Destin makes progress on sidewalk project

TONY JUDNICH @Tonyjnwfdn

DESTIN — The city’s completed plans for the 10-foot-wide Calhoun Avenue sidewalk that will run from Clement Taylor Park south to U.S. Highway 98 and east along Zerbe Street were submitted to the Florida Department of Transportation last week.

That’s according to City Manager Carisse LeJeune’s latest weekly report on city issues to the City Council.

“Staff will be sending a flyer out to the property owners in the (project) area,” LeJeune wrote in her report, which was released last Thursday. “Informational signage on the limits of construction has been installed on Calhoun Avenue.”

The shared-used sidewalk for walkers, runners, bicyclists and other non-motorists will begin at the northeast corner of Clement Taylor Park and extend south along the west side of Calhoun Avenue to U.S. 98, as well as east along the north side of Zerbe Street to its intersection with Sibert Avenue.

There, a pedestrian crosswalk will connect the new path to an existing 10-foot-wide pathway that runs past the public parking lot on the northeast corner of Zerbe Street and Sibert Avenue. Narrow sidewalks currently run along both sides of Zerbe.

The planned sidewalk project will include lighting, landscaping and benches. The estimated total construction cost is $650,000.

Destin officials plan to seek construction funding assistance from the FDOT in March and the work might occur late next summer, city spokesman Doug Rainer said via email last Friday.

City officials plan to later connect the new sidewalk along Calhoun Avenue with a planned pathway that would run under the Marler Bridge to the HarborWalk Village boardwalk.