| It could be 2008 before link between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach is open
By Dusty Ricketts, Northwest Florida Daily News
October 2006
Navarre Beach – Plans to rebuild State Road 399 have yet to be finalized more than a year after Hurricane Dennis washed out a large portion of the beach road.
But construction on a temporary one-lane road – to be used only for emergency evacuations – will be completed by April 1, said Jerry Eubanks, superintendent of the Gulf Island National Seashores.
Construction on the temporary road is expected to start before the end of the year.
“Our immediate concern is to have an emergency lane open,” said Eubanks. The cost of the temporary repairs has not been finalized, he said.
Sand that was blown across the road during the storm was removed last month. However, Eubanks said some follow-up work likely will be needed following strong winds this week.
About 20 percent of the seven-mile road between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach was washed away and needs to be rebuilt.
Hurricane Ivan washed away parts of state road 399 in September 2004. Repairs were completed in time for the Fourth of July weekend last year. But Hurricane Dennis came ashore just west of Navarre Beach with 120-mile winds days later and damaged the road again.
The road also sustained substantial damage during Hurricane Opal in 1955 and Tropical Storm Isidore in 2002.
Eubanks said the Federal Highway Administration has been leery of rebuilding the road without adding some protection from future washouts.
Eubanks met with representatives from the FHA, Florida Department of Transportation and the National Park Service to develop a plan for permanent repairs.
The group decided that areas where the road was totally washed out will definitely need protection from future storms. Areas where half the road was washed away will also probably receive protections, but not areas that sustained minor damage, Eubanks said.
Protection options the group is considering include moving the road, building a berm or dune or installing sheet piling along the side of the road.
Eubanks said plans call for having a repair contract in place by next September and the work being finished by the spring of 2008.
The FHA will fund the repairs and the DOT will oversee them, Eubanks said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has recommended that Gulf Island National Seashore approve a beach restoration project to add sand to the beach in front of the road.
“It would help protect the road,” said Sarah Williams, a spokeswoman for the DEP. “We continue to encourage them and show them how (beach restoration) has benefited other areas.”
Eubanks said he is concerned that a restoration project would harden the sand and could harm natural habitats.
It’s been more that a year since the road was damaged and Santa Rosa County Commissioner Gordon Goodin said he never thought the road would take this long to repair. “They always told us they were actively working to get that road open this year,” Goodin said. “Then they said they wanted to wait until the end of hurricane season this year. Now here we are near the end of hurricane season and they don’t even have a design.”
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