I-10 connector to be discussed May 15 in Chipley

A public hearing is planned for May 15 at the County Annex at 9 a.m. on a possible highway through Washington County, apparently as part of the so-called I-10 connector from Dothan to Panama City.

The connector has been in the planning works for over a decade, and would involve a four-lane highway from Montgomery, through Dothan, going south parallel to US 331. From some point there the highway would go through Jackson County and then through Washington County to Panama City in the area of the new West Bay International Airport.

A delegation of political and development officials from Alabama and Florida met in Orlando Wednesday to discuss the route, according to sources, which could turn out to be a toll road. Dothan County Commission Chairman Mark Culver, who attended the meeting, told Dothan media that a major announcement would be made in Dothan on May 8. Culver did not comment on the nature of the project he and other officials were meeting on.

The Alabama end of the connector would start at Midland City in State 231 and go south across US 84 and State 52. It would go east of Rehobeth and meet 231 at Madrid. The road would then go through Florida, and a proposed route would enter Washington County north of Chipley and go west of the city, past Vernon, to Panama City. The proposed route would bypass the towns in the county.

FDOT District 3 Spokesperson Tommie Speights said Thursday that Florida DOT officials met with ALDOT two weeks ago on the ALDOT study for the connector, but there was not much discussed. Speights said that there were plans in 2001 for FDOT to do a study, but that no funding was released. He said that FDOT did a limited study for a limited access corridor and found feasible, but that FDOT was more interested in improving existing roads, including State 77 and State 79.

Speights also said a meeting was held in Orlando about a year ago on a possible toll road.

As of March Alabama Department of Transportation officials said that Florida DOT had only had discussions about their end of the project, and that no work had begun.

The connector has long been planned as a limited access corridor to provide as direct a route as possible to Panama City from Alabama, and if the highway came through Washington County there would be only a few interchanges, according to sources familiar with the project.

Initial funding for the project was part of the $388 million Federal Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2004, and included $11 million for planning the project.

In March, Houston County Commissioner Bobby Snellgrove said that backers would know within a year if private investment. He said that if the highway was a toll road that the project might be expedited four or five years. Snellgrove also said the planned Country Crossing project could be an encouragement for investors in the highway because of increased traffic.