Jacksonville's costliest road redo isn't over - it's coming

[deathstar]

I think I just lost my dinner.

The section of I-95, one of the most heavily traveled in Jacksonville, is structurally deficient and needs to be torn down, FDOT says. Daily average traffic counts conducted by the state in 2009 have traffic ranging from 172,000 vehicles using the roadway just off the Fuller Warren Bridge to 120,000 using the road south of Hendricks Avenue.

The $224 million project is expected to disrupt traffic on I-95 from north of Palm Avenue to south of San Diego Road, over Hendricks, King and Montana avenues. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2012 or early 2013, and conclude in the summer of 2016.

When finished, the project will pass the recently completed intersection improvements at interstates 10 and 95 as the most expensive road construction project in Jacksonville history. That project cost about $152 million in construction with a total project cost of about $200 million and took six years to complete, from 2005-2010.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-11-08/story/southside-begins-bracing-224-million-construction-project

[thelakelander]

$224 million would give you roughly.....

22.4 miles of commuter rail or streetcar at $10 million per mile.  That's basically a corridor stretching from Jacksonville International Airport to Orange Park or Avenues, depending on what side of the river you want to stay on.

[tufsu1]

sure....but we can't ignore maintenance of roads....the majority of the cost is in the reconstruction of the bridge structure.

Of course the project has grown...and now includes new lanes and ROW acquisition too.

[thelakelander]

Never said we shouldn't. Just making a cost comparison.

[ChriswUfGator]

$224 million would give you roughly.....

22.4 miles of commuter rail or streetcar at $10 million per mile.  That's basically a corridor stretching from Jacksonville International Airport to Orange Park or Avenues, depending on what side of the river you want to stay on.

It would also buy you 1/2 of a courthouse!

[tufsu1]

or more accurately 100% of the new courthouse building....just not the old Federal courthouse, parking garage, and land acquisition.

Speaking of land acqusition, I wonder if the $224 million includes estimated ROW costs.

[north miami]

Simply marching to the drumbeat of ever more and more........

And the crashing symbols in the background-St.Johns county I-95 future level of service (Tufsu- you will be able to provide a clearer description-it escapes me now/away from file) was negotiated downward some years ago (who knew of this!?) via "growth management".

[Kay]

Repairing it is one thing--making it bigger is WRONG!  That's how we lost Brooklyn.  That's what hurt Annie Lytle.  They do not need to expand 95.  I fervently believe that with 295 and 9A and B, they should downsize 95 through the City.  The money needs to go into mass transit. 

[ChriswUfGator]

or more accurately 100% of the new courthouse building....just not the old Federal courthouse, parking garage, and land acquisition.

Nonsense as usual.

What is your logic behind trying to remove the cost of land acquisition from the total figure? Or saying that, oh the budget also includes renovating the state attorneys office? Like that somehow makes the project any cheaper? So that money wasn't actually spent? How would you propose something could be built without any land to build it on? Argue with yourself all you want, it doesn't really matter how much was spent on doorknobs and how much was spent on whatever else. The bottom line is that $350mm in real money that was spent on this stupid courthouse project, and still counting.

[Jumpinjack]

Those of us who live in neighborhoods close to any interstate should be watching very carefully as DOT eminent domains 35 homes and businesses, 100 parcels of land.
This project should be the beginning of a city-wide discussion about the cost of highways in engineering and materials and most importantly, effects on neighborhood sustainability.

[acme54321]

Repairing it is one thing--making it bigger is WRONG!  That's how we lost Brooklyn.  That's what hurt Annie Lytle.  They do not need to expand 95.  I fervently believe that with 295 and 9A and B, they should downsize 95 through the City.  The money needs to go into mass transit. 

I partially agree.  The changes here are needed.  The third southbound lane is needed, traffic at that bottleneck is a mess in the afternoons and the new exits onto Atlantic should have been there from the getgo.  That said this revised plan sure seems to take a lot of footprint for what it does.

[Captain Zissou]

Repairing it is one thing--making it bigger is WRONG!  That's how we lost Brooklyn.  That's what hurt Annie Lytle.  They do not need to expand 95.  I fervently believe that with 295 and 9A and B, they should downsize 95 through the City.  The money needs to go into mass transit.  

+5

Someone (Lake I think) posted a graphic last week that showed the added lanes.  The ROW/ retention ponds will tear up the Phillips highway/Atlantic area.  I hope the owners of Jackson Square will still go ahead with the original plans for their property. Not that Phillips highway is our best part of town (for right now), but it's between St Nicholas and San Marco, so it won't stay blighted forever.

[JeffreyS]

If we had some leaders with a little fire they could be screaming to the Feds to immediately implement commuter rail as mitigation for the traffic this construction will cause.

[Kay]

When is the next MPO meeting or let's schedule a separate meeting with them about this project before we live to regret it.  Does anyone know where Art Shad is on this?

[north miami]

Those of us who live in neighborhoods close to any interstate should be watching very carefully as DOT eminent domains 35 homes and businesses, 100 parcels of land.
This project should be the beginning of a city-wide discussion about the cost of highways in engineering and materials and most importantly, effects on neighborhood sustainability.

Obviously at some point,now sooner on the horizon than once perceived,we will no longer simply 'expand' exisiting facility.
Or will we??

At every juncture in the quest and acommodation for growth,we should have asked: "And then what??"