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First Of Three Major Road Projects Gets Started In Century; Hwy. 29 In Molino, Hwy. 97 Next
September 28, 2009
The first of three major road projects in North Escambia is now underway in Century, and big resurfacing projects will begin before year’s end on Highway 29 in Molino and on Highway 97.
Century Drainage Improvements
A drainage system improvement project in Century will keep North Century Boulevard down to two lanes from about Henry to Cottage streets through the end of the year.
The Florida Department of Transportation is investing $480,159 in federal stimulus dollars into the project. The Town of Century will provide local matching funds with in-kind services to be provided by Escambia County on the project — services such as digging a necessary retention pond with county equipment and labor.
The project is set to be completed by the end of December, 2009.
Highway 29 Resurfacing Molino
A 4.55 mile stretch of Highway 29 is set to be resurfaced from Highway 97 north to just north of Pine Barren Road.
The $3,986,342 project, funded with federal stimulus dollars, is set to begin as early as December 4. It has a scheduled completion day of July 22, 2010.
Highway 97 Resurfacing
The entire length of Highway 97 from Highway 95A in Molino to the Alabama state line will be resurfaced beginning late this year.
The project is set to being as early as December 17 and continue through October 2, 2010. There is no major drainage work expected on the route’s 55 cross drains under the highway, with the exception of some possible changes near the intersection of Highway 97 and Crabtree Church Road.
Existing 12 foot wide travel lanes and five foot paved shoulders will be milled and resurfaced. Highway 97 will remain at two lanes; this project does not include widening the road into a four-lane highway.
The 22.5 mile resurfacing project will cost $6,693,164.
Comments
18 Responses to “First Of Three Major Road Projects Gets Started In Century; Hwy. 29 In Molino, Hwy. 97 Next”
I have some friends who don’t live on a county maintained road and the neighbors got together and had some basic road work done themselves. (It is more like a stone road, than paved.) They all chipped in and didn’t wait for the government to do it for them.
I do agree that the LOST fund money should be going to the things that it was pitched as paying for… paving roads, capital improvements, etc. And moving projects up and down the priority list would be infuriating. I have also seen roads or water projects held up by one or two neighbors who won’t grant the right of way. So there may be a lot of factors on why a road doesn’t get done.
The other things is that there is a political aspect to this whole thing. Comm. White has been pretty vocal about not increasing taxes and trying to get the Administrator to balance his budget … that is, make cuts and layoffs, and not use one time revenue to balance the budget. He has also tried to get to the bottom of some strange stuff that happens at the county departmental level. You better bet that there is retaliation and that “his projects” get moved down the priority list when he is making waves. I am not a White apologist, as I haven’t agreed with every decision he makes, but I think your anger is misdirected. You should be calling Bob McLaughlin, the County Administrator, and heating up his phone lines. He is the one directing the Road departments. And he is untouchable by election. Even though the Administrator is supposed to be taking direction from the Commissioners, that is never the reality. They are insulated from public opinion and it takes an “act of God” to remove them. (remember Touart?)
But I have to also agree with the posters who said that people knew they were living on a dirt road when they moved there. The privacy that you get from living on a dirt road also has its drawbacks. I do hope that your roads get paved soon. With all this rain this year it must be especially unpleasant and difficult!
My opinion, your mileage may vary …
If you don’t like the complaints then I suggest you not log on and read them. William let me know I was way off in my first comment. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to start a gripe, but it is interesting to know that their are others that feel the same way. And some people like to get on here just to make rude remarks about some other person’s opinion. You just can’t leave it alone can you?
Dear Not Pleased
No one told you to move down a dirt road!!!! LOL, some ppl just love to get on here and complain like a baby.
hey!!! pineville rd is dirt too…and its worse that phillips rd.!!!! i think someone needs to ride some of the “road commisioner” people up and down these dirt roads when they are wet and nasty and stick them off in the ditch and let them see just “how fun” it is LIVING ON A DIRT ROAD!!!
would you consider it ironic if you were waiting your turn to eat and someone cut in front of you for seconds?
I find it ironic that a story about roads being paved draws the gripes of roads not being paved.
When will 99 be repaved it is bad . I am concern with the many students that drive to school as well as school buses and teachers that travel this road it is narrow and many pot holes,
I just wish they would LEARN how to pave a road to where the water will not flood the roads when it rains. When I saw the other day how they mowed the lawn at the edge of Hwy.29 so that the water will stand right on the road all I could do was shake my head and chuckle. Geezzz, instead of repaving them flat, they need to make it so that the road is higher so that the rain water has a place to go and keep the grass mowed more often so that I don’t have to keep calling them to come out and cut the grass so when I go to make a turn I can see oncoming traffic
. But oh, that might mean a little more tar and that costs money.
