With ribbon cutting set for June 1, city to tweak roundabout after accidents (with PHOTOS)

Open road: Except for minor fixes, Marshall Brothers wrapped up work extending Commons Drive last week, city officials said. Work on Commons began all the way back in 2001. This photo was taken from the top of the Palms.


The roundabout needs some tweaking but Destin’s Commons Drive extension is almost good to go, Public Works Director Steve Schmidt said recently.

Schmidt told The Log that the final inspection took place last week, and now only “punchlist items” — corrections and touch-ups — remain to be done. The city has scheduled the ribbon-cutting on the road for 5 p.m., June 1.

Schmidt said the punch list items that remain include replacing a light pole hit by a driver, and modifying the curb and gutter on the northeast corner of the roundabout. He said drivers have been running off the circle at that point, so it will be widened slightly, with a raised curb to make it harder for tires to mount.

The ribbon cutting marks the end of the line for a project Mayor Craig Barker said last year has been discussed at City Hall since 1996. Extending Commons from Two Trees Road, where it used to end, over to Airport Road, gives drivers an alternative to U.S. 98 from Danny Wuerffel Way over to Airport.

The extension is expected to ease the traffic jams that used to develop at the Commons/Two Trees, Two Trees/Indian Bayou Trail and Indian Bayou Trail/Airport stop signs during summer tourist season.

Four years ago, it looked as if the city was about to close on the land needed for the extension, but Indian Bayou residents protested the terms — swapping the land for the end of Indian Bayou Trail, leaving Two Trees/Commons the subdivision’s only exit — would make it impossible to leave Indian Bayou when summer traffic clogged Commons.

The council agreed, and the city, after much more negotiation, closed on the land for $795,000, half of which was paid for by state grants. The city also redesigned the Two Trees/Commons intersection, putting it further away from the Airport/Commons traffic light and added a roundabout to make it easier to exit and enter Indian Bayou.

Marshall Brothers won the road contract with a $1.6 million bid, and began work last December, shooting for a Memorial Day deadline. In January, the city closed the Two Trees/Commons intersection so that Marshall Brothers could build the roundabout; in March, the intersection opened, then the contractor closed the end of Indian Bayou Trail permanently to complete Commons.

That meant there was no way for drivers to go east or west without using U.S. 98 between Airport and Two Trees, which, given spring break traffic, created heavy traffic jams where those roads intersected the highway. In April, the city paid Marshall a $43,000 bonus to open the road early, while continuing to work.

At last week’s City Council meeting, the council members added another $1,228 to the bill to install a service connector — something that hadn’t been included in the original electrical plan — to the sign at the Morgan’s Sports Complex entrance.