SOUTHPORT — Officials listened to suggestions from residents on Thursday night about how to link two major future highways that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and provide a regional corridor linking Gulf, Bay and Walton counties.
Although nothing is finalized yet, they learned that the Florida Department of Transportation is evaluating an area near Southport for the final phase of West Bay Parkway. It would link West Bay Parkway at State 77 by Edwards Road and Gulf Coast Parkway at U.S. 231 by Bayou George Drive.
Residents were able to talk to DOT officials and look at maps and charts at West Bay Parkway Extension Corridor Feasibility Study meeting at Gulf Cost State College Public Safety Emergency Operations Center Building.
Officials are now leaning toward Gulf Coast Parkway, which would start at U.S. 98 in Gulf County, ending at U.S. 231 via Bayou George Drive, which is a site for an intermodal center for the Port of Panama City, said Mark Callahan, a principle project manager for CH2M, a firm the state hired to work on the project.
“That appears to be the preferred alternative at this time,” he said. “They are hoping this could be an economic (development area) where we could get more industry going and some more jobs. That is the intent — tie it in so you can get to the airport.”
If the Gulf Coast Parkway ends at Bayou George Drive, the closest route to West Bay Parkway would be over a new bridge over Deer Point Lake, which is the area’s drinking water supply.
Callahan said that poses environmental issues.
“It’s not going to be easy,” he said.
Were the West Bay Parkway to hook into the Gulf Coast Parkway location at Nehi Road farther south, there are a lot of neighborhoods that would be disrupted, he said.
Callahan emphasized that nothing is set in stone, and the public hearing on Thursday night was a way for officials to gauge public sentiment.
“We want to step back and listen to what folks are thinking,” he said.
The linked West Coast Parkway and Gulf Coast Parkway should provide an alternative corridor for drivers that would ease traffic on U.S. 98, he said.
“It should provide some economic development that is much needed and provide jobs, and obviously provide another evacuation route in a hurricane,” Callahan said.
Alan Vann, FDOT project manager, said the West Bay Parkway will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The planning and engineering process could take a decade or more.
Harry Tucker, who lives way north of where the new parkway would be built, said he hopes that link between the two highways doesn’t encroach upon the Deer Point Lake reservoir area
“I’m hoping since they made that Deer Point watershed they can’t mess with it,” he said.
Nancy Sherrer said they should link the two parkways using existing roads. Drivers on the Gulf Coast Parkway could turn north onto U.S. 231, left onto County Road 388, which ends at State Road 77 near where the second phase of the West Bay Parkway comes in, she said. She said taking these roads as a link wouldn’t add that much to the drive.
“I don’t want them to go through Deer Point Lake, period,” she said.