And people should not have to live on a dirt road at all. Just about the same thing with the rain, but worse. Will we ever, get someone in the Transportation department that has a brain? Or someone in the Commissions Office that can do their jobs that our taxes are paying them for. Stop the lies and get your acts together.
consider: If you paid to have your road paved by LOST funds and they did not choose to do it because they decided to divert the money, does it make sense to move?
For that matter, if someone promised to pave all the dirt roads within a certain time frame and there was a nice place you wanted, would it be unreasonable to buy it under the assumption the road would be paved withing the specified time frame?
Actually, it would be unreasonable because that implies you still trust politicians and have not yet learned your lesson.
David the trusting
HMMMMM….If you don’t want to live on a dirt road…..then don’t LIVE on a DIRT road!! I hate em too, so I don’t live on one.
TDD, it’s worse than you can imagine regarding the nonpaving of dirt roads.
Anderson Columbia offered to loan the county the money needed to pave all the roads at a high interest rate. The county laughed, said they could get better interest rates and anyway, they already had all the money needed to pave all the dirt roads, they just weren’t wanting to do it then (or now, it seems). These are all good things, just not what they promised to do with our money.
They sold the Local Option Sales Tax based on paving the roads and are afraid we might take it away if they ever actually did pave all the roads. In the mean time, they have frozen the Civic Center with money borrowed from LOST, bought a number of nice cars for the sherrif’s department-rather than buy them from their own department funds, put in some wonderful electronics.
Whenever the tax comes up for renewal, they will pave a few more dirt roads and threaten to quit if we don’t renew or at least that is what they did the past couple of times.
Oh, and they close roads after letting them get impassable. They did that with Roach Road and keep threatening to do it with Whirlpool Rd. At least I got mine on McBride Rd and keep paying taxes hoping they will get to you sometime in your lifetime.
Lots of luck..
Mr White has successfully run twice on his promise of paving north end roads. I voted for him once, learned my lesson after his first term. I haven’t seen a paved road yet, with the exception for parts of Kansas road which was completed two years ago. How long will many of you support a Commissioner with false hope and promises? It’s your vote, make it count!
I truly agree with the person talking about the dirt roads not being paved in Molino. We have asked and asked about the paving of Nicholson Drive all we get is a run around. It’s amazing to find out that you are on the list to have a road paved and than all of a sudden you back down to the bottom of the list.
The really weird part about Nicholson Drive is that County Commissioner Wilson Robinson paved half of Nicholson Dr. for a business man but the other half is left as a dirt road. Now the county has built the road up from the paved portion to at least 2 foot difference and probably 4 foot difference from the main portion of the road. The road isn’t even a flat road to drive on. Wild weeds and grass grows on the east side of the road because you can’t use a lawn mower between the man made ditch and a fence. Thank you Road Department good job!!
The county commissioner needs to quite trading roads off to each others distict and Kevin White needs to take care of Molino dirt roads.
i wish that county commissioner would read the comments in Northescambia.com and make a reply back to the citizians of Molino.
Will we every have our day for seeing Nicholson Drive road paved?
I guess the 5 of us families living on the dirt portion doesn’t count.
Thank you William for setting me straight. I say that we’re still getting the run around, and Commissioner White still won’t get my vote.
Highway 97 is a state highway, and Highway 29 is a federal highway maintained by the state.
Highway 4, Highway 99, 97A, the dirt roads and the others mentioned are county roads.
Comm. White and the other four commissioners had *nothing* to do with resurfacing part of 29 and all of 97. That’s the state with state money.
The county is not spending any money on these resurfacing projects. All of the 29 work is federal stimulus money via the state, and 97 is state money.
This is just amazing to me. Let’s spend money resurfacing roads that already have pavement and not worry about the dirt roads left in out county. Commissioner White should have to drive up and down Occie Phillips Road off of 97A or Pine Barron Road off of Hwy 97 in Davisville. Might just see then how quick these roads would get paved. Instead we have to hear his many excuses. You would think after years of excuses and/or lies he would run out of them. Here’s one vote he shouldn’t count on.
I am so proud that Hwy 97 will be resurfaced. Especially the part from Hwy 4 to AL line! I can feel it pulling my car from side to side, eating my tires up!
WOW…..It would be GREAT, if NORTH HIGHWAY 99 was widen and resurfaced from HIGHWAY 97, North to the Alabama line, for the safety of School buses and students driving to Northview .
ALSO,
Widen and resurface WEST HIGHWAY 4 from Highway 29 in Century to Highway 97 in Davisville, for the safety of School buses and students driving to Northview.
I wonder WHO makes the DECISIONS on what Highway are to be resurfaced?
I believe a request has been made to Commissioners several times about widen and resurfacing above mention Highways.
WEST HIGHWAY 4 and NORTH HIGHWAY 99 is deteriating RAPIDLY, compared to HIGHWAY 97.