Noise wall coming to Southside Jacksonville

[thelakelander]

By Larry Hannan

After six decades of living at an address, you get used to the sound of nearby traffic.

But Hazel Tisdale,  85, was still happy to find out that a noise buffer would soon be going up outside of her house on the 2900 block of Bethel Court. Her home, which Tisdale has lived in for 63 years, is less than 100 yards from Interstate 95.

“The noise bothers people when they come over and visit,” said Tisdale. “But I never notice it when I’m inside.”

On Thursday,  the Florida Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing to let people know about its plan to install brown walls, 15-20 feet high and similar to an existing noise wall that begins at University Boulevard and ends about a half-mile north of Emerson Street. That wall is surrounded in parts by trees and other green vegetation to make it appear more organic with the surrounding community.

The new walls will cost $2.2 million and be installed from south of San Diego Road to Merrill Avenue on I-95 southbound and from south of San Diego Road to York Street on I-95 northbound.

They will be up before a 2-mile elevated portion of I-95 is torn down and replaced from north of Palm Avenue to South of San Diego Road, for $182 million. The walls will remain after the construction project is over.

full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-05-11/story/noise-wall-coming-southside-jacksonville

[thelakelander]

SOUND OFF

The Florida Department of Transportation will be holding a public hearing on Thursday,  at 6:30 p.m. at the Florida Department of Transportation training facility at 2198 Edison Ave.

Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. to give people time to review the maps and exhibits and talk individually with FDOT officials. The formal portion begins at 6:30, with an audio-visual presentation, followed by public comment.

People wishing to submit written comments may do so at the hearing. They can also mail or e-mail comments to the below address until Wednesday, June 2.

Donald Dankert
Florida Department of Transportion
1109 S. Marion Avenue, MS 2007
Lake City, FL 32025-5874
donald.dankert@dot.state.fl.us

[Lunican]

$182 million for I-95 maintenance? When is that road going to start turning a profit?

[thelakelander]

$182 million for 2 miles!  Talk about public subsidies.

[floridaforester]

So what I've wondered about for years after watching the initial noise walls go up along I-95 south of the river is why are much older neighborhoods north of the river still without noise walls.  I think we all know the answer to that one. And here we are with an announcement that more walls are going in on the southside stretch of the interstate. 

I thought one of the funnier things I had heard when the initial walls were going in was that a Mandarin subdivision built in the 90s near I-95/I-295 interchange was petitioning DOT for noise walls.  That's pretty rich considering neighborhoods built in the 1920s and gutted by these Eisenhower monstrosities in the 50s are still waiting on their noise walls.

[thelakelander]

So what I've wondered about for years after watching the initial noise walls go up along I-95 south of the river is why are much older neighborhoods north of the river still without noise walls.  I think we all know the answer to that one.

Probably the same reason a city waste incinerator was built dab smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood (Durkeeville) in the 1940s.

[mtraininjax]

Probably the same reason a city waste incinerator was built dab smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood (Durkeeville) in the 1940s.

No doubt the city decided it was a "GREAT" idea in the 30s and 40s to dump trash in pits that stretched from Phillips east to the swamp just west of southside blvd. The short-sighted vision is hereditary here in Jax.