Roundabout now open

DESTIN, FL - After almost two months of construction, Destin's new traffic circle at Two Trees Road/Commons Drive is complete, and the intersection is open, a week ahead of schedule.

Starting March 9, however, the stretch of Indian Bayou Trail between Two Trees and Airport Road will close forever. Westbound traffic will only be able to turn from Two Trees onto U.S. 98 until the city finishes extending Commons Drive to Airport, which is expected to happen by Memorial Day.

The dream of running an east-west bypass alongside U.S 98 goes back more than a decade. In the 21st century, Commons Boulevard has grown from several disconnected back roads into a continuous road that runs from Regatta Bay behind Destin Commons, through the Shoppes at Paradise Key, past Home Depot, along Henderson Beach Boulevard and finally dead ends at Two Trees Road.

As development has grown along Commons and summer traffic has increased, the Two Trees/Commons, Two Trees/Indian Bayou Trail and Indian Bayou Trail/Airport intersections have become increasingly congested and gridlocked. Believing the extension was imminent - in 2002, city staff said it should happen by 2004 - the city avoided major road improvements that the extension would have made obsolete. Instead, the city spent $50,000 in 2002 adding the right-turn at Indian Bayou Trail/Airport, and later turned Two Trees/Indian Bayou Trail into a four-way stop.

The traffic light at the end of Indian Bayou Trail is different, because it will serve the new Commons intersection.

As part of the purchase agreement for the extension land, Two Trees will be renamed as Indian Bayou Trail. It will become the sole access point for the Indian Bayou subdivision.