CRESTVIEW — City and county officials are considering an agreement that could lead to an east-west connector, taking vehicles off State Road 85.
"Something tripped my trigger about Arena Road,” Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles, a Holt resident, said.
Linking Rasberry Road to Arena Road, through the Crestview wastewater treatment plant spray field, is possible, based on a Crestview consultant's study from several years ago, he said.
Boyles broached the idea during a recent meeting of state Department of Transportation officials in Tallahassee. Then he, Crestview Mayor David Cadle, Public Works Director Wayne Steele, city engineer Fred Cook and county engineer Scott Bitterman met in January to discuss the idea.
“We toured the spray field and looked at roads and looked at some of the road alignments,” Boyles said. “Out of that field trip came the idea that this is a project that is possible and could have a huge impact for our citizens.”
For example, Countryview Estates residents could go shopping at Lowe’s and Publix “without ever touching 85,” Boyles said.
“From Baker or Holt or northwest of Crestview, you could hop onto Arena Road at Antioch, then proceed to Highway 85,” he said. “It’s an alternate back-and-forth route.”
Boyles said the project — estimated to cost between $6 and $8 million — could be funded by the DOT’s revolving loan fund, which allows municipalities to do improvements and make small payments back at low interest rates.
He hopes to bring the interlocal agreement before county commissioners at their next meeting, and will present it to Cadle and the City Council, probably in March.
“I think it would instantly be a very busy little road,” Boyles said. “You’d bypass all the stoplights and congestion on 85 and would reduce the congestion to the folks that are traveling 85.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview, county mull agreement to relieve S.R. 85 traffic