The $46 million four laning of Nine Mile Road won’t be completed until late spring next year, but the Florida Department of Transportation already has a study underway to consider widening it again to six lanes from Pine Forest Road to Mobile Highway.
An Escambia County commissioner wants to know why it’s taken so long to complete four lanes and why six lanes are under consideration.
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“Why the hell is the current project so badly over-budget and behind schedule? That is the question residents I represent want to know,” Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh wrote on his blog Monday, saying he plans to address Nine Mile Road during a Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization meeting this week.
“….this project is tracking to be nearly 24 months behind schedule—residents that I represent want to know why this FDOT project is not a 24 hour a day, weekends and nights, priority for completion? I want to know this too, so I will be asking this question SPECIFICALLY at the TPO meeting we will be having this Wednesday,” Bergosh continued.
“So with this as the backdrop—why are we even talking about making 6-lanes on this road NOW?? Who is pushing this? Did an outlandish, expensive ($74 million), and inefficient “special interest” idea get laughed out of a room full of Tallahassee deciders a few months back, and is this the “new” project this special interest group now is pushing? Gosh I hope this is not the new “we gotta have this” project because there are MUCH MORE important projects that need to come first that will have greater impact on the issues out here than talking about 6-Lanes through Beulah,” the District 1 commissioner wrote.
Bergosh said FDOT needs to address other issues before six laning Nine Mile, beginning with fixing I-10 and the Pine Forest Road exit to two lanes now and add a dedicated turn lane on westbound I-10 because vehicles are currently stacking up on the shoulder of the interstate for about a mile.
He said FDOT needs to get to work on the Beulah Interchange project. “If you pull HALF the Beulah traffic off of 9-Mile Road north to Isaacs lane and what will eventually be our interchange there—-this lightens the traffic load on the heavily-congested portion of 9-Mile Road through Beulah on 9-Mile Road in front of NFCU. Hello?!? Duh??”
And there’s one more thing, Bergosh wrote. The capitalization is his…”FDOT, for the love of God, MAKE YOUR CONTRACTOR FINISH THIS CURRENT 4-LANE PROJECT IN BEULAH BETWEEN EXIT 5 AND MOBILE HWY. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH THREE DAY NO WORK WEEKENDS AND LAME EXCUSES WHEN THIS PROJECT IS TRACKING 24 MONTHS BEHIND!!!”
As NorthEscambia.com first reported last week, the Florida Department of Transportation has credited a virtual update on the Nine Mile six lane study. The virtual project update, interactive map, virtual tour and a comment form are available by clicking or tapping here. The deadline to submit comments is October 15.
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Pictured: A look at the construction on Nine Mile Road. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
