Panama City Beach- Plans are moving forward for a new 24-mile highway that will connect South Walton beaches to the new airport in Bay County and beyond. The Florida Department of Transportation, or F-DOT, held the first of two public meetings Tuesday night on the new West Bay Parkway.

Officials presented 9 possible corridors for the first segment of the highway which runs from U.S. 98 in Walton County to State Road 79 in Bay County. There are 8 possible corridors for segment two which would connect with the current County Road 388 from Highway 79 to Highway 77. Besides a direct route to the airport, the parkway would also relieve congestion on Highway 98 and offer another emergency evacuation route.

The public had the opportunity to speak during Tuesday's meeting, and F-DOT is accepting mail-in surveys on the project. Officials will use that public input, as well as the results of project development and environment studies on each segment, to choose the corridors. "Alot of times the public is misled about what is going to happen, so we hold these meetings to get up front about what we plan on doing. We take any input back to the drawing board and coordinate it to fit the general public, so these meetings are important," explained Tommie Speights of F-DOT.

The second parkway public meeting is planned for this Thursday at 5:30 at the Christian International Ministries building on US 98 in Santa Rosa Beach.