State, local officials to talk about traffic solutions

CRESTVIEW — Officials from local and state agencies will convene for a workshop this week to discuss plans for a bypass around Crestview.

The workshop will take place at 10 a.m., May 3 at Warrior’s Hall with representatives from the Crestview City Council, Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners and Florida Department of Transportation in attendance

State senators and representatives from the area will also be there, including Senator George Gainer, who is expected to chair the meeting. Representatives from Eglin Air Force base were invited to attend, but have not been confirmed at the time of this writing.

The main goal of the workshop is to get all of the invited government agencies to reach a consensus on a plan to relieve traffic along state road 85 in Crestview.

A conceptual plan that shows a future bypass looping around the city will be discussed as part of the presentation. Some of the groundwork for the bypass is already approved and underway, including widening PJ Adams Parkway and building a new interchange along Interstate 10 at Antioch Road.

City Council President J.B. Whitten, who helped organize the workshop, said there is a need to get each agency on board with one plan that encompasses each project involved in the traffic plan.

“I won’t say that everything we’re trying to do is going to die if we don’t get a consensus, but I would say that we’re going to lose a lot of impact if we can’t reach an agreement on this,” Whitten said.

Whitten's hope is that by the end of the meeting, he said, each agency is focused on the same plan for future traffic improvements, which he says should help the process move faster.

“I’m not going to say that all this stuff is going to go away if we don’t do that, but I think it’s going to get dragged out,” he said. “It’s going to go through the same process it’s going through now. You look at the dates on that … it’s not going to happen in my lifetime if we keep doing it this way.”

The transportation workshop will be open to the public and officials encourage participation.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: State, local officials to talk about traffic solutions