FDOT: Nine Mile Road Work Is Almost Done

December 21, 2021

The Florida Department of Transportation said Monday work is almost complete on a $100 million project to widen and improve Nine Mile Road.

The work was along a 6.9 mile segment of Nine Mile Road from Beulah Road to the Highway 29 interchange.

The western segment of the Nine Mile Road project, between Beulah and Pine Forest Roads, included widening Nine Mile from two to four travel lanes, adding bicycle lanes on both sides of the roadway and sidewalks on the south side. Other improvements include a new eastbound bridge over Eleven Mile Creek, new retention ponds, signalization upgrades, drainage enhancements, and new noise walls.

The eastern segment of Nine Mile Road, between Pine Forest Road and Untreiner Avenue, was completed earlier this year.
Work on the project started in 2016.

As for the current construction project on Highway 29, FDOT says work is expected to wrap up in early 2022.

Comments

16 Responses to “FDOT: Nine Mile Road Work Is Almost Done”

  1. Jim on December 25th, 2021 12:38 am

    Yes, it took over half a decade to get the road done. How long do you think it will take for us to get street lights on this road? Do we track that expectancy in years or pedestrian fatalities? We should probably ask the folks who live along Cervantes.

    Now Pine Forest anyone?

  2. Guy that lives here on December 23rd, 2021 10:55 pm

    @Jeff Bergosh,

    You’re right. The road is done and we don’t have a stupid fly over bridge to appease NF. My point is that these projects should not take so long. That is my complaint, of which I share with many. The state can build a brand new 3 mile bridge in 2 – 3 years and get rid the old one too. It takes 5.3 years to widen a road here.

    I like you Jeff, and know what you do to help here. It is not my intent to to make you look bad, but to enhance the point of view of the local man.

  3. You're wrong wise years on December 23rd, 2021 4:28 pm

    9 mile road is a STATE HIGHWAY, it has little to nothing to do with the county commission.

  4. William in Beulah on December 23rd, 2021 4:25 pm

    If, I remember correctly! The highway was supposed to be four lanes that were supposed to go to Mobile Hwy.
    I literally watched roads inc pull the equipment off the highway project to lay down the Publix parking lot at Beulah rd and 9 mile.

  5. wise years on December 23rd, 2021 1:33 pm

    Look to see which commissioners got large campaign contributions from the road company. They are there and they are the ones you would expect.

  6. Jeff Bergosh on December 23rd, 2021 8:27 am

    William covered it in North Escambia when I pushed back against the state’s overdue, overbudget project in 2020 when further delays were announced, along with a plan to start 6-lanes. It was ridiculous, and I said so loudly…….

    http://www.northescambia.com/2020/09/fdot-study-widening-nine-mile-to-six-lanes-but-four-lanes-arent-done-escambia-commissioner-questions-why

  7. Jeff Bergosh on December 23rd, 2021 8:14 am

    Guy that lives here: This was a state project–county had no play in the letting of the contract or the pushing of the pace. To the extent I could, I did push, especially when they wanted to start talking about “6-lane” planning when they couldn’t even finish the 4 lanes. I pushed back hard on that. And also, I pushed back when some special interests wanted to construct an “overpass skyway” lane over Nature Trail’s subdivision in my district for $74 Million dollars. That got killed. Check the record before you post inaccurate statements, because I live here, too, and I pushed back so hard Broxon went on the news and said I was “wrong” to criticize ?FDOT’s overdue and overbudget project. It’s all a moot point now though, as the road’s finally done. And it is a fantastic road.

  8. Guy that lives here on December 22nd, 2021 7:34 pm

    Rad, to your point, 5.3 years to do a road project! 4 of those years they did nothing but put up orange barrels. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Road, Inc did this work. Something that was supposed to take a little over 2 years turned into orange barrel hell, with no work being done at all. They even cut down the project scope, because who knows why. It was supposed to go all the way to Briddlewood. To Olin’s point, now we 4 lane traffic dumping straight into a middle school.

    Jeff Bergosh is our rep, and he allowed this BS to happen on his watch. There is no defensible excuse why they could not do that project in the time the tax payers were told it would be. To me it just looks like they got back room approvals to milk the contract as long as they could get away with it.

  9. A Alex on December 22nd, 2021 10:29 am

    Guess in 2023 DOT will atart making it 6 lanes? With all the new strip malls going in,that center lanes will be deadly

  10. Correcting missinformation on December 22nd, 2021 10:27 am

    @Olin Schultz … This was an FDOT project, not county. Blame the state.

  11. dubz on December 22nd, 2021 9:06 am

    Good things come to those that wait. LOLz!

  12. Olin Schultz on December 21st, 2021 10:23 am

    Well, when this started, the four lane was to go west to where the existing four lane was. Now it will bottleneck at the middle school. I guess this is what we look for when choosing our next county commissioners.

  13. RAD on December 21st, 2021 9:54 am

    @Bob…According to FDOT’s website, the section of nine mile Rd from Pine Forest to Highway 29 was originally supposed to take 875 days. 1014 days were added for a current contract days of 1889 days, or 5.3 years. The website at one time would tell you what the 1889 days were added for.

    Sadly, this is not a record for the EscaRosa area as I believe the Avalon BLVD 4 lane project from HWY90 to I-10 took over 6 years. It was also supposed to be a 2 year project, if I remember correctly.

  14. John on December 21st, 2021 9:34 am

    They did do a nice job on the new roadway. Unfortunately you will still have to deal with your occasional idiot drivers acting like they own the road!

  15. L. B. on December 21st, 2021 7:08 am

    Beautiful Job, well done.

  16. Bob on December 21st, 2021 6:11 am

    5 years to complete.

    I think FDOT just set a world record for slowest completion!!!