With 900 new units planned for Navarre Beach, Santa Rosa may move to replace causeway bridge

With new development on the horizon along the Santa Rosa County coastline, County Commissioner Ray Eddington is convinced now is the time to get serious about replacing the Navarre Beach Causeway Bridge.

Eddington, whose District 4 includes Navarre Beach, asked his fellow board member's Tuesday at the county's committee of the whole meeting to support him in pushing for a planning, development and environment study.

"I want to do a PD&E study for a new bridge I want to put across at the beach," he said. "I hope you all will go along with me. I know it's quite a bit of money, but we need a new bridge."

Replacing the bridge has resurfaced as a topic of conversation as plans have been announced to build two new condominium complexes along with hotel space on Navarre Beach that will add nearly 900 living or rental units.

Commissioners estimated that many more new dwellings will likely increase introduce about 1,600 to 1,800 new vehicles to the barrier island, with most of them arriving by turning off of U.S. Highway 98 and crossing the two lane, functionally obsolete, causeway bridge.

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None of Eddington's fellow commissioners responded directly to his calls for movement on conducting a PD&E study, but Commission Chairman Colten Wright told the News Journal last week that he expects discussion on the matter at the commission's June meetings.

Wright said what is known for sure is that such a study would take "at best" two years to complete and possibly as long as four years. Also, the county, which owns the road that passes over the Navarre Bridge Causeway, will be footing the bill for the study, Wright said.

Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Ian Satter said the agency was projecting the PD&E study to cost a minimum of $1.4 million.

A feasibility study conducted for the county by FDOT was commissioned in mid-2021. It was turned over to the county in March of this year and offers three alternatives for new bridge construction. Because the existing bridge no longer meets either Coast Guard navigation requirements or FDOT bridge design standards it will be replaced in all scenarios.

Alternative one would take out the existing bridge and replace it within the same footprint with a single structure that rises to 65 feet above the Santa Rosa Sound to meet Coast Guard standards. It will incorporate pending improvements to U.S. Highway 98 on the north side of the bridge.

The second alternative would extend the bridge from State Road 87 and U.S. 98 across the sound and land it on county property adjacent to the Navarre Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The third would also incorporate State Road 87 and U.S. 98 into planning and would "cross Santa Rosa Sound in an S-curve pattern" to connect with the existing southernmost landing of the bridge.

Alternatives two and three were considered the most viable options, according to the FDOT study.

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Wright said once the PD&E study is completed the county can determine which FDOT alternative for construction best meets the needs of the county and begin looking for possible funding sources to at least help cover the cost of construction. In 2021, estimates of the cost to replace the bridge ran between $80 and $120 million.

"In the best case scenario the new bridge is 10 years away," Wright said.

Eddington said following Monday's meeting that no recent event had inspired him to call for the PD&E study.

"I've been working on the bridge since day one," said Eddington, who was sworn in last November. "Now it's time to get moving. We've just got to get everything in the works. I'm trying to get it moved on as soon as possible."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Navarre Beach bridge replacement growing priority in Santa Rosa County