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In fast-growing areas like Collier County, two approaches to road construction have been tried.

One waits for the growth to occur then reacts to the crisis by building or widening roads to relieve the congestion.

The other anticipates growth and has the roads under construction even as the growth is occurring.

Critics of the second method say the new roads only encourage even more growth in a never-ending cycle of road construction and new development.

But as a general rule, it makes sense to get a jump on new road construction.

Still, every general rule has its exception, and the so-called Immokalee loop bypass may be it.

The region's transportation planners are worried because the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has expressed reservations about the road and its effects on panther habitat. That could delay the road's eventual construction, which is at least eight to 10 years off.

But hold on a minute. Just what is the loop bypass supposed to bypass? The justification being offered now is that the road, in concert with improvements to State Road 82 in Lee County and State Road 29 in Collier, will allow drivers to go around the heavy traffic on Interstate 75 between and around Naples and Fort Myers.

Yet work to widen I-75 from four lanes to six is soon to begin and could be finished as early as 2009. Another effort to further widen the interstate with the addition of four toll lanes is in the formative stages.

While growing, the Naples-Fort Myers area isn't Atlanta. Is it possible that the added lanes on I-75 will be able to handle the load, making a bypass unnecessary? Even if it is apparent six lanes won't be sufficient, wouldn't it make more sense to focus on making sure the 10-lane version of I-75 becomes a reality rather than striking out in search of a whole new road through panther country?

With Interstate 75 up and running at 10 lanes, it is hard to imagine who would need a bypass. Travelers bound for Southwest Florida International Airport? State Road 29 is too far east of Collier's population center to make it a viable option for Neapolitans. With major airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, how much traffic can there be from the east coast to RSW?

A look at a map offers a clue to the real beneficiaries of the Immokalee loop bypass road.

Ave Maria University and town, a major development destined to be home to 30,000 people, is going up south of Immokalee, not far from where the loop road would run. It is the first in a series of towns that can be built under a 1999 agreement between Collier County and the state that set aside some land for preservation and identified other areas for development.

A loop road south of Immokalee connecting S.R. 29 to S.R. 82 would afford Ave Maria and the surrounding area with better access to the airport, Fort Myers and the east coast.

If that's what its real purpose is, fine. Say so and set about finding a way for the developers and residents of the area to pay the lion's share of the cost, since they will get the lion's share of the use.

But if state and county transportation planners want to sell the road as part of an I-75 bypass, they'd do better by waiting to see how the improvements already planned for the interstate play out.