Navarre Beach road under water, sand (with PHOTOS)

NAVARRE BEACH — After being closed for nearly five years do to past hurricane damage, the repaired J. Earl Bowden Way survived its first test by sustaining just minor damage from Tropical Storm Ida.

J. Earl Bowden Way, the scenic seven-mile roadway that connects Navarre Beach to Pensacola Beach and is also known as State Road 399, was reopened in March of this year after being closed for repairs since Hurricane Ivan devastated the region in September 2004. The Gulf Islands National Seashore, which oversees and maintains the road, closed SR 399 Tuesday morning because it was impassable.

To see a gallery of post-Ida storm photos click here.

“We’ve got a lot of sand on it and we have some damage, but we don’t have any washouts as far as we know,” said Jerry Eubanks, superintendent of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. “Some places are covered in sand that we can’t see.”

Crews from the Gulf Islands National Seashore were inspecting the roadway Tuesday morning to look for damaged areas. Eubanks said there were some places where sand had eroded under the roadway, but it had not caused any failures that they have found yet.

SR 399 was kept open Monday evening to allow motorists to get home, but some vehicles got stranded because of the large amounts of sand blocking and covering the roadway. The road was officially closed Tuesday morning.

“We have a lot of sand to clear off before we can reopen it,” Eubanks said.

As long as the damage remains limited to just sand on the roadway, Eubanks said SR 399 could be reopened by the end of the week.

Rather than make expensive repairs to fortify the roadway and prevent future washouts, like was done on U.S. Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island, the $3.4 million repairs to SR 399 were designed to be “sacrificial” and not just cost less but have any future repairs cost less as well.

“It held up well. I’m pleased with the way it held up,” Eubanks said.