Rolling roadblocks were a sign of progress in Lakeland Monday.

Lakeland police were blocking the southbound lanes of Cleveland Heights Boulevard to help debris removal contractors speed up their work. The crews were expected to finish their work along the southbound lanes Monday.

  • Still lots of debris on side streets in Lakeland
  • Hurricane Irma left 3x debris of 2004 hurricanes
  • Rolling roadblocks will continue on northbound Cleveland Heights Boulevard

Resident Janie Alvarado was overjoyed to see the pile of debris in front of her house picked up. 

"Really happy," she said. "I was really happy, like thank God they are cleaning this mess out of here. It's just all over the place."

However, there are still lots of piles of debris on side streets along Cleveland Heights. it may take until the end of December to pick up all the debris in Lakeland.

The city said crews are working as fast as they can but because hurricane Irma affected such a huge part of Florida, there are not enough debris removal crews to go around.  "So you’ve got a lot of FEMA contractors concentrating on an area and you have got a finite supply of those big haulers. We are all utilizing them right now." said city spokesman Kevin Cook.

Cook said Irma left behind three times as much debris in Lakeland as all three of the 2004 hurricanes combined that hit the city.

Walt Kellums was using an ax to cut out roots from a neighbor's fallen tree along Cleveland Heights. The neighbor has a huge pile of debris in front of his home. Kellums isn't expecting everything to be done soon. 

"The guys are working hard," he said. "It's a big city. I drive around. And in my driving around I see it all over the place. So it's going to take a while."

The rolling roadblocks will continue on northbound Cleveland Heights Boulevard Tuesday and then on Edgewood Avenue and New Jersey Road the rest of the week.