from www.PanamaCityBeachHarley.com
You’ve driven past the sign probably a thousand times since it was posted; some of you passing with excitement, others with disdain. Either way, Harley Davidson Motor Cycles is coming to Panama City Beach. The acceleration lane headed West from the intersection of Panama City Beach Parkway and Gulf Blvd is almost complete and the crews have one more layer of asphalt to lay. After that, its vroom, vrooom!
Businesses like Harley Davidson moving into our area is always a good thing, a sign of the economic prosperity to be had on our wonderful beaches. However, we at PCBDaily.com have read the comments (see exhibit A) about Bike Week and although we are fans of the event, the chromed-out weekend remains one of PCB’s most polarizing topics. Some love it, some hate. Harley Davidson’s arrival onto our beach can only mean that the bike week has more staying power than many realize.
We expect construction to begin soon on the latest addition to the Harley Davidson family of Dealers.
This construction appears to be the first of the “Commercial Opportunities” that are offered by the St. Joe Company along Panama City Beach Parkway (or Back Beach Road, as some still call it). This and other land parcels are convenient to Frank Brown Park and Pier Park.
As growth continues on Panama City Beach… We’ll keep you posted!
Over the last 18 months, crews have been working quickly to widen the length of Highway 79 from two lanes to four lanes with much of it split with a large grass median. For those of you that travel up 79, you know this has been a heaven send and has made the road much easier to navigate. Last week at a city council meeting they voted to move forward on the extension of the widening south of Back Beach Road, or Panama City Beach Parkway.
One of the big hang-ups all along has been how to execute this with the dynamics of an awkwardly designed Y intersection that put businesses close to the corridor of travel.
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When it comes to getting right down to business, the Front Beach Road CRA (short for community redevelopment area) in Panama City Beach is cranking out the first steps in making South Thomas Drive awesome. The South Thomas Drive road, well known as a crater-ific, pitted nightmare of a road, is getting a huge shot in the arm by way of completely NEW road, widened travel path, sidewalks, beautiful landscaping and sweet street lamps. Oh, and I forgot to mention all those ugly utility lines will be moved under ground; that’s huge!
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Charged with literally changing the face of Panama City Beach, the CRA is on the move again. The next project on the table is the reconstruction of the South Thomas Drive corridor and tonight is the kick-off party for the public to come in and see what’s going to take place over the next 2 years or so.
The CRA, or community redevelopment area has swept through the area over the last few years completely changing the Churchwell Drive and R Jackson Blvd (formerly Beckrich) corridors with not only entirely new roads, but new infrastructures. These projects included moving utilities underground and adding beautification accents such as sidewalks, landscaping and street lights – something our area has been badly in need of for years.
Churchwell Drive is the road that travels in between Middle Beach and Front Beach Road that plays home to the Beach post office. Included in the project was a new bridge that required most of the budget and time, but the result was a beautiful 4 lane road with a center turn lane, sidewalks and these cool street lamps that make you want to walk everywhere just so you can look at them.
R Jackson Blvd, formerly known as Beckrich Road underwent an entire transformation expanding it from a two lane, heavily traversed, dangerous main corridor to a lovely, wide, beautiful road that enjoys pedestrians all the time. If you haven’t driven down it lately, you should. I experience that euphoria as often as possible, and sometimes even pull over just to walk it.
I remember the ground-breaking like it was yesterday, thinking to myself, “2 year? Man, that’s a long time for a road to be under construction.” But man, did the time fly. Fully opened in April of this year, it has serviced the area well and opened up a quick way to get from Back Beach to Front Beach Road.
Take a look at the progress over the last couple years:
———————————————————So, what’s happening tonight? There will be a public event that will explain to the public just what will be happening over the next 18 to 24 months in the South Thomas Drive area. The South Thomas Drive corridor is the area that is in between the Circle K (by Shores of Panama and Laketown Wharf) and Club La Vela. If you’ve traveled down that road, you know that it is a poor excuse for a patch of pavement, much less an actual road and is badly in need of a complete overhaul.
The new South Thomas Drive will include (I beleive) four lanes with a center turn lane, sidewalks, landscaping, those cool street lamps and all the utilities moved underground. This will be huge not only for the area but also for Panama City Beach as this is a heavily traveled area. The unfortunate part is having to endure the construction along the way; but there’s nothing we can do about that and it will be very much worth the trouble.
