Rick Scott's budget funds Northeast Florida transportation projects

[Patricia M. McBride]

This includes toll roads (Managed Lanes).  See the last item and know you will lose state road 23 when they take it over and make it a limited access toll road (outer belt around the city).  They have this in Denver and they had it down in Orlando as well when we visited and they do nothing at all to relieve the traffic jams for anyone not using the toll road after that (and they clean your clock for tolls ..... it would have been $35.00 for one day out in Denver).  Orlando is a nightmare.  Fortunately Denver is spread out forever, so the regular roads with the exception of a couple of places are pretty decent, but I see this as something no one asked the people about.  It is more of the federal government through the state "branch of DOT" just doing what they want regardless of how the people here might feel about this change.  But this is straight out of the Obama handbook of the feds overlording everything. 

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Feb 13, 2013 

Carole Hawkins

Reporter- Jacksonville Business Journal

 

Gov. Rick Scott’s 2014 budget will spend $298.8 million on transportation projects in Northeast Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation said in a news release.

The projects reflect the governor’s economic and budget priorities by investing in port, highway, bridge and other transportation infrastructure improvements to increase capacity, reduce congestion and create private-sector jobs, the DOT said.

Projects funded for Northeast Florida include:

• $36.0 million to correct navigational problems at Mile Point – jump-starts Phase II of the Jacksonville Port Authority improvement to ensure cargo ships can access terminals despite tide conditions
• $60.5 million to replace a bridge on Heckscher Drive over Sisters Creek in Duval County – existing bascule bridge replaced with a fixed span structure with lower operating costs.
• $85.3 million to add managed lanes on I-295 from Buckman Bridge to I-95 in Duval County – alleviates congestion in the general use lane and provides long-term mobility by managing demand.
• $15.0 million to add lanes and reconstruct on A1A from Still Quarters Road to Rubin Lane in Nassau County – relieves congestion and improves the movement of people and goods.
• $3.1 million to improve the interchange at I-75 (State Road 93) and US 90 in Columbia County – relieves congestion and improves travel times.
• $98.9 million to construct a new expressway on State Road 23 (First Coast Outer Beltway) in Duval and Clay counties – provides a limited access, all electronic toll facility to promote the movement of people and freight
• link:  http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/02/13/governors-b...