New East-West connector from Mack Bayou to 395

[beachmouse]

They can probably get some disaster relief/preparedness money for redoing the 331 bridge. The causeway really is dangerously low in a couple spots and it's not good to have a major evacuation route that closes with wind gusts of only 40mpg..

I'd guess that four-laning is still many moons off as well. It's going to be something like 7-10 years before the Mid Bay Bridge gets four-laned, and that's a higher traffic roadway.

 

[Kurt]

The 331 bypass through Freeport is already underway. It is the first stage in 4-laning from 98 to I-10. The project was recently bumped up and I believe the completion date is set for 2008.

 

[Wu]

Man who build road must take care not to get run over.

 

[RiverOtter]

Man who build road must take care not to get run over.

I feel I must snatch a pebble from someone's hand

 

[Sally]

Walton Sun: BY PASHA CARROLL AND TANNER FLOWERS
SUN REPORTERS

?This is a long drawn out process,? Rosemary Woods said. Woods is the project manager for the Mack Bayou Study commissioned by Walton County Commissioners to study the possibility for an east/west connector road north of U.S. Highway 98. The connector road would stretch east from Mack Bayou Road, to U.S. Highway 331, and U.S. 331 to County Road 395.
?These are the very first stages, if it (the project) goes through,? she said. The project could take more than 20 years, she said.
?Projects I worked on in 1988 still haven?t been built,? Woods said.
The project will first have to be approved by the Board of County Commissioners after the 18-month study conducted by PBS&J is complete.
But even with board approval, funding is the molasses in building a road, said Woods. ?You do as much as you can as funding comes available,? she said.
As funding is made available, the road is built. Sometimes it creeps along in increments of one to two miles, Woods said.
All stages of the process will need funding, not just the construction phase of the 13.5-mile stretch of road.
?There are five phases to building a road,? Woods said. They are planning, project development and environment study, design, right-of-way acquisition then the actual construction.
The South Walton project is currently in the project development and environment study phase. The county got a grant for the study from the Florida Department of Transportation of $593,842. The county will augment the remaining cost, according to Walton County Department of Finance.
Study results thus far are four proposed routes, which were presented at a public meeting June 16.
?It is part of the process, that we listen to what the community has to say,? Woods said.
Approximately 125 people turned out for the meeting, which is a better than average amount, Woods said.
She said there is no general consensus yet, as to whether folks support or oppose the road. Over the next two weeks PBS&J will look over comment sheets submitted by those at the June 16 meeting.
Some residents went to the meeting to protest the road running near their property, only to be surprised at the unexpected size of the road.
?When this project started, it was to give local traffic, local residents, a way back to 331,? said local resident, Lloyd Blue. ?This exceeds what I thought.?
Alan Vickera urged quick action to acquire the right of way needed for the road. He said plans must be made so that the county would not be caught off guard later. He cited Destin as an example of inadequate planning leading to the inability to build new roads to alleviate traffic.
?We just had the meeting,? Woods said ?Next we will revisit (the project) and do a comparative analysis based on public comment.?
The final public hearing on community input will be later this year, she said.
To complete the study, PBS&J will study the environmental impact of each the four possible corridors.
According to PBS&J, the proposed new roadway would consist of four 12-foot lanes with a suburban typical section that includes sidewalks and bicycle lanes. Stormwater facilities including drainage systems and stormwater treatment ponds will be provided.
Any other public comments can be sent to Chris Merritt, PBS&J, 1901 Commonwealth Lane, Tallahassee, Florida 32303.

 

[Sally]

Walton Sun Editorial:

Let?s not begin the South Walton Crawl

The June 16 public information meeting to lay out early ideas for the east/west access road (Mack Bayou Road to Country Road 393) in South Walton brought more than 150 people out to see what PBS&J proposed. With two east section options and four west section options, the consulting group laid out plenty of food for thought in massive maps and charts.
Some of the attendees were there for deeply personal reasons. They own land along one of the proposed thoroughfares and wanted to see what, if any, impact there might be on their property.
Some showed up just out of curiosity. They live in the area.
And some showed up to protest the basic premise of the project before getting any information about it, before thinking about the longrange implications, and before taking off their rose-colored glasses. They came to shoot the messenger (PBS&J) when the messenger was nothing more than a hired hand, contracted by the county commission to conduct the study. To the credit of the PBS&J representatives they kept their cool when a couple of times they had every right to blow it.
Those of us who live in South Walton need to face some stark facts. The area is growing and will continue to grow. You can?t put up gates to the three entrances to South Walton and ban all moving vans. We moved here and we can?t reasonably expect others wouldn?t want to do the same thing.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, real estate in South Walton is the ? insert your favorite beauty?s name ? for developers. With development comes more people and people bring cars and cars create more traffic.
The question is what to do with the traffic. Do we dump it all on U.S. 98? Sure, that?s a grand idea! Just take a look at how well it is working in Destin. Literally thousands of locals mix in with the tourists every day to participate in a ritual known at the Destin Crawl.
Without an alternative east/west route in South Walton, we?ll eventually get the Walton Crawl. There?s a nice ring to it ? until you actually experience it again and again and again.
Now is the time to move forward with an east/west alternative route. We have the time and we have the resources to make this happen before we find ourselves bound by Highway 98 gridlock.
If we ignore this opportunity and the precious time it takes to make something like this materialize, we will be sitting here in 20 years saying ?shoulda, coulda, woulda? while we creep along Highway 98 at a blistering 4 miles per hour.

 

[ShallowsNole]

If this goes through, the very eastern part does look like an extension of East Point Washington Road. If it follows the existing powerline, it would come out on Gilmore Street just outside the back gate at Eden.

