BLUE MOUNTAIN BEACH — Walton County officials are reporting that heavily traveled County Road 30A could be opened to traffic as soon as Friday.
Crews began working on a temporary fix last week, some say at the urging of South Walton resident Mike Huckabee, a former presidential candidate and past governor of Arkansas.
The road collapsed at Big Redfish Lake near Blue Mountain Beach on Aug. 17 when two undersized culverts beneath it were overwhelmed by rain.
Even as work is underway, county spokesman Louis Svehla said in a news release that “the county is moving forward to obtain the necessary permits and work on design for a permanent bridge that would be constructed there in the future.”
He said once design work is completed and permits are obtained from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “it will be decided when to re-close that section of road for construction.”
County Road 30A splits Big Redfish Lake, one of Walton County’s rare coastal dune lakes. Some say the culverts have done a poor job of exchanging water from one end of the lake to the other.
When constructed, the bridge is expected to allow the lake to return more to its natural state.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.