The Better Jacksonville Plan will widen Old Middleburg Road from two to four lanes with other improvements. The project was first proposed 24 years ago. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on July 18, 2024 at 2:01 pm
Find everything you need to make informed decisions this election season, plus so much more. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
It’s about time, says Bo Cooner, as traffic buzzes by his subdivision off Old Middleburg Road.
Twenty-four years ago, the Better Jacksonville Plan set aside money to widen the two-lane road to four lanes from 103rd Street to Argyle Forest Boulevard — but the work remained a line on a project list.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Thursday morning, the mayor and others officially broke ground on the $30 million project. Cooner stood nearby on Country Mill Lane, where he said he has to wait for Old Middleburg Road traffic to clear so he can leave his subdivision.
“It’s been years of pauses and progress, so it’s really exciting to see this come to fruition,” he said. “Sometimes it takes 10 minutes between the traffic lights to align to get out and turn.”
Another happy person is former Mayor John Delaney, who first proposed the project in the Better Jacksonville Plan, a road and infrastructure improvement plan approved by voters in 2000, estimated then at $2.25 billion.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“I am glad to see it is still working,” said Delaney, who went to the groundbreaking. “It’s now, in today’s dollars, about a $5 billion to $6 billion investment in the community, and now kind of taken it for granted. … We knew it would be about 20 years and expected it to actually be paid off early, but better late than never and it’s good to see it.”
State traffic numbers show that about 44,000 vehicles a day use 103rd Street, many of them turning south at Old Middleburg Road to use the two-lane road past multiple subdivisions and shopping centers. Another 17,100 a day use Argyle Forest Boulevard at its southern termination, where Oakleaf Town Center and a branch library are just some of the development on the southern part of Old Middleburg Road.
Long before many of those developments added to the traffic on the two-lane road, City Council member Rahman Johnson said residents knew it needed to be widened. Now the widening in his district will become what he calls “a bridge to the Westside.”
“Twenty-five years ago, there was not the density of population up and down the road,” Johnson said. “But now we have this opportunity to move cars in and out, which means economic development, which means more businesses, and No. 1, public safety. If ambulances and fire trucks need to get on this road and help people in need, they are now going to be able to do it.”
Along with doubling the number of lanes on Old Middleburg Road, the project will add curbs and gutters, plus a sidewalk, multiuse path, improved traffic signals and a bridge replacement south of Marlee Road.
Johnson said he well remembers the town meeting the city held for the community a year ago to show final designs for the 4.5-mile widening project, and he faced residents more than eager to see the project done.
“They beat me up really bad,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve only been in office a day!’ But this is what they wanted, and they got it and I am so excited.”
The Better Jacksonville Plan uses funding from gas taxes. This project’s $30 million price tag includes right-of-way acquisition, planning and engineering, and construction costs.
The first phase would run just under a mile from 103rd Street to Parman Road and take about a year. The second phase would head south from there to Argyle Road and take about 24 months. Johnson said he will work to get the phases to overlap to minimize road obstruction for residents.
The Florida Department of Transportation also plans some road work nearby.
An $8.8 million state project, beginning at 103rd Street from Samaritan Way to Shindler Drive, includes resurfacing, sidewalk reconstruction, signal work and road sign installation. FDOT will modify the 103rd Street and Old Middleburg Road South intersection to allow less right and left turns.
The project is set to begin in the fall and last about a year.
