Highway 97 Lane Closures, Road Work Begin Monday

January 29, 2010

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Lane closures will begin Monday morning on Highway 97 as a $5.7 million resurfacing project gets underway.

The project will begin with a major clearing of the right of way in select locations, according to Shawn Joseph, project administrator for Panhandle Grading and Paving, Inc. All of the lane closures beginning Monday will be south of Highway 4 and north of Highway 29.

The next major phases of the project will be guardrail replacements, Joseph said.

Once work begins on the actual highway, work crews will restrict traffic to one lane through the work zone. Weather permitting, the project should be completed in September 2010.

“They will maintain accesses to businesses and residences during the process,” according to Tanya Branton, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation.

The entire 22.5 mile length of Highway 97 will be repaved from County Road 95 in Molino across Highway 29 to the Alabama state line.No major drainage changes are expected to the route’s 55 cross drains under the highway, with the exception of changes near the intersection of Highway 97 and Crabtree Church Road. There will also be new and replacement guardrails installed along the state highway.

Existing 12 foot wide travel lanes and five foot paved shoulders will be milled and resurfaced. This project does not include the four-laning of Highway 97. A four lane highway is not in any of the state’s current plans for Highway 97.

During the entire 270 day project, NorthEscambia.com will provide the most current Highway 97 lane closure and construction updates to help you avoid delays.

Pictured above:  Highway 97 (running left to right in the photo) in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge. 

Comments

20 Responses to “Highway 97 Lane Closures, Road Work Begin Monday”

  1. bill on January 30th, 2010 4:19 pm

    Lets face it. If you live north of cantonment your lucky to have a road. When it rains they wash out, flood or have pot holes. State or county roads, they all need a little TLC. Some are drive at your on risk and at time some people think they are at five flags speedway in the race of a life time. Paving or re-paving is always welcome in the north end.

  2. William on January 30th, 2010 11:37 am

    Let’s focus back on roads in comments, please.

  3. bill on January 30th, 2010 11:12 am

    OB girl,

    Don’t fret little girl of 16 whole years in the work force, I more than double that in years worked. I’m just trying to rev you up a bit. You are very right in saying if you don’t vote don’t complain. You mention God at the end of your messages, which I have respect for, depending on what god you are speaking of. See I believe in and worship God the father & God the son Jesus, not allah, buddha, or any of those false gods that so many believe in. I some how think you maybe referring to the same God I worship, that’s why I have a hard time understanding why anyone that says they believe in the same God that I do could have voted for obama. Now that going to stir up a few.

    Now Gods raises them up and he puts them down. When he takes them down it’s usually hard. Now little girl, you still have the right to vote for anyone you want to, I just hope that that continues to be true. If you are not paying attention, it looks like they keep changing the laws and the Constitution to do what they want once in office rather that be that public servant they are.

  4. Obama Girl on January 30th, 2010 9:25 am

    Bill,

    FYI…I am not a little girl. I’m a grown woman that has a great career and have been working for the last 16 years of my life. I’ve seen that you took my advice and did a little research…good for you! You may have your opinions about the government and you’re entitled to them. But, others have theirs, also, and they’re entitled to them. Nice to know you can take advice from a “little girl.” The majority of the presidents do say “I” and that’s nothing we can change. I believe George Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and others have said it.

    We must also be aware that if we don’t vote then we really can’t complain! To the people that stated Hwy. 99 needs to be resurfaced…it does. But, as it was stated earlier, it’s county not state. There are many roads that have pot holes or need to be resurfaced instead of “fixing” them for another storm to come to wash them out again.

    I pray that everyone has a blessed day and remember let’s put God first because we must pray in order for anything to be changed!

  5. Miss M on January 30th, 2010 12:27 am

    The lesser of two evils is still evil. The lesser of them will merely take you to your destination a bit more slowly.

    I voted for the lesser of two evils twice. Both times I won, and later realized I had actually lost. Never again. If I can’t vote for someone, instead of voting against someone, I don’t vote.

    When more people refuse to vote for Evil Lite, they will start offering us better candidates.

  6. bill on January 29th, 2010 9:24 pm

    Gunnut,

    His short 4 years are not up. Don’t advertise those guns you have to much. Define evil so I will know if you have any idea what your talking about.

  7. Gunnut on January 29th, 2010 8:42 pm

    What is ironic is that all of us gun lovers were worried about Obama’s anti gun stance. He hasnt taken them away but Bush did after Katrina. He left all those folks defenceless against looters and thugs. Maybe next time we will have an actual candidate to vote for as I hated wasting the gas to vote this time….had to go with the lesser of 2 evils.

