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<\/p>\nSome residents express concerns over access issues in the road expansion project. City officials say safety, finances and the overall design need to be considered. <\/p>\n
A major road project on Jacksonville\u2019s Westside is moving forward, but some residents are raising concerns about how the proposed design could affect access to their homes.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville City Councilman Rahman Johnson held a community meeting Thursday to provide an update on the next phase of the Old Middleburg Road South project and hear concerns from residents.<\/p>\n
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The project will eventually widen Old Middleburg Road South from two lanes to four lanes and add or improve curbs, gutters, sidewalks and a mixed-use path.<\/p>\n
Johnson called the project a major opportunity to improve the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that this is going to be one of Jacksonville’s crowning achievements when it looks to roadways and how that other communities around the city can look,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Phase 1, which runs from Parman Road to 103rd Street, is complete.<\/p>\n
The next portion, Phase 2A, runs from Collins Road to Argyle Forest Boulevard. Construction is expected to begin soon, with completion anticipated around September 2027.<\/p>\n
Residents say they support the improvements planned for Phase 2A, but some have concerns about Phase 2B, which will run from Collins Road to Parman Road.<\/p>\n
The city is still acquiring additional right-of-way for Phase 2B, and there is not yet a firm construction date for that portion of the project.<\/p>\n
One of the main concerns involves proposed concrete barriers that residents say could limit left turns from some streets and driveways.<\/p>\n
Steve Hoernlein, who lives on Taylor Field Road, said residents are concerned they could be forced to turn right when leaving their neighborhood and then make U-turns to travel in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are limiting us on Taylor Field Road, everybody must turn right,\u201d Hoernlein said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
Hoernlein asked whether the city was still considering a redesign to address residents\u2019 concerns along Taylor Field Road.<\/p>\n
Johnson said the city needs to consider the concerns of everyone affected by the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re not going to look at just Taylor Field Road, we have to look at everything,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Johnson said safety, finances and the overall design all need to be considered before the plans are finalized.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got to do what makes sense financially, we’ve got to do what makes sense ssafety-wise,and we also have to make sure aesthetically it works with the plan we have,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Residents say they plan to continue working with the city as Phase 2B moves through the planning process and are pushing for a design that improves the road while preserving access to their homes.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s timeline for construction of Phase 2B remains uncertain as right-of-way acquisition continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some residents express concerns over access issues in the road expansion project. City officials say safety, finances and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-391309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}