For the past several years, there has been one position or another verbalized regarding vehicular traffic on State Route 85 through our fair city.
Picture, if you can, for I experienced the following happening several days ago, and perhaps the irony of some of the stated positions will become clear.
I was motoring north from southern Okaloosa County with a trunk full of groceries, for I had a few moments earlier departed the Eglin commissary, and as the hands on my watch indicated that 5 p.m. was rapidly approaching and I had to hurry to get things unloaded if I wanted to get to the church choir rehearsal on time.
I made it through the construction on State Route 123 without any difficulty, and the ridiculous “speed trap” just north of the newly built flyover, and all was going along smoothly.
Just about a mile south of the exit leading to Duke Field and the 7th Special Forces cantonment area, traffic came to a screeching halt! Both northbound lanes were backed up, and forward progress was at a snail’s pace.
It took more than 30 minutes to travel the 4 miles (approximately) to the Shoal River bridges.
Just before arriving at the northern end of this traffic jam, I noticed that two patrol cars — one of a deputy sheriff and the other of a state trooper — were parked in the grass between the northbound and southbound lanes.
There were no other vehicles, but obviously the gawkers had slowed to view something that did not exist. Perhaps there had been an accident earlier, but if so it had long been cleared up!
The time in this predicament gave me an opportunity to ponder the several solutions to Crestview’s traffic problem. As I sat listening to 1940s music on Sirius XM, I thought about the solution espoused by one county commissioner — to open the road that passes the Lowe’s store to Arena Road.
“Wow,” I thought, “that would really solve this problem!”
Then I thought about the solution that I had voiced at a meeting of the Okaloosa-Walton Transportation Planning Organization when I was a Crestview city council representative thereto, only to have another county commissioner — since moved — ask, “Where are you going to get the money?”
I suggested that the traffic problem does not start inside city limits, and any project initiated therein would be a waste of money and fruitless. I envisioned then, in 2009, that a reduction in the traffic count had to begin far south of the city, on the other side of the river!
My proposal, which obviously has been ignored by the OWTPO, was to erect a flyover leading to Rattlesnake Bluff Road, paving that road westward for approximately one half mile, turning north to a bridge to be built, and then connecting with Antioch Road near the elementary school.
By having such a road, all those wanting to travel to Milligan, Holt and Baker would never have to get into the traffic jams that develop daily long before traffic gets to PJ Adams Parkway. (The only time folks from other parts of the county would have to head north any farther on SR 85 would be if they needed to go to WalMart, Lowes or some dining establishment.)
Ironically, at the same meeting that I was told there would be no money for such a project, considerable time was devoted to discussing a TPO plan to erect an elevated road, five-eighths of a mile in length, from Danny Wuerfel Road eastward, so that traffic on U.S. Highway 98 could flow smoothly through that congested area while not affecting commercial establishments on either side of the existing highway!
Not only was my suggestion “shot down” because of a perceived lack of money, but it was expressed that the Air Force would never allow such development.
This may be true if the Air Force was never asked, but the Air Force was asked! I and another city councilman in attendance at a League of Cities meeting at Hurlburt’s Soundside Club spoke to Eglin’s division commander and summarized the concept.
Without blinking an eye, this two-star general stated, “You’ve got it. We don’t need it.”
This was subsequently reported to the TPO, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears. Or, perhaps there is no money, just like there apparently is none for an elevated highway east of Destin.
Crestview’s traffic problems do not begin at WalMart Road. Traffic lights at Liveoak Church Road, PJ Adams Parkway, John King Road, and the I-10 overpass all help to magnify the problem.
In my opinion, it is too late to try to avoid the bottleneck after one has been in it for a half-mile or more!
The solution is to get out of it before one gets in!
Bob Allen is a former Crestview City Council member.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet @cnbeditor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: ALLEN: How to solve Crestview's traffic problem