Adding U.S. Highway 98 to Florida’s Strategic Intermodal System could further complicate finding funds to fix the crowded road.

Since 2003, the state has committed 75 percent of its funds to improve transportation capacity to SIS projects. If the legislature and governor designated U.S. 98 a system facility, it would compete for funding from a dramatically larger pool. But most of the highway fails to meet SIS standards; growth would essentially stop until the road is improved.
“I‘m going to have to put a lot of thought into whether I ever support it being a SIS road,”  Santa Rosa County Commissioner Don Salter said Aug. 13 at a Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization meeting in Milton.

 

For more on this story, see the Aug. 21 issue of Navarre Press or subscribe online.