Man, we’re getting so close to landing Canyon Blue planes in Panama City. Every time I see new aerials I’m thoroughly impressed with how far along the new Northwest Florida International Airport (actually, formally named Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport) is. Lets get right down to it!
Continue reading “NEW Airport Construction Aerials Show Airport Almost Complete!”
Ladies and Gents, it’s official: Southwest Airlines has been named the low cost carrier for the Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport. The announcement came early this afternoon at a meeting up at the new airport site. Most in attendance speculated as to what was happening, but very few actually knew with a surety that at the end of the meeting Southwest Airlines would be Northwest Florida’s new partner in our future economic development.
Continue reading “Southwest Airlines is Coming to Panama City Beach”
Monday was Walton County Day and the Northwest Florida Panama City International Airport hosted the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce board meeting under a tent with the new terminal as the backdrop. Of course, one of the cool things about events like this is that we usually get a pretty good update on how the construction is coming along at the new airport site.
Continue reading “UPDATE: New Airport On Time and On Budget”
The new Grand Lagoon Bridge in Eastern Panama City Beach is sure to light up in activity soon. Recently they planted new utility poles to the west of the existing bridge and moved the utility lines from the old poles adjoining the existing bridge to the new poles. Last time I was out there (about two weeks ago) they had moved the power, but cable and phone lines had yet to be moved. That looks like it is all complete now.
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!
Continue reading “CRA – South Thomas Drive Construction Update, Widening Road”
At this morning’s special-called Airport Authority meeting, the only topic on the table was the new name for the new airport. For months, this has been a topic of intense debate and we had a HUGE surge of interest here at pcbdaily just three weeks ago with over 100 comments on the article we published about it.
Clearly the most obvious favorite of the bunch was Emerald Coast International, and this name’s popularity rang true with the Airport Authority’s submissions as well. 5 names total were submitted to the board for review today: Emerald Coast International Airport, Northwest Florida International Airport, Florida International Airport, Florida Beaches International Airport and Beaches International Airport. I was told today that Emerald Coast International could not be used for legal reasons, although I was not told what the reasons were.
Boy how time flies when you’re having fun. With construction to end in just 8 short months and planes to start landing on the new runway the construction process seems to be flying by. I remember thinking how far away May 2010 seemed when they started construction.
With gold shovels in hand and orange hard-hats protecting their heads from the deep blue skies, several big names from Panama City Beach, Bay County and the State of Florida broke ground on the construction of the new Grand Lagoon Bridge and its accompanying roadway on the north and south side of the structure. Years in the planning, the Grand Lagoon Bridge was literally a pipe dream until just recently. Today, in discussion with several people from the Friends of Grand Lagoon, I was told that for a long time, it wasn’t believed that it would ever happen.
Bring your cameras and your congrats for the ground breaking ceremony of the new Grand Lagoon Bridge takes place Thursday morning at 10 am. The weather is sure to be perfect and the future holds a higher bridge that will accept taller boats and more water under its spans.
In the works for quite some time now, the new Grand Lagoon Bridge finally got the green light when funding was secured over the summer. With over $15 million in the bank the County Comission awarded the construction contract to C. W. Roberts Contracting, Inc.
The ground breaking takes place at 10 am sharp on October 1, 2009 at Captain Anderson’s Restaurant in the Captain’s Room.
Early Tuesday morning, a milestone was reached at the New Panama City Beach – Bay County International Airport Site. The capping of the control, a significant accomplishment in airport construction, was completed with nary a hiccup.
Dozens of workers, all using video camera cell phones to capture the event, lined the fenced perimeter to take a marked occasion in a very long process. Two huge cranes on either side of the 50 ton metal frame slowly raised the cab the 150ft to the top of the control tower.
It hovered under perfect blue skies before being bolted down atop the tower to be glassed in at a later date. While the whole event lasted a half hour or so, it was simultaneously the apogee to years of work and the crowning of Northwest Florida new king. If all goes according to plan, the new airport will be one of the signature southern airports, providing vacationers easy access to the “World’s Most Beautiful Beach” as well as low cost flights for residents. Seeing the control tower in place gave the airport a sense of tangibility, an air of “this whole airport-and-panama-city-beach-transformation thing is really going to happen, huh?” The ceremony was quite a thing to behold.
I asked Jeff Dealy, KBR’s program manager for the project, how many times in my life would I get to experience an event like the capping of the control tower. He smiled and said, “Once.”
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