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| A rendering of the proposed roundabut to be constructed at Perdido Key Drive and Johnson's Beach Road--from the Perdido Key Master Plan |
Initially approved by the board at $850K this past January--the costs of the project have increased dramatically---by more than $500K---to now well over $1.3 Million.
Apparently, I'm told, outgoing D2 Commissioner Doug Underhill has already agreed-to and will be funding this additional $500K cost overrun----on top of paying for the initial $850K from his discretionary D2 LOST funds. This funding source is what keeps the project going forward.
The other part of this roundabout equation is the timeline for construction. It was supposed to be well underway by now----- but the completion date has now slipped also.
So after a recent conference call with administration and the engineering, acquisition, traffic and roads division--it was determined that the contractor who was awarded this work will NOT start the roundabout project until after peak season of May, June, and July. It is anticipated to begin after these busiest months on the area beaches, sometime in mid to late August, and a maintenance of traffic plan is mandatory under the contract and this will be enforced so as not to disturb the flow of traffic any more than is absolutely necessary.
more to come on this topic in the months ahead.
3 comments:
Appeal the decision to pay Underhills legal fees and take note of the customary use decisions in Walton County for dry sand. Take down the no trespassing signs and don't fund these ridiculous roundabouts.
Good job on the appeal vote. Noone should have to put up with Underhill and his bullies on social media.
This is actually really good news. Perhaps now ALL of the residents down there can have some public input on the project, and not just the couple of dozen Doug had stacked into the single improperly noticed meeting that piled people into a room during the height of covid.
Perhaps a well-designed rotary is exactly the thing for that intersection. Has the County asked DOT to weigh in? I've heard that the consulting firm for the project did a mediocre job at best, and never much trusted the opinion of the now-departed Special Traffic person who spent part of her tenure here starring in catwalk videos to showcase Doug's massive success (insert sarcasm) at the Florabama.
As for the development adjacent to that intersection, it has already gone to pre-app once during the 2018 election cycle when Doug was doing another round of bidding for his developers down in Perdido. At that point, the idea was to develop the crap out of it with an intense residential build near the intersection called, if memory serves, "Isabella," commercial along PK Drive, mixed use behind it, and then--nope, I'm not kidding--a floating bridge across sensitive wetlands area to stick a couple of condo towers near the National Seashore.
That plan would require one of the businesses along PK Drive to sell so that the developer could get its primary entrance in while doing the secondary "safety" entrance along the northern side of Heron's Walk from Johnson, rendering that neighborhood a pass-through. Whether or not that's even legal per the county's LDC was never really established all that well, and who knows what it reads now. Like a lot of people, I've given up on trying to advocate for better development code at the County, because it's clear the board really doesn't care how bad their code is, or they'd change it. At any rate, this is the proposed site of the first town center, whatever letter of the alphabet it is in the Master Plan, which thank goodness District 2 doesn't have to pay any attention to any more. I think it was Town Center A. Stick that one in first, jigger for capacity now that PK Drive is a County ride (like they did in Seaside), send in the attorneys, and down comes the building cap. Then will come town centers B, C, D...however many there are.
I wonder if the people who actually bought Doug's Moses coming down from the mount act with the PKMP commandments in his hands are ever going to figure out just how badly his special interest with developers down there screwed that barrier island. After Doug is long gone from Perdido, he will have left the wreckage of what is still a beautiful, unique barrier island behind, even though areas of it are absolutely destroyed. There is very little time to preserve any of its special nature.
Sadly, most of the people who seem concerned about that will also buy right in to the idea that the development that is coming didn't spawn from Doug. So glad those of us in D2 advocating against the worst of Doug's mismanagement don't have to worry about him hoodwinking people about the Key any more. But very sad nonetheless at the prospect of it going to development hell as a result of his back door dealings. Maybe the people who still think ECW is a place for honest discussion of such things will finally wake up. I doubt it though.
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