HURBLURT FIELD — State, local and military officials met Thursday to break ground on the long-awaited U.S. Highway 98 overpass at the entrance to the base.
Construction on the $13.9 million project is set to begin this summer. Utility relocation already is under way.
Col. Jim Slife, commander of Hurlburt Field’s 1st Special Operations Wing, said the project is a long time coming. Traffic congestion has been a problem at the main entrance at Cody Avenue for years.
“It’s going to make things much easier for the local community to navigate around Hurlburt so we don’t bog things down, and it’s going to make it easier for our airmen to get on and off base,” Slife said during the ceremony. “This project is worth way more than $14 million to us.”
While Hurlburt has grown over the past two decades to become the Air Force’s sixth largest installation in terms of active-duty personnel, the infrastructure largely has remained the same, he said. That’s now going to change.
“This project is really the centerpiece of a host of infrastructure improvements around Hurlburt,” Slife said. “We really couldn’t do anything else until we got this funded.”
The project will raise a 1.1-mile section of U.S. 98 over Cody Avenue using two two-lane bridges.
Traffic passing by Hurlburt will be able to fly over the intersection. Motorists who want to enter the base will use off ramps to get to Cody Avenue.
Hurlburt employs more than 10,000 people.
Traffic entering and leaving the base backs up, especially in the morning and evening hours, which causes congestion on U.S. 98, said Tommy Barfield, district secretary for the state Department of Transportation.
Eliminating waits at traffic signals and separating traffic trying to reach the base from through traffic will relieve congestion.
“We know this is not going to solve all of the traffic problems on 98, but it’s a good start,” Barfield said after the ceremony.
Construction should begin this summer and conclude by the end of 2014. Officials stressed they are dedicated to limiting the impacts.
“This is going to be a big project right in the middle of a busy intersection,” Slife said. “Hurlburt Field is absolutely committed to do all we can to minimize the impact on everyone as this project gets under way.”
A first step will be to reroute all commercial traffic entering Hurlburt Field to the back entrance off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Commercial vehicles now enter the base through the front gate and require time-consuming inspections that can contribute to traffic backup, Lt. Col. David Novy, commander of the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineering Squadron, said after the ceremony.
Novy said the change will pull 300 to 400 vehicles from the U.S. 98-Cody Avenue intersection each day.
“That alone will allow traffic to move more freely through the intersection,” he said.
Construction of an inspection station at the back gate still is pending public comment and results of environmental assessments. Barring any issues, Novy hopes construction can start by mid to late summer and commercial vehicles can be diverted from U.S. 98 by the end of the year.
The rerouting will remain in place after the construction is complete as a long-term attempt to improve traffic flow, he said.
As a temporary measure during construction, Hurlburt also will reopen the Kerwood gate on U.S. 98 east of the flight line and the main gate.
Westbound motorists coming from Fort Walton Beach and Destin, which account for about a quarter of the base’s traffic, can enter through that gate before they reach the construction area, Novy said.
Those who gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony said the overpass is finally coming to fruition because of the special partnership between state, local and military officials.
Slife said wing commanders at Hurlburt have been talking about trying to ease traffic at the main gate for at least 15 years. He said that when he took over as commander in 2011, he made the issue one of his top priorities and started to look at how to get it done.
“I quickly came to realize we had a really unique and almost magical alignment of personalities and interest from all our state and local partners,” he said.
Barfield and county officials said Slife was instrumental in helping to find the funding, which was secured about nine months ago.
“This was easy to do, and the reason it was easy is because we have all the right people lined up in all the right places,” Slife said. “Thank you all so much. You guys made this happen and I’m proud to be here at this magical moment in time.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4440 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.