Niceville has some of the best roads in the State of Florida. 

I’m sure there will be some disagreement (list your problem roads in the comments!). Still, according to the city’s pavement assessment program, the city has a pavement rating of 80%, according to Public Works Director Jonathan Laird. “I want to brag on public works for just a minute,” Laird told the council, “that’s third in the state and fifteenth in the country. We’ve got some of the best roads in the State of Florida.” The pavement rating percentage, created via a complicated formula, considers problems like cracking, rideability, reveling, and patching. The 80% rating means that 4/5 of the city-owned roads don’t have any issues. 

This rating only applies to city-maintained roads. So, roads like John Sims Parkway (SR-20), Partin Drive (SR-285) and State Route 85 are not included in the assessment. Just a note – SR 285 will continue under construction by the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) until at least January 10th of 2024, according to Laird. It shoudl be noted that the DOT’s Construction program, which wrapped up in June, was supposed to finish up in January of 2023. I’m sure that five month delay inconvenienced none of the 

The city council has something to celebrate with this news – this pavement assessment significantly lowers their financial risk from the next storm. The Pavement assessment allows the city to file claims with the insurance company they have to get the money to repave the roads if a storm damages them significantly. Panama City had a similar assessment, and recovered more than $5 Million for roadway work covering every square inch of pavement lost after Hurricane Michael. “If they didn’t have (the pavement assessment) they’d have been out of luck. So it’s a good thing this is complete,” Laird added. 

He added that the city will continue to update the assessment every three years.