CRESTVIEW — Milton, with a population less than half of Crestview’s, has three interchanges on Interstate 10. Crestview has one, which frustrates drivers more as the city grows.
But that may change.
Local officials are cautiously hopeful now that the Florida Department of Transportation has funded a $1 million feasibility study to examine constructing an interchange at Antioch Road and the interstate.
“You expect a year to 18 months for one of those studies from start to finish,” Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles said. “It’s the second step in a long process to actually getting an interchange. The first step was getting the DOT to say there’s a need.”
When Interstate 10 came through town, a bridge on Antioch Road was built in 1969 to provide a second means of crossing the four-lane highway other than the State Road 85 underpass.
The bridge didn’t carry much traffic then, as there were few homes in what is today called the P.J. Adams Parkway-Antioch Road Corridor.
But by the turn of the millennium, the corridor’s stretch between I-10 and State Road 85 experienced unprecedented population growth, as developments such as Countryview Estates sprang up in what had been farmland and forest.
As development increased, it nudged closer and closer to the interstate and the two-lane bridge that crosses it. Antioch Elementary School opened in 1997 in the intersection’s southwest corner.
North of I-10, a residential neighborhood around Brunson Street was developed. The southeast quadrant was soon taken up by the Addison Place Apartments complex. And northeast of the intersection, Bel Aire Terrace Apartments were built.
With the intersection’s four quadrants developed, a traditional “cloverleaf” interchange between Antioch Road and I-10 is effectively ruled out. A cloverleaf interchange uses circular ramps to execute left turns from one road to the intersecting road. It is called a cloverleaf due to its resemblance of the leaves of the clover plant.
While Okaloosa County engineer Scott Bitterman couldn’t speculate on what FDOT’s study will ultimately recommend, “there are other options” to the cloverleaf, he said.
One is a “diamond interchange,” which features on- and off-ramps that parallel the interstate, rather than a cloverleaf’s looping ramps. Examples include Crestview’s current I-10 exit.
A simpler version is the Holt exit, which has no traffic signal but uses stop signs to control traffic exiting I-10 or driving through the intersection on Log Lake Road.
An advantage is the exit could be squeezed into the restricted space caused by development that encroaches on the intersection.
While a second Crestview interchange is years away from becoming reality, Boyles has no doubt it will eventually be built.
He sees it as part of the P.J. Adams-Antioch Road Corridor widening project, which begins with the first two phases this fall.
“I’m very optimistic that we will put a second interchange in Crestview,” he said. “We’re overdue for it and we now have the momentum building.”
Boyles said the FDOT’s backing of the corridor means the project has the state’s attention, and an interstate interchange is a logical part of the project.
“I believe our DOT district is very supportive of the project,” Boyles said.
Community Population Number of interchanges
Milton 9,400 3 (exits 25, 28, 31)
Holt 2,800 1 (exit 45)
Crestview 23,000 1 (exit 56)
DeFuniak Springs 5,600 1 (exit 85)
NEARBY INTERSTATE INTERCHANGES
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Officials studying second possible I-10 exit in Crestview