DUKE AIR FIELD AND ARMY 7TH SPECIAL FORCES OVERPASS ON SCHEDULED FOR SPRING 2012

Work on SR 85 overpass scheduled to begin in spring
John Parrot
2011-12-14 17:42:41

This improvement to State Road 85 is just another reason why Crestview has been the choice for future homebuyers. Not only is the new folks from the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group travels made easier to Crestview, the folks from the new F-35 Training Squadron also get a speed way from their place to work to the north side of the County. These infrastructure improvements and others in the planning stage are making it much easier for folks to live in the north side of the county and work in the south side of the county. Therefore, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to understand, Crestview and MossyHead areas should see some major growth for businesses and future homebuyers/renters.
CRESTVIEW —Construction of an overpass across State Road 85 to connect Duke Field to the Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) camp is tentatively scheduled to begin next spring. Lane Construction Corp. of Cheshire, Conn. has been awarded an $11 million, two-year contract to build the two-lane flyover, which will include bicycle lanes. Pat McGriff, Lane Construction’s Central Florida management area representative, said work likely will begin in March. “We haven’t established a firm timeline on the exact date construction will begin, nor do we know how many resources we will use, but the further along we get toward the target date, the better we will be in answering these questions,” McGriff said in a telephone interview from his Maitland office. Kurt Dowden, planning and program manager for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said there may be some minor revisions to the contract, but that “there doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon that would adversely affect the start-up of the contract.” The good news for motorists is that the contract stipulates that traffic on SR 85 “remain unencumbered.” “Much of the work may be done at night or in the early-morning hours,” Dowden wrote in an email from his office in Washington, D.C. The overpass will allow military personnel and equipment to cross SR 85 without stopping traffic. “We’ve already experienced a slight increase of traffic due to the 7th Special Forces community, but this is nothing compared to what we expect in the future,” said Ian Satter, district spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation. “We are looking at numbers approaching 100,000 vehicles a day within the next 15 years.” In addition to the overpass, plans call for on and off ramps and parking aprons on both sides of SR 85.