Submitted by Gerry Clare
Roving Reporter
September 10, 2014 8:02 p.m.
Local business professionals met at Junior’s Seafood restaurant in Yulee on Tuesday 9/9/14 for a breakfast presentation, sponsored by the Yulee Area Council of the Amelia Island Fernandina Beach Yulee Chamber of Commerce.
Al Moyle of Eisman & Russo (consultants) and Ron Tittle with the Florida Department of Transportation introduced charts and time schedules for the widening of A1A/State Road 200 from 4 lanes to 6 lanes with dedicated bike lanes and sidewalks which began on September 2nd.
Reconstruction of A1A will be performed under three separate projects. Project 1 extends east from about west of the Yulee Post Office to west of Ruben Davis Road, a distance of 1.5 miles, and will take about 720 days. At a cost of 18.5 million dollars, this project will include 2 drainage ponds and take into account the CSX railroad crossing construction as well as utility relocations and new JEA utilities. The contractor for this expansion is JB Coxwell, who has done other construction with FDOT before, including the Amelia Island Trails system.
Good news to many businesses was that Moyle said the contractor is required to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday. Limited daytime lane closures for FPL power relocation will be allowed for safety reasons. Traffic lanes will be shifted between north and south lanes during s various construction phases.
Also noted by Moyle is the fact that local businesses and major event happenings, such as Shrimp Festival’ will be taken into account with appropriate business access signage and restrictions on lane closings during holidays and special events.
Project 2 will go out for bids in October of 2015 and will be started a few months later for an estimated cost of about 30 million dollars and extends from west of Rubin Davis Road to east of Scott /ONeil Road.
Project 3 will go out for bids in July 2016 at approximately 33 million dollars and run from I-95 east adding lanes, to west of Still Quarters Road near the Yulee Post Office.
“Bikers Share the Road” signs will also be evident, as dedicated bike lanes will not be available during construction. Moyle also mentioned that upon completion, Route 17 will have 2 left turn lanes going south to A1A east and 2 left turn lanes eastbound and westbound on A1A to go north and south on Route 17.
There were lots of questions for Moyle and he stressed that communications will be essential to this project. He will be located in an office at the Shoppes of Midtown at Route 17 and A1A in Suite #13 in order to work well with our community in this effort. You can reach Al Moyle at [email protected] and Ron Tittle, Public Information Officer for FDOT’ at 904-360-5457 or [email protected] .
There will be another formal meeting with planners open to the public at the Red Bean Center in Yulee on November 13th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Editor’s Note: Gerry began free lance writing for fun and is the author of a published book (available on Amazon and at Books Plus) about funny real estate experiences. Gerry is a longtime member of our local American Business Women’s Chapter, a volunteer cancer driver and church deacon who loves to read, travel and meet interesting people.
I read this article and couldn’t help to think I am actually reading some good, clear and understandable information with regard to a large project that will effect many in the area. It seems to stand in such contrast to the complete and utter confusion, rumor, and totally misinformation, swirling around the port project. It seems that the Chamber of Commerce was able to get all the parties to sit down and explain what, when, and how such a huge undertaking is going to happen. Why is it local Government can’t seem to do the same thing? When this whole thing started to surface why couldn’t the City request a joint meeting with all parties concerned, have them lay out in clear and simple ways the information with respect to what their plans are and how they propose to do it? As Mr. Moyle stated “communications will be essential to this project”. I have no idea who Mr. Moyle is, but the fact he has made this statement tells me he is a professional that knows the importance of the relationship between builder and community. I attended the meeting tonight in Yulee. There was a great turnout. I heard speakers and talked to some who were much more familiar with the history and operation of the port than I am. To be honest I left more confused than when I arrived. I heard citizens worry about coal floating in the river, the area turning into a toxic waste land, 700 trucks a day running around the island. I have no idea what is true, I would like to, but someone has to get the parties together in person and communicate this. The Chamber did it with respect to a far larger project. Why can’t we?