You can bet you can count on us to keep you all abreast of every new little detail that emerges with this in addition to construction update photos and the like. Stay tuned for an update about how tonight went.
By the way, the event is at the CRA office from 5 to 7 pm. The CRA office is located in the old St. Joe building next to the Nextel call center on R Jackson BLVD. Click here for a map.
At exactly 11:49 AM April 29th Mayor Gayle Oberst made the renaming of Beckrich Road to Richard Jackson Boulevard official, honoring the long time city manager Richard Jackson. Dozens of people were on hand, filling the parking lot outside of the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce building to participate in the event. At one time, three of Panama City Beach’s most recent mayors (Oberst, Phillip Griffits, and Lee Sullivan) held the stage to honor Mr. Jackson, though honoring quickly turned into a lighthearted roast drawing applause and laughter thoughout.
Beckrich Road was renamed and revamped with a 9-million dollar roadway expansion from 2 lanes to 4 lanes. For many of Panama City Beach residents, myself included, the GAC managed overhaul of Beckrich has been nothing short of successful; the intersection runs smoother and is more aesthetic with sidewalks, tropical landscaping and upgraded underground utilities paid for with the beach’s community redevelopment area (CRA) money.
Panama City Beach City Manager since 1969, after humbly accepting the honor, Richard Jackson said, “I really appreciate all the nice things that have been said about me. It’s been a job, it’s a job I’ve enjoyed. I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been an honor. I plan on sticking around for awhile.”
Mayor Oberst also gave a nod to a future Front Beach Road and Thomas drive project to be done through the CRA. This project will overhaul South Thomas (near Alvin’s Island) and go up to Front Beach Rd. where expansions and facelifts will go westward towards Richard Jackson Boulevard and East towards the Hutchison Intersection near Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Musuem.
Click here to read more about the Panama City Beach CRA.
The Front Beach Road CRA is making great progress with the current project and is planning and preparing for the next segment in the rebuilding of our tourist transportation corridor.
The Beckrich Road project, started in September of 2007 is right on schedule. Just last week traffic was switched to the newly paved portion of the road so that crews can begin the reconstruction of the original treaded path. Part of the process will include bringing it up to grade, repaving and curbing. The entire project, including street-side lighting, sidewalks, and landscaping will be complete by May of 2009.
The next phase of the CRA will be the South Thomas Drive area, including the road that travels past Boardwalk, past Pineapple Willies and dead-ends at Laketown Wharf and Shores of Panama. If you haven’t traveled down this road in a while, then you don’t know just how bad this road really is. This stretch of pavement looks like it was laid during colonial times, probably at least 250 years old – sarcasm.
This particular part of the CRA is unique in that there isn’t enough room to expand the roadway as much as some of the other areas. However, the final product will have two full size traffic lanes, a middle turn lane and a west-bound tram lane that will double as an expanded bike pathway. Sidewalks, lighting and landscaping will be on both sides, and the final product will be beautiful and pedistrian friendly.
The planning is almost complete, and the right of way land is nearly all purchased, but construction funding is yet to be in place. With roughly $10 million in the bank, Ben Faust of DRMP, the engineering firm overseaing the CRA operation, said they still need to raise another $20 million to fund construction and purchase right of way land for the next phase of the CRA that will cover Front Beach Road, from Walmart past Bechrich Road.
“Even in light of the current financial situation, we should still be able to raise the money we need through bond sales,” said Faust. If everything goes as planned, the South Thomas section will be advertised for bid first quarter of 2009 with a prjected start time sometime next summer. Total construction time should be around 24 months.
The next section of the CRA – Front Beach Road, from Walmart past Beckrich should begin construction summer of 2010.
The Beckrich Road portion of the CRA is making huge strides in progress. The new side was paved this week and curb work was installed. I think we’ll be driving on it in the next couple of weeks as they redo the old side.
The groundbreaking for the Beckrich Road portion of the Front Beach Road CRA in Panama City Beach was on September 4th, 2007. Total construction time is expected to be less than 24 months. The cost of construction is around $10 million and includes Beckrich Road from Back Beach Road to Front Beach Road.
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