New highway 331 bridge in Walton County

[AAbsolute]

I am going to use my new favorite internet acronym on you...

RUFKM???
:shock:

Teach me.... What's it stand for? You can PM me anytime

 

[Here4Good]

Moving US 331 Forward, LLC

What does everyone this about the private company which is proposing to widen 331, including the bridge?

Firm offers to help widen U.S. 331 (with LETTER) | authority, corridor, proposal - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

The managing partner who wrote the letter is Denver Stutler, who had a good reputation as Transportation Secretary under Jeb Bush.

It would certainly mean that 331 would end up being a toll bridge (and I am not sure how that would work, since it is a US Highway), but it would probably get done a whole lot faster.

SANTA ROSA BEACH -- In what could represent a major development for the Northwest Florida Transportation Corridor Authority, a private business has offered to partner with it to widen Walton County's U.S. 331 Bridge.
At a meeting in South Walton County Thursday, Corridor Authority Chairman Randall McElheney announced receiving a letter from a company calling itself Moving US 331 Forward, LLC.
In the "unsolicited" proposal, the company offers to "design, build, operate and finance transportation facilities which will provide additional capacity for US. 331 in Walton County."
"Our proposal is to widen to four lanes the portion of U.S. 331 from the southern end of Choctawhatchee Bay Bridge to its intersection with State Road 20," the letter states.
The proposal is significant for a couple of reasons.
Not only is it the first of its kind the Corridor Authority has received in its nearly four years of existence, but it could ultimately offer a means of funding a nearly $400 million project.
"In my book this is a stimulus package. It's a half billion dollar stimulus that's not reliant on federal dollars," said Jay Odom, the vice chairman of the Corridor Authority.
Moving US 331 Forward LLC was founded by Denver Stutler, a former district secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation, and Lowell Clary, an assistant secretary.
"We got kind of frustrated trying to do things on the public side so we thought we'd try on the private side," Clary told members of the Corridor Authority.

Note that the NWF says that Stutler was " former district secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation"; that is not true, he was the Secretary of FDOT, not just a district secretary.

 

[Kurt]

This is what I have been expecting.

 

[klauricella]

Having to pay a toll everyday to go to work will be pretty lousy.

 

[DuneLaker]

Here's a situation where we need to know who is in this LLC. I don't want to go searching and neither does most of the general public. Sure it is online somewhere in the state records, but we need a list of who is involved in this huge proposal. Who is in this deal? Easy, public disclosure is required. There are lots of reasons to question this deal. Is anyone with past ethics charges and fines involved? Any elected officials with home foreclosures looking to cover their losses? A lot of people with good "reputations" were ruined with recent financial fiascos. We can't ask enough tough questions. When the money was rolling in, many looked the other way. That party is over.

 

[AAbsolute]

The private sector could do this whole project from conception to fruition far better than the Government could handle it.

12 years ago I tried to take a public concern private. At the end of the day the government decided that to many public sector employees would lose their jobs. That was the point...

Let's look at this bridge proposal from a taxpayer cost and try not to worry about how much money the proposer may earn. People are far to concerned with how much the other side might profit. Their potential gain has nothing to do with the equation.

 

[Here4Good]

Well, I hope you weren't expecting the NWF Daily News to ask questions like that.

 

[eagle11rb]

All of you sound like the same people 15 years ago saying the Mid Bay Bridge was a bridge to nowhere and a waste of money.....well as they say..."build it and they will come" and they did. Much of the growth of east Destin and South Walton was because of the Mid Bay Bridge. Yes people dont like paying tolls (the tourists dont care) to go to work, but my wife was spending 3 times the amount in gas going from Niceville around FWB to Sandestin to work. The same thing applies to the 331 Bridge. ITS NEEDED! ITS NEEDED NOW! A TOLL BRIDGE WILL BE BUILT FASTER THAN A A BRIDGE BUILT BY THE STATE (which would probaby be another 20 years) and by the way no one goes UP to Freeport to shop. I will pay a toll to go UP to Freeport and beyond instead of driving west to MidBay or east to WestBay (79). A toll of $1.50 (SUNPASS) is cheaper than paying for the gas to either of those 2 bridges. SO BUILD IT NOW, BUILD IT AS A TOLL BRIDGE, AND IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME !

 

[AAbsolute]

Well, I hope you weren't expecting the NWF Daily News to ask questions like that.

SoWal.com is the best source for local news, by far. I don't read the NWF Daily news.

 

[seanote]

All of you sound like the same people 15 years ago saying the Mid Bay Bridge was a bridge to nowhere and a waste of money.....well as they say..."build it and they will come" and they did. Much of the growth of east Destin and South Walton was because of the Mid Bay Bridge. Yes people dont like paying tolls (the tourists dont care) to go to work, but my wife was spending 3 times the amount in gas going from Niceville around FWB to Sandestin to work. The same thing applies to the 331 Bridge. ITS NEEDED! ITS NEEDED NOW! A TOLL BRIDGE WILL BE BUILT FASTER THAN A A BRIDGE BUILT BY THE STATE (which would probaby be another 20 years) and by the way no one goes UP to Freeport to shop. I will pay a toll to go UP to Freeport and beyond instead of driving west to MidBay or east to WestBay (79). A toll of $1.50 (SUNPASS) is cheaper than paying for the gas to either of those 2 bridges. SO BUILD IT NOW, BUILD IT AS A TOLL BRIDGE, AND IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME !

For those who commute to and from Freeport, there will be no gas savings. The commute length will be the same, it will just cost them more to travel the same route that they've been taking. I agree the bridge needs to be four-laned, I never understood the idea of four-laning 331 and not the bridge, but to state that the circumstances surrounding the building of the mid-bay bridge and the four-laning of the 331 bridge are the same is inaccurate.