End in sight after Airport delays

Other than some landscaping, work on Destin’s Airport Road should be “substantially completed” by the end of August, program manager Steve Schmidt says.

Before it wraps up, Schmidt told The Log, drivers may have to deal with some lane closures, as contractor C. W. Roberts puts down a final layer of asphalt that will raise the road to the level of the manhole covers that now jut out above it.

The city originally expected work on Airport — including four-laning the road, adding medians, installing new stormwater drains and laying down sidewalks and bicycle/pedestrian paths — to begin in September 2006 and end by Memorial Day 2007. Instead, the city had to wait to break ground until March 2007, after the Florida Department of Transportation released the grant that will pay for half of the $7.44 million project.

The rest of the money comes from Destin’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which also paid for the widening of Main Street and Legion Drive.
Work on Airport stopped during the summer of 2007, to avoid gridlocking the tourist-packed summer traffic. This year, with all four lanes between Main Street and Indian Bayou Trail open, the city kept the work going.

Schmidt said the contractor took the week of July 4 off, then resumed work finishing up medians, curves and sidewalks between the Indian Bayou Trail intersection and U.S. 98, as well as installing irrigation between Main Street and Indian Bayou Trail.
“As soon as they get the irrigation in there, they’ll start putting down sod,” Schmidt said. “And probably not later than the middle of August, the contractor will start putting down the final layer of asphalt.”

Schmidt said C. W. Roberts will put down 1 to 1 1/2 inches of asphalt, bringing the road surface up to the level of the ribbon curbs and manholes. He said the contractor will try to do the whole road without breaks in between, which eliminates “cold joints” that could turn into potholes.

Monday, a driver told The Log that right turns off U.S. 98 onto Airport had sent the car into alarmingly deep puddles at the corner. Schmidt said that’s because two drain inlets have been turned into manholes, but when work on the corner is finished, water will flow over the ribbon curb and into a drainage swale that will carry it off.

Schmidt said some landscaping may still need to be done after the road is substantially completed: “The city budgeted for it, but didn’t award a contract ... We’re going to have to go back in for a change order.”