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School District Calls For All Of Highway 164 To Be Widened For Student Safety
May 1, 2024
The Escambia County School District is calling for Escambia County to widen the entire length of dangerously narrow Highway 164 across North Escambia.
The Escambia County Commission has approved a $1.25 million project to widen about 2.16 total miles of the highway in two locations in what one county commissioner promises is part of the first phase of work.
“We are fortunate that our county is working to widen a stretch of this highway, but it is imperative that the entire length of Highway 164 be updated to accommodate the width of all vehicles to travel safely,” Escambia County Schools Superintendent Keith Leonard said in an email to NorthEscambia.com Tuesday. Leonard said a similar letter will be sent to the county.
“Our district school buses practice extreme caution while traveling Highway 164 for the safety of our students while on board,” Leonard added. “It would be in the best interest of all citizens for Highway 164 to be widened to modern day standards.”
Highway 164 has been the scene of several near head-on crashes and sideswipes attributed to the narrow roadway. Some of the roadway has approximately 8-foot travel lanes — not wide enough for large vehicles like a fire engine from the nearby McDavid Fire Station (pictured left).
The newly funded project will widen Highway 164 to 11-foot wide travel lanes two-thirds of a mile east from Highway 97 and a 1.5 mile stretch that is three-quarters of a mile either side of the Pine Barren Road intersection. (See maps below.) Highway 164 is about 11.5 miles long from Highway 97 near Walnut Hill to Highway 29 in McDavid.
District Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry has committed to finding funds to improve the entire roadway.
“”I promise it’s not the completion of the project, only the first phase including the worst area, and I will keep working diligently to secure the funds needed for additional widening of Highway 164 and for other roads which need these type improvements as well,” Barry said.
Darlene Hart, director of the Transportation Department Escambia County School District, said that school buses, including mirrors, are 10-feet wide like other commercial vehicles. She said district buses have been involved in three collisions with other motorists on Highway 164 since 2015. Two of those involved mirror-to-mirror collisions with other commercial vehicles, and the third involved an overturned pickup truck (pictured).
“We attribute the absence of student injuries in any of the accidents to our professionally trained drivers. However, despite their excellent training, every time they pass an oncoming vehicle on this road, it is still a nerve-wracking
experience,” she wrote in a letter to NorthEscambia.com.
“It’s important to note that standard large private trucks are typically 7 to 8 feet wide, not including mirrors, and these are the types of vehicles we frequently encounter in this area of the county. This underscores the urgent need to widen Highway 164 to ensure the safety of our students and other drivers,” Hart continued.
“We appreciate the county’s efforts to widen a portion of Highway 164, which is most frequently used. However, we urge them to consider widening the entire length of the road for the safety of our students,” the director wrote.
The Escambia County Commission awarded a $1,254,955.88 bid to Panhandle Grading and Paving, the lowest, most responsive, and responsible bidder for the current 2.16 mile project, funded by Local Option Sales Tax funds and expected to be complete within 150 days.
According to Escambia County Engineering, the two areas to be widened had seven sideswipes and other accidents between May 2018 and May 2023– the highest concentration areas on Highway 164. NorthEscambia.com has covered several other crashes on Highway 164 outside the proposed widening zone — including a fiery two pickup crash last April, and a pickup truck and school bus last year (detailed in photo descriptions below).
Pictured above and first below: A near head-on crash in April 2023 on Highway 164 about a mile west of Pine Barren Road — outside the area currently proposed for widening. Pictured second and third photos below: A pickup truck overturned in February 2022 after sideswiping a school bus on Highway 164 1.3 miles east of Pine Barren Road — outside the area currently proposed for widening. Pictured bottom two photos: A school bus and ECUA sanitation truck sideswiped in June 2022 just east of Pine Barren Road — our records do not indicate the exact distance from Pine Barren Road, but it was very near the three-quarter mile mark. NorthEscambia.com photos and graphics, click to enlarge.
Comments
7 Responses to “School District Calls For All Of Highway 164 To Be Widened For Student Safety”
Glad to see the school board is behind paving the entire highway. Here is another thought the school board and us that elect them should consider. How about funding drivers education classes at Northview. Not only do we help teach them a little about driving but we would also save the parents $$$$ on insurance. Drivers education training can save a family hundreds of dollars if it was offered at our North end Highschool.
Just a thought to save your tax payers and voters some money
HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO LOOSE THEIR LIVES OR BECOME DISABLED BEFORE YOU FIX THE PROBLEM.
When the roads were 1st made there weren’t the big wide boy toy trucks with the tires sticking out of the wheel wells and big side mirrors. They will run you off the road so they don’t break their toys.
Why is the County SINKING more money (MILLIONS) on the CITY CIVIC CENTER MONEY PIT? Isn’t it the responsibility of the owners for the upkeep since they are getting the profit. Nobody keeps up my home but me.
Let’s do the right thing and fix it right the first time instead of wasting money on patches.
Was just as bad when I was in Hs back in the early 2000s. Ashame its taken this long to do something
HOW ABOUT PINE FOREST AT 9 MILE
If you sold that OLF to DH Horton for 42 million, you could have instantly signed off on this. BUT NOOOOO! You COMMISSIONERS wanted to sell the OLF field to your business buddies here in Pensacola. You must think we are all naive. You sell it to your buddies so you can get a kickback, good ole Escambia County way! The end result of constant corruption by our Commissioners leads to roads like this that are never fixed and WE SUFFER for it!
Quintet is even worse. Can not see over the hil and the road is so narrow but traveled by everyone coming from santa rosa
WOW….looking at the photo here of the Fire Truck, it takes up the ENTIRE Lane on this dangerous horribly narrow road.
Maybe Our County Commission needs to quit wasting money fighting their losing law suits and trying to pad their own retirement accountss and put We CITIZENS FIRST….