Update on Front Beach Road construction

[Guest Dwight C]

 

 

Here Is The Newest Update On The PCB Front beach Road Construction 

 

Panama City Beach city staff tells us segment two of the Community Redevelopment Agency project on Front Beach Road is coming along.

The project, meant to ease traffic and put in new utility lines, started in January of 2017.

The city says just about all of the infrastructure for segment two of the project is in place.

Power and data lines are all underground and will eventually be fiber optic.

"What's left to be done is a portion of the data, a portion of the power, and a small portion of the stormwater so the majority of the underground work is complete," Mario Gisbert, City Manager for Panama City Beach said.

In the next week or so, city staff says we should see some finished pavement going down in areas of the CRA segment.

The project should be completed in March of 2019.

Gisbert also says the project started off as a 14 million dollar project.

"We've done one change order to the tune of about $400,000 which is only about 2.6 percent, which is not too bad," Gisbert said.

He adds Gulf Power's component to do their work for the project is two million dollars. 

"We pay Gulf Power to pull actual, special wires underground that are shielded and heat dissipating because when a power line is overhead the wind cools it off," Gisbert explained, "when it goes underground and all of a sudden it's wrapped in a conduit it tends to get hot."

The city will also begin ridding the area of above ground power lines and poles once all the wiring is set up underground.

Gisbert says that will help with storm hardening for future storm events.