Regency Flyover: It's about time!

[Metro Jacksonville]

Regency Flyover: It's about time!



After years of construction the Regency Bypass flyovers are finally nearing completion.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/557

[Lunican]

Does anyone know how they plan to widen Arlington Expressway now that it is boxed in by the new ramps?

[CMG22]

Is it a question of how?  Or are they going to even attempt it in general?

[DetroitInJAX]

Typical shortsightedness of our local and state transit planners.... They probably saw this post and went "ohhhhhh yeahhhhhh... about that.."

[Lunican]

There is a proposal to widen Arlington Expressway to 6 lanes. The extra lanes may have to end at the southside connector unless they go to the right of the ramp.

I suppose tearing down a brand new flyover is always an option too.

[tufsu1]

I think the intent is to start/end the 6-lane expressway at the connector...so the 5th and 6th lanes would be the enter/exit ramps just built.

[Steve]

That's exactly what all of the plans I've seen have.  It will be six lanes from there to university, then eight over the river to MLK, then six to liberty st.

[thelakelander]

So there will be a permanent bottleneck from Southside to Atlantic Blvd?

[Charles Hunter]

I'm guessing the idea is that a good portion of the traffic will exit onto the Flyover and go up to Trednick or Merrill to get into East Arlington or onto Wonderwood to go farther east.

Of course, until someone comes up with (if I remember the number correctly) somewhere between 750 Million and a Billion dollars, the question of where the 6 lanes stops is academic.

[Steve]

I wouldn't say permanent, because anything is possible with money, but yes, I would say that stretch will be four lanes east of the flyover for a LONG time.  Rail, anyone?

Remember, this was phase 1 of what was called the Regency Bypass.  Phase 2 was tredinick parkway and the interchange with Southside Connector.  Phase 3 (which is not funded) was supposed to connect Tredinick back to Atlantic blvd (somewhere, not sure where)

[fsujax]

Transit planners do not plan highways!, I say put a light rail train right down the middle of the new expressway and across the new Mathews Bridge, that might get built in the next 50 years.

[Doctor_K]

The whole light rail argument is all well and good, but where would they lay the rail here?  There's grass median east of the Arlington Rd overpass on the Expressway, but not west of it.  The whole Expressway would have to be expanded outwards in order to accommodate any rail down the center. 

The other option would be replace one of the access roads of the Expressway, which may or may not be a good thing for the few remaining businesses along those corridors.

Am I missing something?  Could rail be done here?

[tufsu1]

the entire Expressway will need rebuilding in the next 15-20 years as the bridges will have reached their lifespan...so they could always widen to the outside (between the main lanes and the C/D roads)...thereby providing room down the median for transit.

As for a bottleneck concern east of the connector....the theory is that enough traffic is destined to Southside...and existing traffic counts bear this out...the #'s between Southside and Atlantic are lower than west of Southside and east of Atlantic.