The need to repair a 2.8 mile stretch of Berryhill Road between Chumuckla Highway and Pond Creek Bridge is evident but the county’s population growth complicated funding the project. Breeching 150,000 citizens, the population grew large enough to no longer qualify for full-ride funding, but to a 50/50 match with the state. Despite a lower cost for the county to repair the piece of road in house, the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) moved to accept the state program for a longer lasting repair.
Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker said with Thursday’s BOCC motion to recommend proceeding with the Berryhill Road Resurfacing Project through Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Local Agency Program (LAP) funds, along with county reserves, the financial step is complete. He said the next piece of the timeline is finishing the plans, followed by bidding for the project, and then construction commencement. Monday’s BOCC meeting saw discussion on the problems the road faces, as well as how the board tackled the financial problem.
According to County Engineer Roger Blaylock, the county outgrew the original funding mechanism for the project, the Small County Outreach Program (SCOP). A letter in the backup documentation for Monday’s BOCC meeting said the funding for the project began with a SCOP application, but the county since broke the 150,000 citizen threshold thus necessitating LAP funding. “This moves us,” he said, to about a 50/50 match whereas before they were proposing 100 percent.”
The same letter documents the estimated cost of the project at $2,198,061 with an alternate add-on for drainage repairs at $44,537 for a total of $2,242,598. The breakdown of costs included $953,681 for construction.
Commissioner Lane Lynchard noted the county construction costs would be cheaper than the 50/50 match. “So it would be cheaper for us not to do a LAP at all and do it in house than to participate in this LAP program by about $300,000?” Both Blaylock and Walker answered in the affirmative.
Walker said, “The difference is it’s going to be a better roadway now…If you use this, you’re going to maximize how long this segment of the roadway is going to last, but clearly we can turn it down and do it the way we usually do.”
Blaylock recommended going with the LAP program because of “the geotechnical considerations, the saturation of the base, which is causing it to…fail.”
Commissioner Bob Cole echoed Lynchard’s concerns and wanted assurance the $300,000 would be, as Blaylock put it, “money well spent.” Cole said, “I want to…look at my constituents and say for those extra dollars you got this much better road.”
Traci Boutwell, with American Consulting, said the company providing the plans and cost estimates presented the reason for needing to spend the extra money. She said the water table is high with a clay base, so traffic pushes the road down and brings water up causing the pavement to fail. She said laying another layer of asphalt would garner only a few more years for the road. With the current plans, she estimated at least 10 more viable years for the stretch of Berryhill in question.
Public Works Director Avis Whitfield said Boutwell’s plans would yield a superior product, a recommendation Salter valued. The Chairman said, “Even though it’s more expensive, that’s a major road. It’s got an awful lot of traffic on it, especially big truck traffic, so whatever we put down is going to have to be the best we can put down if we’re going to get any longevity out of it.” Salter added, when he drives Berryhill Road, he often sees asphalt flying up behind his vehicle. “It’s in horrible shape.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Berryhill deteriorating, county approves plan