Santa Rosa County will celebrate the completion of the Navarre Beach Causeway Bike Lane project with a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The event will be at the bike lanes found on the east side of the beach parking lot just south of the Navarre Beach Causeway and Gulf Boulevard.

County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka said the Navarre Beach Causeway Bike Lanes project is the result of the collaboration between the Escambia-Santa Rosa Community Traffic Safety Team, the Florida Department of Transportation, Santa Rosa County, and the Santa Rosa Tourist Development Council.

The bikeway along the Navarre Causeway or County Road 399 provides connectivity to existing bikeways and aids in reducing traffic congestion along with providing a safe path for exercise and sightseeing for both residents and tourists.

"The Escambia – Santa Rosa Community Traffic Safety Team promotes safety in our community through private and government sponsors," Tsubooka said in a news release. Team members saw the need for a bikeway along Navarre Causeway and submitted the project to FDOT for funding with the endorsement of Santa Rosa County and the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization.

FDOT funded the bulk of the project, with additional funds for completion coming from the Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners and the TDC with the county engineering department designing and managing the project. Last December, the county awarded construction to Panhandle Grading and Paving, Inc. and the project was complete in mid June. The final cost was $624,539, with the TDC funding $27,247.62 and the county utilizing a total of $27,247.62 of district 2, 4 and 5 recreational funds to complete the project.

Bike lanes provide riders a space separate from motorized traffic along the causeway where space is at premium, especially during the busy tourist season. From the causeway, riders can continue on to the multi-use paths along Gulf Boulevard or in Navarre Beach Park. The bike lanes are a component of the 40-mile loop, a project to identify bicycle facilities forming a continuous loop between Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach.