City, businesses react to extended street closure

Coastline Drive between Liberty, Market to remain closed

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered that the city of Jacksonville must keep the entire area closed around the area where Liberty Street collapsed into the river in February.

It doesn't look like it, but the area in front of the Hyatt Hotel and along the Northbank Riverwalk is actually a bridge, which some say is falling apart.

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The city and the FDOT still have not had a good look at what happened to Liberty Street that led to the collapse in February. But FDOT is not taking chances. The agency is forcing the city to put more restrictions on the area around the hotel.

The FDOT order, issued late Friday, not only keeps Coastline Drive and the neighboring Northbank River between Liberty and Market streets closed to cars and pedestrians, but limits traffic on Coastline Drive west in front of the Hyatt Hotel to one-way traffic with a 3-ton weight limit and a 15 mph maximum speed.

Public Works crews were working on changing those traffic patterns and signage Monday.

The new traffic restrictions will remain in place until the bridge supporting the portion of Coastline Drive between Market and Newnan streets is either repaired or replaced.

The city stressed that the ground where the Hyatt was built is safe. It's not a bridge. Only the road in front of it is.

Gino Caliendo, the general manager of the Hyatt, said he thinks the hotel can conduct business as usual with the changes, but he hopes it can be fixed soon.

"The city is working with us in the direction we wanted (the road) to flow in," Caliendo said. "So for us it's business as usual."

City officials were already working with FDOT on expediting a design and engineering plan for the site. An early estimate for fixing Liberty Street between Bay Street and Coastline Drive is $8 million, and repairs to Coastline Drive and the Riverwalk would be more.

"We are also working with the state to make sure we have the planning, designing and engineering underway to see what it will take for a full-fledged repair to that stretch," Mayor's Office spokesman David DeCamp said.

Part of South Liberty Street in downtown Jacksonville collapsed into the St. Johns River in February, leaving the Berkman Villas Townhomes without power because of a damaged conduit and transformer.

The area previously collapsed in April 2012 but was never fixed. The first collapse was determined to be the fault of a contractor using a 12-ton crane to clean the Berkman Plaza's windows and the city allocated $750,000 for those repairs. Repair work was set to start on that when the latest collapse happened. 

Last week, City Council considered a bill that would allow $250,000 of that money to be used to clear material from the February collapse. That would allow engineers to begin assessing the extent of the damage and plan repairs.

"I think we have to understand the scope of the problem, but clearly it sounds like structural repairs are required. Will it require demolition and reconstruction or is it something we can repair? I don't have an answer for it," City Councilwoman Lori Boyer said. "We have to get a budget for it and have to figure out a way to pay for it."


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Jim Piggott is the reporter to count on when it comes to city government and how it will affect the community.