Mid-Bay Bridge

Mid-Bay Bridge
The Mid-Bay Bridge crosses Choctawhatchee Bay connecting U.S. Highway 98 in Destin to Florida State Road 20 in Niceville.
Coordinates	30°26′00″N 86°25′05″W / 30.433393°N 86.418006°W / 30.433393; -86.418006Coordinates: 30°26′00″N 86°25′05″W / 30.433393°N 86.418006°W / 30.433393; -86.418006
Carries	SR 293
Crosses	Choctawhatchee Bay
Maintained by	FDOT
Characteristics
Total length	3.6 miles
History
Opened	June 1993
Statistics
Toll	$4

The Mid-Bay Bridge is a 141-span, 3.6-mile (5.8 km), two-lane toll bridge in Okaloosa County in the Florida Panhandle. It connects U.S. Highway 98 in Destin to State Road 20 in Niceville. The bridge generally runs north-south; the approaches to the bridge carry the State Road 293 designation while the bridge itself carries the TOLL 293 shield.

The bridge crosses Choctawhatchee Bay, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It was constructed in 1992-93, when the Florida Department of Transportation recognized the growing need for a more direct route between the Destin beaches and the mainland for tourists and to assist hurricane evacuation from population centers and resorts on the Gulf of Mexico.

There is one toll plaza at the north end of the bridge. As of October 1, 2015, the one way toll for a standard 2-axle vehicle was $4.00. Tolls may be paid with cash or with the SunPass electronic toll system.

Spence Parkway

The Spence Parkway is an, 11-mile, limited access, 2-lane, separately tolled highway that connects the north end of the Mid-Bay Bridge with SR 85 immediately north of Niceville. Interchanges at SR 85, SR285, Forest Road and SR 20 allow easy access from Interstate 10 to Niceville, Destin, Miramar Beach, and communities East of Niceville along SR 20. The new Parkway provides considerably shorter travel times by avoiding 13 traffic signals along the previous route through Niceville on SR 20. Additionally, the hurricane evacuation routes from all of south Okaloosa County and western Walton County have been significantly improved.

The Spence Parkway is tolled separately from the Mid-Bay Bridge and utilizes “all electronic open-road tolling” that allows customers to pay tolls without slowing down or stopping. Tolls are collected with SunPass transponders or by using a new TOLL-BY-PLATE program being implemented state wide by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise.

External links

References

Notable bridges and tunnels in Florida

Panhandle	Escambia Bay Garcon Point John Gorrie Mid-Bay Pensacola Bay St. George Island Trammell Victory

North	Acosta Bridge of Lions Main Street Buckman Dames Point Fuller Warren Hart Mathews Memorial Strauss Trunnion Thomas B. Manuel Blue Heron Flagler Memorial

West Central	Bayside Blackburn Point Bridge^‡ Clearwater Memorial Courtney Campbell Gandy Howard Frankland Pinellas Bayway Sunshine Skyway Treasure Island

East Central	A. Max Brewer Astor Bennett Bert Dosh Broadway Eau Gallie Granada Melbourne Merritt Island NASA Osteen Pineda Port Orange Roosevelt Sebastian Inlet Wabasso Merrill P. Barber Alma Lee Loy Whitehair

South	Broad Coral Springs^† Julia Tuttle John F. Kennedy Lehman MacArthur Rickenbacker Snow-Reed^‡ Venetian

Southwest	Boca Grande^‡ Bonita Beach Caloosahatchee Cape Coral Edison John Ringling Matanzas Pass Midpoint Sanibel S.S. Jolley

Keys	Bahia Honda Card Sound Jewfish Creek Long Key Overseas Highway Seven Mile

Tunnels	Henry E. Kinney Port of Miami

Ferries	Drayton Island Fort Gates Mayport

^† – Covered bridge ^‡ – Swing bridge See also: List of bridges in Florida

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, March 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.