• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

I-95 Traffic Overloads County Road 210 Exit Ramp To Add Extra Lanes, the DOT is Relying on Private Developers to Foot the Bill.

Posted on: Friday, 16 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By DAVID BAUERLEIN

To exit Interstate 95 at County Road 210 in St. Johns County, southbound motorists must pull onto the highway's paved shoulder and come to a high-anxiety standstill.

The bumper-to-bumper line of cars can extend up to two miles, according to drivers. Just a few feet away, other vehicles continuing south on I-95 whip by in a blur.

"If you look at those folks [on the shoulder], they're all looking in their left side mirrors, making sure nobody is going to cream into them," said Ray Diggs, who lives off County Road 210 and fears the daily backup is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

The sight of brake lights at the approach to an exit ramp is not uncommon in Jacksonville, but now it's spread with a vengeance into fast-growing northern St. Johns County. This week, the state Department of Transportation installed signs along southbound I-95 warning drivers to be prepared for stopped traffic between 4 and 7 p.m. as they approach County Road 210.

DOT and St. Johns County officials say the sheer volume of rush- hour traffic has overloaded the capacity of the southbound exit ramp to County Road 210.

To add lanes at the interchange, the DOT is relying on private developers to foot the bill via agreements with St. Johns County. Earlier this year, the county approved an agreement with Twin Creeks' developers to do an estimated $47 million of work along County Road 210, including $8.8 million worth of construction at the interchange.

According to the agreement, Twin Creeks must provide an interchange study by Saturday, Dec. 31, on how to accomplish short- and long-term improvements. DOT and the Federal Highway Administration would have to approve the study. Construction would have to start by January 2008.

Diggs said that's much too long for the current traffic situation to exist, especially when new residents are continuously moving to northern St. Johns County.

"Warning signs are great, but that's not the answer," he said.

St. Johns County Public Works Director Joe Stephenson said he wants the work to start sooner than 2008, especially on the exit ramp.

"I think that you will find that in a situation like this, everyone will jump in and try to help with that," Stephenson said. "Everyone understands that it's a problem -- the county does, DOT does and the developer does."

St. Johns County resident Mike Bonday, who commutes daily through the interchange, said traffic also bogs down in the morning rush- hour, when drivers head east on County Road 210 toward I-95. He said that although that's aggravating, the backups on southbound I-95 are the most pressing problem because of the risk to drivers. He said the DOT and the county should work with Twin Creeks to fast-track work on at least lengthening the exit ramp's right-turn lane onto County Road 210.

"If [interchange] construction starts in two years, that means there's going to be a lot of danger in the next two years," Bonday said. "I'm just really concerned that there's going to be a major accident there because if a tractor-trailer hits one car, it's going to be a domino effect on a lot of other cars."david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581

Source: Florida Times Union

More News in this Category