The proposed doubling of Jacksonville s local gas tax has won backing from the Jacksonville Civic Council, but the influential group of business leaders said the amount of local money spent on converting the Skyway system should be cut in half so $190 million of gas tax dollars go to other transportation projects.
The Civic Council weighed in Monday as proposed proposed amendments to the legislation will be coming fast and furious in the final weeks of deliberation by Jacksonville City Council.
City Council will decide whether to add 10 years to the current 6 cents per gallon local gas tax, which is set to expire in 2036, and add another 6 cents for a 30 year period. That would double the 6 cent gas tax to 12 cents per gallon.
Merrill Road and Townsend Boulevard intersection improvements: $575,000
Mickler Road Widening: $330,000
Lone Star Road extension: (east of Mill Cove to Trednick Parkway): $3 million
University Boulevard complete street project (Arlington Road to Arlington Expressway) $7 million
University Boulevard/Merrill road complete street: $1 million
Traffic signal at Pulaski Road and Howard Road: $600,000
Traffic signal Airport Center Drive and Gillespie Avenue: $700,000
New Berlin Road (Cedar Point to Staratt/Pulaski Road intersection) $40 million
Cedar Point/Saw Pit Road (Industrial rebuild from New Berlin to Shark): $17.5 million
Hodges Boulevard intersections traffic signals: $2.2 million
San Pablo Parkway traffic signals: $2.4 million
Belfort Road widening (Touchton to Butler Boulevard) $7.2 million
There s just days left in Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and its message is to put down the cellphone and focus.
A new CoPilot survey indicates that Florida stands high on the list of states with the riskiest teenage drivers.
CoPilot, an online automobile shopping research site, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting systems.
It says the risk of a fatal crash is three times higher per mile for drivers ages 16 to 19 than for those 20 and up. The three high-risk driving behaviors are: not wearing a seatbelt, drinking and driving, and texting and driving. Risks are particularly high for male drivers, those with other teenage passengers, and teens who are in the first few months after receiving their license, the report said.
As bad as the blown-out windows are on the front side of the five-story building facing Arlington Expressway, the back of it looks even worse.
Two huge openings in the back wall running from the roof to the ground leave the interior exposed like lids peeled back from sardine cans, displaying corroded beams inside a building that s been vacant 11 years since the FBI moved its Jacksonville office from Arlington to the Southside.
Turning that office building into apartments won t be easy, but that s the owner s plan for an investment that would total about $14.5 million. It s the kind of transformation Arlington Expressway will need if it s going to reverse a years-long slide that resulted in acres of vacant buildings scarring the landscape of a corridor that used to be to Jacksonville what Butler Boulevard is to the city now.