U.S. 98 alternative road in Navarre rolling along; how to get an early look at the plans
South Santa Rosa County residents will have a first opportunity to see what a Navarre Community Access Road might look like on Feb. 15 when the county holds what it is calling a public kick off meeting at the Tiger Point Community Center in Gulf Breeze.
Engineers from Volkert Inc., the consultant chosen in August to conduct a Project Development and Environmental study of the proposed connector road, will be available between 5 and 7 p.m. on the evening of the event to answer questions about it.
"We will have story boards to present diagrams, timelines and cross sections," Shawn Ward, the county's planning and zoning director, said in an email.
Discussion of creating an access road that would run parallel to U.S. Highway 98 on its north side, and theoretically allow local traffic to move more freely between nearby destinations, began in 2007, according to information provided by the county.
County staff and a Holley By the Sea Traffic Committee originally contemplated something similar to an east-west connector that had proven successful for the city of Destin, an Okaloosa County community that, like Navarre, has grown up along either side of busy U.S. 98.
The project was added to the Florida Alabama Transportation Planning Organization long term plan in 2010 and a "conceptual swath" placed on the agency's transportation network map in 2011.
A feasibility study, also conducted by Volkert, was initiated in 2018 and completed in 2019. It looked at improving connector roads running west from Panhandle Trail, close to Navarre's Walmart Supercenter, to Edgewood Drive, just east of the sprawling campus of St. Sylvester Catholic Church.
The Navarre Connector Access Road would cover a total distance of approximately 7 miles and "connect existing collector roads with a new road," the release said.
What would a connector road accomplish?
The route being studied would take drivers using the connector road across busy State Road 87 north of its intersection with U.S. 98 and past the Navarre Beach Causeway Bridge, where traffic tie ups are a daily event during spring and summer months as visitors vie with locals to access Navarre Beach.
Previously: Long-envisioned Navarre Community Access Road concept moves forward with study
Funding for the PD&E study became available in January of last year when the Florida Department of Transportation approved a Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) grant that the county agreed in August to match by putting up $600,000 of its own.
One goal of the connector road will be to ease congestion on U.S. 98, as 41,500 vehicles pass through the area each day. Another goal, according to the county, is "to determine a preferred road location that will increase the safe and efficient movement of modes of transportation."
"The proposed new road will have safe pedestrian and bicyclist features," the news release said.
The pedestrian and cyclist friendly amenities created can provide safer access to such locations as Navarre High School and Navarre Primary School, which are both in the zone being studied.
The feasibility study found that when U.S. 98 is congested, traffic diverts off that road to local access roads, and during the five-year time period ahead of the report's 2019 publication, 14 vehicle crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists had occurred within the study area, including three that proved fatal.
Also as part of the PD&E study, Volkert will analyze the Navarre Community Access Road's impact on the social, economic, cultural, natural and physical environment, the county news release said.
It is anticipated the PD&E study will take about two years to complete at which time Volkert will present a "most probable corridor" option for the county to consider. If approved, the roadway would still have to be designed and right of way purchased.
"Even if everything went well, we're probably still four or five years away from seeing anything," County Commissioner Colten Wright said after the PD&E study was funded. "That's unfortunate, because we can use it now."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa Navarre Community Access Road to offer U.S. 98 alternative
