The Florida Department of Transportation expects to reopen northbound lanes on Beal Parkway Friday afternoon after a drainage pipe failure caused a washout in the roadway Thursday.
- FDOT crews and contractors have been working continuously to remove the damaged roadway, replace the failed pipe and backfill the void beneath SR. 189, the department said Friday.
“FDOT crews and contractors have been working continuously to remove the damaged roadway, replace the damaged pipe and backfill the void with the goal of having the northbound lanes open to traffic this afternoon,” FDOT said in a statement.
Additional concrete repairs, milling and resurfacing work will continue over the next few days, the department said.
Okaloosa County District 4 Commissioner Trey Goodwin said the collapsed pipe was part of the state road system and was installed by private contractors working for the state, not the county.
- “There is no indication any county work contributed to this failure,” Goodwin said Friday. “We have verified that our sanitary sewer lines are intact, working properly, and are not breached. We have also verified that the county has not performed any boring or trenching in that immediate area in at least a decade.”
The road closure near Gap Creek bridge has affected thousands of residents and strained law enforcement and public safety resources, Goodwin said.
“It put a strain on law-enforcement and public safety resources, taking away critical personnel from other important life-safety tasks,” he said.
Goodwin said the county is communicating with state officials about the issue and has been assured the state takes the problem seriously.
“This is in district 4, but it affects residents far beyond district 4,” Goodwin said. “Not only will we work together to fix this immediate problem, we will also make certain to heed the lessons from this failure to help us improve for the future.”
