I-75 southbound MM143 right lane block clears, North Fort Myers

The state dispatch board carried a travel advisory on Interstate 75 southbound at mile marker 143 in North Fort Myers for about twenty minutes this afternoon, the right lane recorded blocked, and the row is now off the board

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 21, 2026

Stock photo

Stock photo. Not the actual scene. Photo: Jan van der Wolf / Pexels

What it changes

If you are heading south on Interstate 75 out of North Fort Myers this afternoon, the state had one lane of three recorded blocked at mile marker 143, which is the Bayshore Road interchange, from 2.56 until the row came off the board somewhere between 3.10 and 3.15. That is about twenty minutes on a Friday afternoon. It is worth knowing anyway if you are about to set off, because on a three lane carriageway a lane down at an interchange backs traffic up well before you can see why, and the queue it leaves behind outlasts the blockage itself, so expect any residual slowdown to start north of the exit rather than at it. Be careful about how much weight to put on the rest of it, because the state has published almost nothing else. The entry is typed a travel advisory, which is the dispatch board's lowest classification. It is not a crash entry. It carries no cause, no vehicle count and no injury finding of any kind, so nothing here should be read as saying anyone was hurt or that a wreck is what is holding the lane. Two columns on the row are empty that would normally tell you more: no unit is recorded dispatched and no unit is recorded on scene, so as the state publishes it, this is a lane reported blocked rather than a scene being worked. The Highway Patrol has issued no statement, the Lee County Sheriff's Office has issued no statement, and no local outlet had picked it up when this was written. What would tell you it is over is harder to come by than it looks, and that is worth spelling out given the row has now gone. This board publishes no clearance column at all, which was checked on today's readings rather than assumed, so the row disappearing is the state ending publication of the call and not the state announcing the road is open. Two later readings, at 3.15 and 3.16, found no Lee or Collier entry on a board still carrying more than eighty incidents statewide, so the disappearance is real rather than a failed read. Read that as the advisory no longer being reported, not as an all clear, and treat what you can see through the windscreen as better evidence than either. One further caution about planning a drive off this board. It carries only calls the Highway Patrol is dispatched to, so anything on a county or city road nearby, Bayshore Road itself included, would be a Lee County Sheriff's Office matter and would never appear on it. An empty board for this county is best read as nothing reported rather than nothing happening. Nothing in the weather is contributing as far as the record goes. A reading of the National Weather Service alert feed at 3.06 this afternoon returned six active alerts across Florida, and not one of them covers Lee or Collier, so there is no advisory, watch or warning in force on this stretch of road.

The Florida Highway Patrol dispatch board carried a travel advisory on Interstate 75 southbound at mile marker 143 in North Fort Myers for about twenty minutes this afternoon, with its remarks field reading RIGHT LANE BLOCKED. The row is no longer on the board.

It was received at 2.56 and was still there, unchanged in every field, on three readings at 3.05, 3.06 and 3.10 p.m. The board was genuinely populated on each of those readings, carrying 83, 82 and 84 incident rows statewide across two dozen or more counties, and this advisory was the only Lee or Collier entry on any of them.

Two further readings at 3.15 and 3.16 p.m. found it gone. Both returned a board still carrying 83 and then 82 incidents across 25 counties, so neither is a failed read, and on both there was no Lee or Collier row of any kind and no occurrence anywhere in the page of either MM143 or North Fort Myers. That places the advisory off the board within about five minutes of the 3.10 reading.

The location sits at the Bayshore Road interchange. The coordinates the board publishes fall within about half a kilometre of two motorway junction nodes carrying exit number 143, and the only primary road within 900 metres is Bayshore Road, which carries State Road 78. Interstate 75 runs three lanes in each direction here, so a lane down at this point is one of three rather than a diversion.

Two things the state has not published are worth stating plainly. The entry is typed a travel advisory, which is the board's lowest classification and carries no crash finding and no injury finding, so nothing here establishes what is holding the lane or whether anyone was hurt. And the row's dispatch and arrival columns are both empty, which on this board means no unit recorded dispatched and none recorded on scene.

The Highway Patrol has issued no release on it and the Lee County Sheriff's Office has issued no release on it. No local outlet had the item when this was written, roughly a quarter of an hour after it appeared.

The board publishes no clearance column of any kind, which was confirmed on today's reading by searching the whole page body for the word and finding no occurrence of it. That matters for how the end of this should be read: when the row comes off the board, that is the state ending publication of the call, not the state announcing the road has reopened.

No weather product is in force on this stretch. A reading of the National Weather Service active alert feed at 3.06 this afternoon returned six active alerts across Florida, none of which covers Lee or Collier County.

The state dispatch board carried a travel advisory on Interstate 75 southbound at mile marker 143 in North Fort Myers for about twenty minutes this afternoon, the right lane recorded blocked, and the row is now off the board

More than 125 people turned out in North Fort Myers to ask what Lee County is about to do to the community plans that hold back development in Buckingham, Bayshore, Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers, and the county says the rewrite adds no density

The two right lanes are open again on northbound Interstate 75 at mile marker 144 in North Fort Myers, and the state's own note on the crash it logged there at 9.16 now reads that the roadway is clear

Northbound Interstate 75 through Lee County took three crash calls in twelve minutes this morning, and the one the state is still carrying has the two right lanes blocked at mile marker 144 in North Fort Myers

The Lee County Sheriff's Office says the North Fort Myers grass fire has been contained and there is no risk to the public, and the potential evacuation notifications sent to five streets remain lifted