TU: Skyway could be torn down if ridership doesn’t improve — in next 25 years

[Patricia M. McBride]

Sounds like a plan to me, but in the mean time, we still have to subsidize it every year for the few who do ride on it.

Some hope a downtown resurgence will improve ridership numbers.

Posted: August 26, 2011 - 2:21am | Updated: August 26, 2011 - 9:04am

By Larry Hannan

August 26, 2011 - 02:21am

Skyway could be torn down if ridership doesn’t improve — in next 25 years

Jacksonville residents will only have about 25 more years to not ride the Skyway.

Jacksonville Transportation Authority officials, under prodding from City Council members, have conceded there may come a point when the Skyway will have to be torn down if ridership doesn’t increase.

JTA Executive Director Michael Blaylock said the Skyway could be torn down at the end of its natural life, which would be around 2036.

Assuming the Skyway continues to run deficits of about $4 million a year, that would be an additional $100 million of taxpayers’ money gone away.

“I won’t live to see that,” Councilman Bill Gulliford said this week.

The conversation about the Skyway, built in the 1980s, began during budget hearings this month when Councilman Richard Clark wondered why the Skyway was still around.

“Why are we still operating this?” Clark asked. “It’s almost become a novelty.”

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-08-26/story/skyway-could-...