Hwy. 98 project stalls
FDOT estimates remaining plan will cost over $70 million
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Illustration by Jessica Bowie/Gulf Breeze News A project to widen Highway 98 from Bayshore Road to Portside Drive, will be put on hold until funding can be secured. The Florida Department of Transportation estimated Right of way acquisition and construction to cost over $70 million in 2006 dollars. The plan is currently funded through the study and design phases.

The sinking ship that is the project to widen 98 is still on course, but in dire need of financial backing from the state and local authorities to stay afloat. The plan calls for nearly four miles of Highway 98 to be widened from four lanes to six, from Bayshore Road to Portside Drive at an estimated cost of $70 million.

Although the bureaucratic process of public meetings and planning is moving forward as scheduled, the project lacks the money needed for construction and right of way acquisition. In August, the Florida/Alabama Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) voted to remove the costly expansion from its five-year cost feasible plan, much to the dismay of Santa Rosa County transportation officials.

Broxson

The project, whittled down over the last decade from its original linear distance of 30 miles, is now in the finishing stages of design. Local Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) officials held a re-evaluation public hearing Jan. 15 at the Community Life Center (CLC), in a building along side a portion of the roadway that is included in the plan. Transportation planners covered several folding tables, lined up against the wall of an upstairs conference room at the CLC, with linear maps of the proposed improvements superimposed upon recent satellite images of the corridor. Several dozen affected or some medians are limited. Local officials expressed confidence that the project would eventually be funded.

"Although I am very optimistic that we will eventually be able to build this, I have great misgivings that our appointed plan… was sidetracked on this by a vote of the TPO of nine to seven, which derailed our effort to get this funded sooner, rather than later," said Santa Rosa County Commissioner John Broxson, of Gulf Breeze.

FDOT spokesman Tommie Speights placed his optimism in the group most recently organized to overhaul the majority of Highway 98 through eight counties.

Franklin Hayes/Gulf Breeze News David Pinder, Dale Fowler and Don White search for their homes and businesses at a public meeting held by the Florida Department of Transportation on Jan. 15 at the Community Life Center in Gulf Breeze.The meeting gave residents and other members of the public an opportunity to look at what the proposed plan to widen Highway 98 from four lanes to six lanes would look like. The roofs of houses and businesses were easily distinguishable on the satellite photos.

"Eventually, it will be funded," said Tommie Speights, FDOT spokesman. "With the Northwest Florida Corridor Authority, the legislature is looking to improve the roadway."

The authority, an eight-member board appointed by the governor and given the green light to pursue public/ private partnerships by the legislature, is expected to build a tolled facility through Eglin Air Force Base, among many other projects. These alternate routes are expected to provide evacuation routes along the coastal 98 area, but also alleviate traffic among its many clogged thoroughfares. Another project proposed to alleviate traffic on 98 is a toll bridge from Langley Avenue in Pensacola to connect to the Garcon Point Bridge near Milton.