Back Beach intersection upgrade coming

PANAMA CITY — During the busy summer season, eastbound traffic can be backed up for miles from the intersection of Back Beach Road (U.S. 98) and State 79.

So many drivers are trying to turn northbound onto State 79 to get to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport that the turn lane fills up and traffic then spills out into the through-lane, Bay County traffic engineering manager Keith Bryant said.

“It was a major problem this past summer,” he said.

The problem should be resolved when a new intersection improvement project for which Bay County officials have been lobbying is finished, he said.

It moved a step in the right direction earlier last week when the Bay County Transportation Planning Organization, which is comprised of local elected officials, added the project as a last-minute addition to this year’s 2016-2020 road-funding priority list. The project, which could cost between $200,000 and $300,000, made it to fourth in the “Non-Strategic Intermodal Systems” area of the list under transportation management improvements.

Bryant said the intersection improvements involve adding another left turn lane for eastbound Back Beach Road traffic turning northbound onto State 79, also known as North Arnold Road.

That will prevent the stacking back into the through lane, he said. Also, the project calls for reconfiguring the right turn for eastbound Back Beach Road traffic turning south onto State 79, Bryant said.

He said the existing right turn lane will be turned into a through lane, and another right-turn lane would be added.

County officials had been hopeful the project also would have included widening Back Beach Road to six lanes from State 79 to Pier Park Drive, but Bryant said that won’t be included in the intersection project.

“This pot of money can only be spent on intersection improvements,” he said.

It is unclear when the funding will be coming for the project, said Ian Satter, a Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson.

“It is hard to say,” Satter said. “We update our five-year work program every year in December.”

Now that it’s on the priority list, DOT officials will evaluate what funds might be available to bring the intersection project to fruition, Satter said.

“It’s kind of early to tell at this point because we just got the priority moving to number four,” Satter said. “We’ll have to look at a lot of things.”

Even though the intersection project doesn’t include improvements for westbound traffic on Back Beach Road, the proposed Pier Park Loop Road project could help alleviate some of that congestion, Bryant said. The Panama City Beach City Council has endorsed moving forward on construction of the new two-lane road, but it has not yet taken a final vote.

Under the concept, which recently was approved in a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Keith Curry dissenting, the city would fund the $2.6 million to develop a two-lane Pier Park Loop Road, and the property owner, the St. Joe Co., would convey land for it and provide engineering work and mitigation services.

The Pier Park Loop Road would curve for about a 1.5-mile stretch in a northwesterly direction from the end of North Pier Park Drive up to State 79.

North Pier Park Drive extends from Back Beach Road and dead ends just north of Palmetto Trace’s western entrance. When completed, the new road extension would allow drivers leaving Pier Park to drive to State 79 without traveling the congested segment of Back Beach Road.

“Any roadway that takes some of the traffic off Back Beach Road is a good thing,” Bryant said. “It’s a city project, but I’m excited about it.”