In the Know: Can you straighten out the S-curve issue on old SR 84?

Q: We were wondering why there was an S-curve in State Road 84, about mile marker 70 while traveling east from Naples. Why was it necessary to build these curves into an otherwise nearly straight road? it appears as if the contractors started from both ends and missed. Thank you for your attention.

— Christian Busch

Q: Very logical answer as to why there was a curve in Interstate 75, but it only begs an answer as to why they built the S-curve when they started State Road 84 in the 1960s?

— Dick Jones, Naples and Ocean City, N.J.

Q: Why did the original State Road 84 curve from left to right near Naples?

— Bill Henry, Naples

A: Straightening out the issue of why Interstate 75's Alligator Alley, formerly State Road 84, has a reverse curve near mile marker 75 in Collier County would be simple, if it wasn't so difficult to explain.

After throwing readers a curve in my column on March 25, I heard from a lot of people. Talk about crowdsourcing. Fortunately, a lot of these folks are experts who really know what they are talking about, including that people truly in the know call an elongated S-curve a "reverse curve."

Thomas Peek, a registered land surveyor and professional engineer, was formerly Collier County's engineer and part of the local engineering firm WilsonMiller when it was Wilson, Miller, Barton & Peek years ago. Peek refutes a popular myth that the curve is to compensate for work begun on both sides of the state not meeting in the middle.

"Nobody made any mistakes or anything," he said. "In fact, it was built just as it was intended to be built."

But that intention was not to jar motorists out of a stupor on a boring straightaway. The reverse curve originates with the historical General Land Office's Public Land Survey System, the federal surveying method which created rectangular grids of land in townships, ranges and sections in Florida and most states in the 19th century. Because of imprecise surveying methods, especially through Everglades swamp, square-mile sections sometimes measured 1.5 miles, as was the case at the curve in question.

"The S-curve in Alligator Alley had its beginning in the mid-1800s when the original U.S. government surveyors surveyed the lands of South Florida," Peek said. "As a result of government rules of surveying and working conditions, the top tier of sections of land east of the Range Line (approximately Tuner River Road) where the S-curve begins, were longer in the north/south dimension than the sections west of the Range Line. This made the north lines of the sections off-set by several thousand feet at the Range Line. The right-of-way for State Road 84 (which later became I-75) was acquired along those north section lines, therefore it was necessary to design a reverse curve (S-curve) in the right-of-way and road."

Robert Wiley, the county's flood plain map project manager, wrote in to share the precise location of the lack of alignment of sections — a sort of two-dimensional fault line — in South Florida.

"The old Alley alignment was to be along the boundary between Township 50 South and Township 49 South. The reverse curve "correction" was made where Range 31 East meets Range 32 East," wrote Wiley, suggesting I contact Joe Boggs, a local, longtime licensed professional surveyor and mapper, for a better explanation.

Boggs, of Naples-based South Florida Surveying Inc., said land was surveyed at the time of Florida's statehood in 1845 and designated for farming or forestry use. The Everglades weren't originally surveyed because it was suitable for neither.

"Eastern Collier land was deemed useless because it couldn't be used for agricultural or timber," Boggs said.

When eventually platted, township lines didn't line up, he said, leading to the right-of-way land purchase being slightly off at that point. The reverse curve was the easiest correction to the problem.

"That's always the explanation that I've heard as far as the S-curve is concerned," said Boggs, who has been in the surveying profession in Collier County since 1972.

Longtime Naples resident David Pfaff provides a detailed explanation for why township lines in eastern Collier broke from the conventional grid that is easy to visualize.

"When the county was first surveyed in the 19th century, it was all wilderness and the surveyors had to penetrate swamp and stream, bog and hammocks on foot to try and map ‘straight' lines," Pfaff wrote. "Sometimes, when they came to one side of an impenetrable obstacle, they would make their way around it — rather than through it — and estimate where on the other side the line would have come out. Eventually, there had to be a correction of these errors and irregular-sized townships were the result."

"A so-called ‘section' of land is 640 acres, but some in Collier County are less than that and some verge toward 1,000 acres as a result of the surveyors' problems in establishing the first township lines. Just look at a map of the county that shows township and range lines. You'll recognize the big curves in I-75."

Thanks for the help, guys. Your next assignment: What is the 40-mile bend on Tamiami Trail East?

Isles of Capri Paddlecraft Park

Q: As a devoted kayaker, I've been watching the construction of what appears to be a new canoe/kayak launch site, kitty-corner from the Collier County Boat Park at the intersection of Collier Boulevard and Isles of Capri Road, but there's no sign, except for the KEEP OUT warning affixed to the padlocked gate. Can you help?

— Sue Gorisek, Naples

Q: I am inquiring about the kayak/canoe launch park at the corner of Isles of Capri and Collier Boulevard. It looks completed and I had first heard that it would be opening in January. Could you check on its status and see when that it might be opening to the public.

— Clark Adams, Naples

A: Isles of Capri Paddlecraft Park opened to the public March 30. The new park, owned by the State of Florida as part of Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, is the only public access point in Collier County designed exclusively for launching paddle crafts — non-motorized vessels such as canoes, kayaks and paddleboards.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has entered into an agreement with Collier County Parks & Recreation to manage the daily operations of the park, which is open sunrise to sunset. The launch fee is $4 per paddle craft.

The park provides public access to McIlvane Bay, a shallow mangrove-fringed bay that offers outstanding opportunities for wildlife viewing, according to Rookery Bay's website, which provides answers to frequently asked questions about the new park. It's an opportunity to appreciate nature by seeing marine habitats in quiet backwaters.

The park is an environmental showcase. The bayfront property on the northwest corner of Collier Boulevard and Isles of Capri Road was originally proposed for a hotel and 50-slip marina, but the property was purchased by the state in 1998 with Florida Forever funds. Years of restoration work, beginning with removing waste discovered buried on the site, made the park possible.

In addition to a launch ramp, the park has a freshwater rinse station, two covered picnic pavilions, and restroom facilities that also are accessible to boaters launching boats from the nearby Collier Boulevard boat ramp. Motorized vessels are not permitted to be launched from the paddle craft park.




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