Believe it or not, this is where we actually WANTED a road 15-20 years ago, when the presently unpaved part of East Point Washington Road was not being county maintained and EPW to Bay Drive was county maintained but not paved. It is not far at all, and there is an existing easement. However, the county balked as a new bridge would need to be built.

Of course, the idea back then was that it would give RESIDENTS a quicker, safer way to 395/Point Washington. I'm not sure how I feel about a thoroughfare...

 

[ShallowsNole]

And now I look at the proposed map in the Sun, and it doesn't look like that route very much at all. Hmmmm....

 

[Sally]

Sept. 14th Public Meeting.
Mack Bayou/Pt. Washington Area Residents Take Note.

Proposed Road through your Area: There is a Public Hearing on the proposed East/West access road from Mack Bayou Road east to Hwy 331 and from Hwy 331 to CR 395. If you live in this area I strongly urge you to attend this meeting to see if the proposed road alternatives will impact you. SWCC has been monitoring and commenting on these proposals for almost 3 years now. Several road options have been proposed, all affecting existing neighborhoods, wetlands and state forest to varying degrees. The options seem to be narrowing down to either interconnecting and improving existing roads to form an alternative route or building the more intense ?boulevard? proposed by the consultants. Your input is needed. Here is an excerpt from the county press release. I have underlined some salient points. The meeting is on September 14th from 6pm to 8 pm at the Coastal Branch Library in South Walton:

County Info: This hearing is being conducted to provide an opportunity for interested persons to express their views concerning the location; conceptual design; and social, economic and environmental effects of this project. The proposed project would provide two new roads located north of and generally parallel to US 98 (SR 30). The New Access Road West would follow new alignment from Mack Bayou Road to US 331. The New Access Road East would follow mostly new alignment from US 331 to CR 395. Together the proposed new roadways cover a distance of approximately 12 miles. The new roadways would have three typical sections: a high speed four-lane divided suburban typical section, a high speed two-lane divided suburban typical section, and a low speed urban four-lane typical section. Right-of-way acquisition is proposed. Business and residential relocations may be associated with the project.

The State Environmental Impact Report and conceptual design plans developed by Walton County are available for public review prior to the hearing, weekdays 8:00 am through 4:30 pm CDT, at the Planning Department at the South Walton Governmental Center, 31 Coastal Centre Boulevard, Santa Rosa Beach. The document will remain on view from August 9th, 2006 to September 14th, 2006, the day of the hearing. Persons desiring to submit statements and other exhibits in place of, or in addition to, oral statements may do so at the Hearing. Written statements or exhibits may also be submitted as part of the Hearing if received within ten (10) calendar days after the date of the Hearing.

The Project Manager is a consultant: Ms. Rosemary Woods, PBS&J, 1901 Commonwealth Lane, Tallahassee, Florida, 32303, Telephone Number (850) 575-1800.

Ken Little, Public Information Officer for the county can also provide some info to you. His number is 850-892-8530

From Anita Page
SWCC Executive Director

 

[Sally]

By Gabriel Tynes

More than 100 audience members attending a South Walton public hearing burst into applause Sept. 14 after county commissioner Cindy Meadows promised to recommend the denial of a plan for a four lane corridor north of U.S. Hwy 98. The plan, which was presented by Tallahasseebased engineering firm PBS&J, could affect dozens of homes and cost as much as $318 million. The county commission will vote on the proposal at its regular meeting Oct. 10.
PBS&J was contracted by the county in 2002 to study an alternative east-west route that could enhance hurricane evacuation time and general traffic capacity. Meadows argued that the project is not a priority, and the county should instead focus on widening the U.S. Hwy 331 bridge or improving Mack Bayou Road.
?This project has been going on for four or five years,? Meadows said. ?I?ve watched it evolve. The price tag, the fact that it goes through neighborhoods and state forests ? I?m going to recommend that we not move forward with any of these alignments at this time. The more I looked at this it just did not make sense to me.?
Still, Meadows said the study revealed new and beneficial data the county could use in the future.
After the commissioner?s remarks, only a single audience member, Steve Landry of the Woodland Bayou Homeowner?s Association, had any additional comments.
?We were always promised an escape route,? Landry said. ?But a study in 2004 highly recommended a six-lane at Hwy. 98 for $80 million, not an alternate for $300 million.?
Landry was also concerned about runoff from the proposed highway, which would require approximately 148 feet of right-of-way for at least nine miles.
Rosemary Woods, program manager for PBS&J, presented three alternatives for the project, each of which would slalom around various power line easements, state lands, and cultural landmarks. All three proposals recommended a four-lane highway between Mack Bayou Road and U.S. Hwy 331, and a new two-lane road that would continue further east from U.S. Hwy 331 to County Road 395.
Of the three proposals, Woods suggested that the cheapest would also be the least invasive.
?When we did our public relations workshop, the recommended spot had the most positive reaction,? Woods said. ?There are fewer endangered species, fewer residential impacts, and of course it would cost less money.?
Woods said the fi rm defi nes an ?impact? as any property that will require more than 50 percent right-of-way acquisition. However, they also considered factors such as noise and air analysis, and would consider recommending barriers such as fences and walls if the public demanded.
Nevertheless, Woods conceded that the recommended alternative does have its shortcomings, including the necessary permission to cross state land, cleaning up contamination at up to six sites and the exorbitant costs of right-of-way acquisition. In fact, for an estimated $184 million, land acquisition would be the most costly part of the project.
PBS&J will be accepting public comments concerning the project until Sept. 28. Should the roadway be approved, the next steps would be funding, design, land acquisition and construction, for a timeline that could take well over fi ve years.