Bridge Addition for US HWY 331

[scooterbug44]

IMO we would already have a 4 lane 331 if the same old players hadn't been spending their time and our tax money trying to make themselves more money at our expense with a private toll bridge.

 

[wrobert]

Idlewind,

You ought to go back and read the newspapers during the times all of this funding was being settled. You can not sit over here and insult the sitting Governor and the Secretary of DOT while at the same time holding out your hand and asking for a project to be funded. May not be the correct way of doing things, but those people are human, get offended, and wield their power in a way as to show our leaders that they are not going to take it. The repercussions of these self-serving actions are felt years later as these projects are being done.

 

[beachFool]

Why don't they use the BP money to partially fund the county's share, it's sure to be wasted on something stupid that everybody's brother-in-law will profit from.

The BP money has strings attached.

Generally speaking, those funds have to go to ecosystems that were impacted by the oil spill.

With a fish hatchery, we would replace the fish wiped out by the oil and dispersant.

Plus someone's BIL could profit also!

 

[rocketman]

Help!

Buz:
Again, I am ignorant. In your comment, you mentioned the acronym BIL. What is BIL?

Rock on,
Rocketman

 

[beachFool]

BROTHER IN LAW. (see soappedaler's quote)

Obviously it was a feeble attempt at humor.

I'll try again.

Maybe we can spray dispersant on the hatchlings so they can develope a tolerance.

 

[Lake View Too]

Fish are good, no doubt, but isn't the business of South Walton County about bringing peeps down from up north, and 85% of them don't care a crap about fish.

 

[Jdarg]

Fish are good, no doubt, but isn't the business of South Walton County bringing peeps down from up north, and 85% of them don't care a crap about fish.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[NotDeadYet]

The BP money has strings attached.

Generally speaking, those funds have to go to ecosystems that were impacted by the oil spill.

If I am understanding the toll bridge proposal correctly, it would be a second parallel bridge that would be southbound, and the present bridge would be the northbound bridge. Wouldn't this leave the existing causeways intact, then?
For years one of the county's excuses for not getting a new bridge built was the supposed insistence of DEP to remove the causeways to improve water flow through the bay. This runs up the cost considerably, but they managed it okay when they rebuilt the bridge over St Andrews Bay.
Since the bay ecosystem was impacted by the oil spill (denials notwithstanding) it seems to me that we have even more of a reason to ask BP to pony up for a whole new bridge from shore to shore with no causeways.

 

[Kurt]

The fish hatchery is a suggestion for use of funds from BP that are intended to improve the local economies in a meaningful way, separate from tourism promotion or cleanup or restoring the ecosystem.

 

[soappedaler]

I rarely cross the 331 bridge so a toll would not affect me personally. People working at shops, construction etc would the ones impacted and the least able to afford a toll even if a sunpass type system were put into service.
The 331 bridge and 4 laneing of the highway is just another example of poor planning on the part of Walton County Commissioners through the years.