ability to restore power to more customers faster after an outage. No public meetings, no reversed votes, just a crew from the East Coast finishing the work early.
Separately, the city closed bidding on September 9 for seawall replacement work at Gulf Shore Boulevard North's Outlots A and B, another project moving through the same corridor in the same season. None of these three projects are connected in scope or funding, but they are converging on the same half-mile of road in the same few months, which means residents along Gulf Shore Boulevard North should expect more construction activity this fall and winter than the neighborhood has seen in years, not less.
What It Means If You're Watching This Corner
If you drive through Harbour Drive and Crayton Road regularly, the practical takeaway is this: the bid closing October 22 does not mean shovels in the ground next week. Based on the pattern this project has followed since 2025, expect the contract award to land on a council agenda sometime this winter, likely under the same Old Business item 13a that has carried this project for the past year. Once a contractor signs on, the projected ten-month build would put substantial completion sometime in late 2027, though every prior estimate on this project has shifted at least once.
The more useful habit is simply to keep watching. GSAC's newsletter has been the most reliable source for this project's actual status since before it became news anywhere else, and the city's own project page tracks the same Old Business agenda item where the next vote will happen. For a neighborhood that spent eight years watching this decision get made and unmade, the fact that it now has a bid number and a calendar date is itself the update worth knowing.
If you are weighing a move to the Moorings, or you already call Gulf Shore Boulevard North home and want a read on what a project like this means for your street, your commute, or your property, Donna Tidwell has spent decades tracking exactly this kind of neighborhood detail. Reach out to request your free home valuation and start a conversation grounded in what is actually happening here, not just what the listing photos show.
