Okaloosa County Commissioners approved $400,000 in surtax reserves Tuesday to complete design work for the Santa Rosa Boulevard Improvement Project on Okaloosa Island.

• The funding will finish the design plans for Phase I of the project, which runs from the first Beach Access east to the Brooks Bridge project limits. The state has already committed $1 million for construction of this phase.

“This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to make a difference for our community in a very significant fashion,” said Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel. “Number one, we’re going to be able to save lives with the new design because it’ll slow down drivers so that pedestrians will not be harmed. Number two, we’re putting in bike paths and pedestrian run-walkways.”

Ketchel also highlighted two other major benefits. “Number three, I’m confident that we’re going to be able to bury these power lines. To have power lines buried there would make such a huge difference when we do have the next storm.”

• The fourth benefit, she said, involves traffic flow. “There’s not going to be, what I call, ‘malfunction junction’ at the Brooks Bridge where cars have to stop. The flow of traffic will not be impeded because there will be no more traffic light there.”

Scott Bitterman, Interim Public Works Director, told the Commissioners the project will enhance pedestrian safety and improve drainage. The consultant has completed 60% design plans and is currently working on 90% plans.

The project started seven years ago when the county began talking about building the new Brooks Bridge. Ketchel said they realized they could make a significant difference in Santa Rosa Boulevard once they redesigned the intersection area.

• Ketchel said when asked by Florida Power & Light executives on what they could do to help, she suggested burying the power lines on Santa Rosa Boulevard. The utility company is almost done with a cost estimate to bury the lines, according to Bitterman.

The $7.6 million construction contract will include a 14-foot wide multi-use path for bicyclists and pedestrians and along the entire length of the roadway. The project will also install solar powered pedestrian crosswalk systems at seven upgraded beach park access crossings.

The improvements include large swales for stormwater management to help reduce flooding. The project addresses what officials call a major safety issue by slowing down traffic and eliminating the danger posed by a four-lane road that ends abruptly at concrete barricades near Eglin Air Force Base property.

State Representative Patt Maney helped secure the $1 million appropriation during the 2024-25 legislative session. In July, Maney toured the project site with Bitterman.

The current design approved in October 2021 calls for reducing Santa Rosa Boulevard from five lanes near the bridge down to eventually become two lanes with bike lanes at the western end. A roundabout will be built near El Matador.

• “If you want to put numbers to it, of the 50,000 cars that would go through the intersection, 45,000 or more are no longer involved in that intersection,” former Public Works Director Jason Autrey explained in 2021. “You’ve dramatically changed the way that it operates. It will be far more efficient.”

The new Brooks Bridge design will eliminate the current traffic signal, allowing cars to flow underneath Highway 98, loop around, and come up onto Brooks Bridge in a dedicated receiving lane.

Ketchel hopes construction will begin within a year-and-a-half. “We’re waiting right now for the bridge to get to the point where they’re working on the other side,” she said. “And at that point, we will be breaking ground on Santa Rosa Boulevard.”

The Infrastructure Surtax Advisory Committee approved the $400,000 allocation at their August 13 meeting. The project will use half-cent sales tax money along with the state funding.