"Moving here in the next year, year-and-a-half, we're going to solve a lot of problems in this area," Walton County Administrator Brian Kellenberger said at the Driftwood Road groundbreaking. Walton County Tourism's Walton County Line reported the quote. He named the problems as parking, stormwater, pedestrian conveyance and beautification.
The same article gave June 2026 as the target finish for the Driftwood Road Municipal Parking Facility. June has come and gone. The county's Tourist Development Council packet for October 6, 2026, lists the facility as 35% complete, with completion now expected in winter 2026.
That slip matters less than the bigger picture. The Driftwood Road work is really three projects: a parking hub, a road rebuild, and a beach tram route. Each one runs on its own schedule. For anyone on the Holiday Road side of Miramar Beach, the stretch between US 98 and the Gulf will spend this winter half built, and the roads have no published finish date.
The Fixed Point at the End of the Run
Estates at Hidden Palms sits on Miramar Court, reached from US 98 by South Holiday Road, then Hatchew Road and Professional Place. The county plat puts that turn about 12.2 miles west of the US 98 and US 331 intersection. The seven-lot subdivision went through Walton County's platting process in late 2021. The development company was led by Johnny Boswell.
South of that turn, the anchor of this part of the coast is Miramar Beach Regional Beach Access at 2375 Scenic Gulf Drive. SoWal describes it as busy year round. It has gulf-front parking plus a second lot on the north side of Scenic Gulf Drive. The access includes:
- An ADA-accessible boardwalk, parking and restrooms
- Beach wheelchairs
- A water fountain and a beach conditions flag
- Lifeguards during peak season
Pompano Joe's sits at the east end of the access. The Visit South Walton listing describes it as a waterfront Caribbean and seafood restaurant at 2237 Scenic Gulf Drive.
Just offshore is Dolphin Reef, an artificial reef built by the South Walton Artificial Reef Association. SWARA lists it 685 feet from shore on a bearing of 188 degrees, in 12 to 20 feet of water. SWARA suggests reaching its snorkel reefs with a kayak, paddleboard or other flotation device. Its reef sites are generally built from prefabricated concrete modules with embedded Florida limestone, placed in patch reefs.
None of that is changing. The change is in how people get to it.
A Parking Lot That Grew Before It Opened
The Driftwood Road facility sits on a 1.25-acre parcel at 76 Driftwood Road. The county places it about a quarter mile from the Miramar access.
The plan changed between the bid and the build. At its April 22, 2025 meeting, the County Commission awarded the construction bid to Elite Building Group for $2,210,719.12. The county's June 9, 2025 groundbreaking announcement described a 67-space lot, set the groundbreaking for June 16, and estimated about 11 months of construction. The October 2026 version is larger in scope:
| Feature | Plan as of the October 6, 2026 TDC packet |
|---|---|
| Parking | 82 spaces |
| EV charging | Four stations |
| Restroom | 800-square-foot facility |
| Dedicated parking | ADA, low-speed vehicle and bicycle |
| Role | Hub for the South Walton Beach Tram |
| Cost | $2.2 million |
| Progress | 35% complete |
| Expected completion | Winter 2026 |
Walton County Tourism's project page adds that the transit stop will be air-conditioned. It still lists completion as "this winter."
The county describes the facility as a hub for the Beach Tram, a place to park the car and ride the rest of the way to the sand.
The Roads Between US 98 and the Gulf Have No Published Finish Date
The second project is the one that changes the street grid. Walton County is rebuilding Driftwood Road and Ellis Road from US 98 down to Scenic Gulf Drive as a one-way pair. Each road will get two 12-foot travel lanes and an 8-foot concrete multi-use path. Curb, gutter and an exfiltration trench will handle stormwater.
The county awarded that construction contract to RBM Contracting Services, LLC on December 18, 2025, for $3,743,685.62. South Walton Utility Company agreed to contribute $192,910.35 toward moving water and sewer lines under the roads. The county engineering report for April through June 2026 lists the Driftwood and Ellis stormwater, roadway and pedestrian work as under construction.
No county document gives a firm finish date for the roads. The best guide to the timeline is the construction-inspection task order. It calls for a phased maintenance-of-traffic plan and a 15-month inspection term. That term describes inspection staffing, not a promised completion date for the roads.
The direction of each road is also still unsettled in public sources. In June 2025, a county commissioner told WMBB that one road would carry northbound traffic and the other southbound. No source reviewed for this post says which is which.
The Tram Route Is the Last Piece to Be Drawn
The third piece is service, not construction. Walton County Tourism runs a free Beach Tram that connects pay parking facilities with regional beach accesses. All trams run daily, and the off-season schedule began October 1. For a sense of how a park-and-ride works once it opens, the 393 Beach Park and Ride at 1668 S County Hwy 393 runs the Ed Walline Express. It goes straight to Ed Walline Regional Beach Access every 10 minutes, daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Driftwood is still labeled "Coming Soon" on the schedule. Once the facility is finished, the county plans a direct tram route to Miramar Regional Beach Access and service to other regional accesses along Scenic Gulf Drive. Final routes have not been posted.
So all three pieces depend on each other. The tram route can't start until the hub opens. The hub sits on a street that won't have its final one-way layout and concrete path until the road contract is done. And the road contract has no published finish date.
What This Winter Actually Looks Like
Here is the order the pieces appear to be lining up in, based on the county's own documents:
- Now: Miramar Beach Regional Access keeps its two parking areas and its boardwalk. The Driftwood and Ellis road work was listed as under construction in the county's April through June 2026 report. The parking facility was 35% complete at the October 6 count.
- Winter 2026: This is the county's current target for the Driftwood Road Beach Park and Ride. It is a forecast, and it has already moved once, from June.
- After the hub opens: Walton County Tourism will post a Driftwood tram route to Miramar Regional Beach Access and other Scenic Gulf Drive accesses.
- Later, date unpublished: The Driftwood and Ellis one-way pair and its 8-foot concrete paths are finished under the RBM contract. The county's inspection task order carries a 15-month term but no completion date.
Kellenberger described the payoff in terms of the people it would serve: those who "live, do business and have short-term rentals here, as well as the visitors who stay in their accommodations." The finished version gives this part of Miramar Beach a second way to the sand. A beach day could start a quarter mile from the water, at a building with restrooms, EV chargers and bike racks, and end on a tram back to the car. The Tourist Development Tax pays for all of it.
Until then, the route from US 98 to Pompano Joe's and the Dolphin Reef offshore still runs through a construction zone. The county's next quarterly engineering report and the next TDC packet are the places to watch for the dates to firm up.
At Boswell Builders, we follow projects like Driftwood Road closely because they change how a homesite connects to the beach, from the walk out the front door to the path down to Scenic Gulf Drive. If you're thinking about a home where that walk is part of the design, we'd be glad to sit down and talk through it with you. Work With Us.
