NICEVILLE — Construction of the Mid-Bay Bridge Connector is going so well that the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority has decided to move its opening to Jan. 4.
That’s actually a week sooner than had been announced in August and at least a couple of months earlier than the “spring of 2014” prediction on a billboard promoting the road.
Jim Vest, the Bridge Authority’s executive director, said planners have been able to move completion projections forward because work at two bridge sites along the 16-mile road has gone better than had been expected.
Getting work done at a bridge crossing State Road 85 near Niceville and laying girders needed to build a bridge over Swift Creek was “really the long pole in the tent” of the job, Vest said.
When it’s finished, the Mid-Bay Bridge Connector will serve as a limited access toll road to give motorists a way around Niceville when traveling between Crestview and Destin.
The Bridge Authority wants to make the road's opening a memorable one. It has begun planning a day full of festivities to include a ribbon-cutting and half-marathon/5K/fun walk.
“We’ll invite the whole world,” Vest said. “Who knows who will come?”
Plans are to start the race at the Mullet Festival site in Niceville, run participants out 6.55 miles onto the connector and 6.55 miles back, Vest told Bridge Authority members at their meeting Thursday.
“If we make it to be a fun event, like the Gate to Gate (on Eglin Air
Force Base), people would come out to do it,” board Chairman Gordon Fornell said.
The run, sponsored by the Northwest Florida Track Club, should prove a worthy test, Vest told the board.
“It’s going to be a challenging run,” he said. “I’m not a runner, but it’s not all flat land out there.”
Track club member Joe Walker, who served for a decade as director of the popular Gate to Gate Run, has agreed to head up the event, which he’d like to call “The Connector Run.”
“Mid-Bay Bridge Connector 5K/ half marathon is too much,” he joked.
Proceeds from the race will go the Northwest Florida Track Club and the Warrior Foundation, Walker said.
The Saturday morning race will be followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Vest said. The Mid-Bay Bridge Connector actually will be opened to drivers “late Saturday evening” he said.
No tolls will be charged until 12:01 a.m. Monday, Jan. 6, Vest said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.
