Panther Ridge's Main Gate on SR-70 Closes 45 Days Starting Sept. 30 for Roundabout Build

The main entrance to Panther Ridge at State Road 70 and 197th Street East closes completely starting Sept. 30, and it will stay that way for about 45 days, through mid-November, while the Florida Department of Transportation builds a new roundabout at the intersection. Emergency vehicles will keep access through 197th Street. Everyone else will need another way in and out.

The work is part of FDOT's widening of SR-70 from Bourneside Boulevard to Waterbury Road (County Road 675), a 3.6-mile stretch that's being rebuilt from a two-lane road into a four-lane divided highway. Along with the Panther Ridge roundabout at 197th Street East, the project calls for roundabouts at 213th Street East, 225th Street East/Panther Ridge Trail, and Waterbury Road, plus new drainage, shared-use paths, paved shoulders and street lighting the whole way through.

For Panther Ridge residents, the closure turns routine errands into a longer trip. Longtime resident Bruce Kasper, in comments to local media, described it bluntly: an hour just to get to Publix, an hour for a pizza. His bigger worry is what happens if he needs an ambulance. Kasper said he deals with AFib and ends up in the emergency room in the middle of the night more often than he'd like. Adding even 20 or 25 minutes to a response time, he said, could matter.

FDOT project documents confirm emergency crews will keep access through 197th Street during the closure, so ambulances and fire apparatus won't be locked out the way ordinary traffic will. Residents say they'd still like FDOT to consider some kind of limited access for homeowners, particularly during peak commuting hours, rather than a total 45-day shutout.

Not every neighbor is upset about the disruption. Resident Scott King pointed to the safety record on that stretch of SR-70 as reason enough to push through the inconvenience. He said he's aware of at least 14 deaths tied to traffic and speed along that corridor, and he called the roundabout a worthwhile trade-off, saying he's grateful to the crews building it even as it complicates his own commute.

The Panther Ridge roundabout is one piece of a bigger overhaul. FDOT is also widening the neighboring segment of SR-70 from Lorraine Road to Bourneside Boulevard, a $67 million job that includes roundabouts at Uihlein Road, Del Webb Boulevard and Bourneside Boulevard, along with four new bridges over the Braden River. Combined, the two phases of construction span roughly 6.7 miles of SR-70 through the Lakewood Ranch area. FDOT has said the full project is on track for completion by summer 2027.

Nearby, the roundabout planned for Lindrick Lane and SR-70 has followed a similar pattern: that intersection closed for about two months so crews could build its south side, with detoured traffic routed through 213th Street. FDOT has said it expects that closure to lift this month, weather permitting, which gives Panther Ridge residents a rough sense of how construction timelines have played out elsewhere on the corridor so far.

FDOT has not said whether it will add any limited resident access during the Panther Ridge closure, and no revised timeline has been announced beyond the mid-November target. Residents with questions about the project can reach FDOT's project communications team directly through the SR-70 project page.

Stay with Lakewood Ranch Community Website for updates as this closure moves through its 45 days, and join the conversation in our Community Forum to share detour tips or your own experience getting around the closure. For more on this and other traffic and infrastructure work affecting the area, visit our alerts and government and politics sections.