  8. bill on January 29th, 2010 7:53 pm

    Obama Girl,

    Jimmy Carter gave away the panama canal, Bill Clinton gave to China and Russia computer technology that advanced them both to equal or maybe even better than ours. technology that they were way behind the US in. Not to mention the disgrace to the office he brought. You know he redefined sex. Hillary said that the book that most inspired her was on euthanasia. Plus she always seams to miss-speak often. Nancy Pelosi wow. It was just reported that in the last two years tax payers have footed the 101,000 food and booze bill, at the tune of 1,000 a month for her flights. That pretty high on the hog to me. Harry Reid, Barney Frank what a joke. Now Big O, the man with I in his vocabulary. He had the democratic control in the house and senate. So what, all they have done is fill there pockets with pork spending, special interest groups and place this country in a financial down hill spiral that’s not going to stop soon if ever.
    Now I chanced from a Democrat to a Republican while Bill was in office, it’s about that time I became awary the the Democrats no longer stood for the same platform they once had. Don’t think that I feel the Gop. has no faults , they do. But little girl, GW Bush is ten times better that this nut you call president.

  9. bill on January 29th, 2010 5:27 pm

    Obama girl,

    just for the record, the other obama girl just threw him under the bus. Besides G. Bush could have helped this country but maybe you forgot that the democrats fought him on every move he made.

    Just for one more point, NO MAN IS GOING TO FIX THIS MESS. God bless as well

  10. dnutjob on January 29th, 2010 3:48 pm

    Hwy 99 is a county road also, different cost center.

  11. Richard on January 29th, 2010 3:27 pm

    HWY 99 is awful its the road that need work to be done on it.

  12. Obama Girl on January 29th, 2010 1:07 pm

    To Bill:

    President Obama is not breaking the country…you must remember we were already in a recession before he became president! Maybe you need to do some research so you can get your facts straight. It’s going to take a tremendous amount of time to get the country back in “tip top shape” just like it took some time to put it into recession. As for the horse and buggy days, there are still some people that use it as a form of transportation in this country (Pennsylvania). God Bless!

  13. BASEBALL MOM on January 29th, 2010 11:23 am

    “During the entire 270 day project, NorthEscambia.com will provide the most current Highway 97 lane closure and construction updates to help you avoid delays.”

    We will really appreciate ya’ll doing that as most of us drive up that way to take our kids to Ernest Ward and Northview. Thanking you in Advance!

  14. dnutjob on January 29th, 2010 10:26 am

    To hotrod, 297-A is county 97(Atmore hwy is state)

  15. Human on January 29th, 2010 10:07 am

    Hwy 99 in Walnut Hill /Bratt could use resurfacing.

  16. W.R. on January 29th, 2010 9:32 am

    Good news!!! Now State of Florida — What about the resurfacing of Hwy 29 from the Alabama Line in Century to Molino Cross roads. This road is coming apart!
    There is loose gravel and it’s scarey to imagine how many chipped, cracked and broken windshields it has caused. I know 4.5 miles is in the process now from Molino Cross roads northward. The need now is something done about the rest of this highway right away. Drivers beware of flying gravel that is coming out of the asphalt.

  17. hotrod on January 29th, 2010 8:25 am

    That’s great for those folks, but when oh when are they going to do something about heavily travelled (even by big county trucks &18-wheelers) Hwy 297-A from its start and then as it heads north from Pine Forest Rd, considering it does not even have a shoulder and its lanes are nowhere near 12 feet wide – especially when you consider the pot holes drivers must dodge and the county must continually patch up particularly along the edge where there is no shoulder. This is a treacherous and dangerous excuse for a numbered highway, and folks who have of late gotten some nice stretches of Hwy. 97 even must suffer riskily through 297A to get to those nice pavements. Perhaps the next commissioner will consider at least making an effort to get something done about this hopefully.

  18. bill on January 29th, 2010 8:05 am

    Just think how much money we will save when Mr. Obama breaks this counrty and we we all go back to the horse and buggy days.

  19. dnutjob on January 29th, 2010 7:23 am

    Thanks for keeping us updated, and to “some one ” roads a drainage are designed to handle normal rains not frog sranglers ( 2 inches in two hours) people need to drive according to the weather and road conditions, and right now the water table is so high, the run off has no where to go because the ground cannot perk. Water doesnt cause the accidents people do. They need to slow down, nothing is worth crashing or dying for.

  20. someone on January 29th, 2010 6:59 am

    They really, really, really need to have the engineers make sure that water drains off the road. I could tell you several places that it stands on the road and has caused hydroplaning and accidents.

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