Matthews Bridge closed on busiest night of year at sports complex?

[copperfiend]

So this Saturday, the Jaguars are having their annual scrimmage. Free, open to the public. This is a well attended event. I would say usually close to 20k people attend this event.

Also Saturday, the Sharks are hosting a first round Arena League playoff game. I would expect about 10k people for this game.

And then, the Suns will also be playing Saturday night. They usually get 5-6k for a Suns Saturday game.

So on this busy evening at the stadium district a few days out, I see this on Twitter:

Sam Kouvaris @samkouvaris

Heard tonight that despite the Suns, Sharks and Jaguars playing at home Saturday night, Matthews Bridge might be closed.

How is this not planned out better?

[comncense]

#BecauseJacksonville

Not surprising. If it's not the Hart Bridge, it's the Matthew's. Everytime they work on one or the other it always seems to be an extremely LONG drawn out process.

[tufsu1]

Thats because they cant close the roads down completely....instead they spend hours each night awtting up ans then taking down detours

[comncense]

I can understand that, but this is during the daytime on the weekends. I remember because I would leave my house downtown in an attempt to head out to the beaches via the Matthews on a Saturday and the bridge would be closed. The last time I know for sure was back when we hosted the women's professional soccer game at Everbank. I remember being routed through all of the traffic of people going thru the game so that I could get to the on ramp for the Hart Bridge.

I guess the point is that the City knows that there's a ton of events going on downtown this weekend, what would it hurt to forego closing the bridge this Saturday for once to ease the hassle.

[copperfiend]

I just heard the FDOT has decided to have the bridge remain open until 11pm Saturday night. So that should help.

[JayBird]

Though it is great to hear that it is open, you cannot blame this stupidity on COJ. They have no say in the matter, it is completely based on the decisions made by FDOT in their District II Offices, which are in Lake City. Sheriff Rutherford has long been a complainer of the bridges should never be closed completely except for extreme situations, after all it is his budget that has to control that traffic.

[acme54321]

Busy yes.  Busiest night of the year?  No way.