Panama City awards $15.17 million contract to revamp Drummond Park area infrastructure

Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald
·2 min read

PANAMA CITY − A massive construction project to revamp an outdated area of the city is about to break ground.

Panama City commissioners on Tuesday voted to award Extreme Land Clearing & Excavation LLC, a construction company in Panama City, with a contract of more than $15.171 million to repair aging infrastructure in the Drummond Park area.

The project is completely funded by a community development block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Labeled by City Commissioner Josh Street as having the worst infrastructure in the city, Drummond Park could be seeing big improvements to its roads, storm and sewer systems.
Labeled by City Commissioner Josh Street as having the worst infrastructure in the city, Drummond Park could be seeing big improvements to its roads, storm and sewer systems.

"We're ready to break ground, and we'll be holding our public meeting with the neighborhood that's over there very soon," Commissioner Josh Street said. "This is the part where we get shovels in the ground."

Street described getting to this point of the project where construction can finally begin as a "multi-year effort." The Drummond Park area is one of a handful of areas identified by the city as having critically aging infrastructure.

These issues were exacerbated by Category 5 Hurricane Michael, which struck the Panhandle in October 2018.

"It's been several years in the making, and so I'm just glad to see it finally getting across the finish line," Street said. "In (the Drummond Park area), we had some issues, and then Hurricane Michael came and pushed the issues over the edge."

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He said the project, which is slated to begin construction within the next couple of months, will replace practically all infrastructure in area, including its roads, sidewalks, water and sewer systems.

"This is all (going to) be done through a community development block grant, and so we're very thankful for our state partners ... as well as the officials at HUD that enabled us to get this funding so that we can make a truly transformative project, and one that we probably wouldn't be able to afford otherwise," Street said.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City ready to begin major project in Drummond Park area