Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties have approved an interlocal agreement to study whether two separate collector road projects can be connected to reduce traffic congestion on Highway 98.
- Okaloosa County Commissioners unanimously approved the agreement on Oct. 21, following Santa Rosa County’s approval on Oct. 9. The agreement formalizes a partnership for a $4 million state-funded study to determine if a collector road can connect the two counties’ separate projects.
The study will explore connecting Okaloosa County’s West 98 Collector road with Santa Rosa County’s Navarre Community Access Road. Both projects are designed to run parallel to and north of Highway 98, but currently stop short of extending to the county line, leaving a gap between them.
“This is an opportunity to work with our neighbors – Santa Rosa County,” Jason Autrey, Okaloosa County Deputy County Administrator for Development Services, told commissioners. “We have an interlocal agreement that has been put in place because Okaloosa County is the recipient of a grant from the State of Florida and the amount of $4 million to study a potential – what we’re calling ‘connecting the collectors.'”
- The State of Florida awarded Okaloosa County the grant to conduct a Project Development and Environmental study for a collector roadway connecting the two projects.
Highway 98 is a Strategic Intermodal System route running through both counties. The four-lane road is overcapacity between Navarre and Hurlburt Field, and funding for widening Highway 98 is not imminent, according to the agreement. Many airmen who work at Hurlburt Field live west of the base with Highway 98 as the only continuous east-west connection.
The proposed alternative continuous collector road running parallel to and north of Highway 98 could reduce accidents, provide an alternate route in case of accidents, and reduce congestion between the two counties, according to the agreement.
Under the agreement, Okaloosa County will administer the state-funded grant, provide all documents to Santa Rosa County for review, and hold a public hearing for commissioners to consider adoption of a preferred alignment if the study recommends construction of a collector road.
Santa Rosa County will provide a staff member to serve on the committee that selects a consulting firm for the study, review all documents in a timely manner, and hold its own public hearing to consider adoption of a preferred alignment if construction is recommended.
- Santa Rosa County has no fiscal obligations under the agreement other than staff time commitment.
Commissioner Trey Goodwin, moved to approve the agreement with an emphasis on protecting property rights.
“I’ll caveat my motion to approve with all the safeguards that we’ve talked about before – that we’re being respectful of private property rights as we do this,” Goodwin said. “We’re not looking to force anyone out of their property or anything like that. That’s not what this is. We’re moving to approve this as a coordination effort – there’s no government strong-arming in any of this.”
- Goodwin added the project aims to find “the most effective path with the least impact to the people that live there.”
Autrey emphasized the early stage of the project.
“We are so far away from knowing what or if that corridor is even possible,” Autrey said. “This is the absolute very first step.”
Okaloosa County is currently conducting a Project Development and Environmental study for the West 98 Collector, which would run parallel to Highway 98 from the area north of Green Drive east to Solar Drive and could include a new West Gate entrance into Hurlburt Field. Santa Rosa County is conducting a similar study for the Navarre Community Access Road.
Autrey said the study will require “strong coordination between Okaloosa County, Santa Rosa County and Eglin Air Force Base, and Hurlburt Field and FDOT.”
6 Responses
Will it take another 26 years to !!!Start this program as it did the last one on 98. Also how the state doing something about the traffic on Hwy that runs through Milton. The traffic is ridiculous there and haven’t heard anything about by-passing Milton which should have been done a long time ago. Guess donations not getting to the right politicians!!!!
All traffic has to go back to 98. So they will be cutting through once quiet dead-end streets to get from the connector road to 98. For example, if you live on Solar, which is a dead-end street now, it will be opened to the collector road so then all those military personal will be lined up on this street to turn onto 98. It’s great if you don’t live on any of the streets being opened up to heavy traffic and if your house doesn’t back up to military land and this connector road.
How the heck does a study cost 4 Million dollars? Were not actually talking about actual construction, just a study of the possibility. This is why this country is in debt. Stupid expenditures like this.
Lol, $4,000,000.00 to figure out how to, and should we, connect two roads. And if they don’t connect,then what? They just butt up against each other with a chain across the road? I can complete that study in record time at a quarter of the cost.
Consultants who do these studies gouge governments with exorbitant fees. Their knowledge that government has lots of taxpayer money makes them charge ridiculous fees because they know they will ultimately be approved by the elected officials
All that talk, and none of it talks about Hwy 98 from the Okaloosa Island over to Destin…what a nightmare since the 80″s, and they made essentially a 3 lane after one hurricane wiped it all out , they
dug it all up put in cages with large rocks filled it back in and paved it ..but not for legal use or even parking…..clearly they don’t commute this way!!!!!!!