State to repaint U.S. 98 overpass
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

The Florida Department of Transportation included more than $300,000 in its budget to repaint the overpass in 2010.

What's big, blue, highly visible and badly in need of a paint job?

It's the pedestrian overpass on Highway 98 that offers Gulf Breeze students safe passage over the area's busiest corridor, and the state wants to repaint it in 2010.

On Nov. 30, representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) presented their District Three Tentative Work Program for the fiscal years 2009 through 2013. In that plan, state officials set aside an estimated total of $322,000 to cover the structure, originally built in 1979, in a fresh coat of paint.

"Those are estimated figures," said Tommie Speights, District Three spokesperson. "It could be more, it could be less."

One group of citizens was already working to raise funding for paint job for the 28-year-old bridge and thinks the job would cost far less. Gulf Breeze lawyer J. Nevin Shaffer, Jr. serves on a Gulf Breeze Area Chamber of Commerce sub-committee that was looking to raise $50,000 to cover the job. Shaffer said the group oversaw an inspection with assistance from the City of Gulf Breeze to determine their cost estimates.

"People that don't know Gulf Breeze judge us by how we look," Shaffer said. "We think [the overpass] ought to look better."

Speights said FDOT worked with school administrators on similar projects in Walton and Okaloosa Counties to determine the color of the new paint. Assistant City Manager David Szymanski said the new paint would have to comply with the city's newly adopted Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) guidelines.

"The color would have to be as non-obtrusive as possible," Szymanski said. "The overpass is located in our core business area. Our hope is that it would adhere to the new guidelines."

Szymanski and Shaffer agreed that the structure should reflect the school colors of the nearby elementary, middle and high schools. Shaffer said he would like the exterior painted navy blue and the interior gold.

As of now, the state plan allocates $5,000 in 2009 for preliminary engineering costs associated with the paint job and another $317,000 to complete the project in 2010.