JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Transportation says tolls will soon be a reality in Jacksonville.
Florida Secretary of Transportation Ananth Prasad was in the River City on Thursday talking to transportation officials from Jacksonville and its surrounding counties.
Prasad and his staff were pointing out the importance of tolls along the Branan Field Chaffee Road stretch from Cecil Commerce Center south to Blanding Boulevard in Clay County. Officials said planning and construction will start next year, and drivers can expect to be paying to use the road by 2016.
DOCUMENTS: Project overview | Fact sheet
This first leg of the project will cost about $230 million.
Prasad said the tolls are needed because this project would not be built for years, but the expressway is needed now because of population and business growth in the area. He said the First Coast Outer Beltway is needed for economic growth.
DOT says the average toll would run $1.50, but could run $2.20.
Prasad said this is the best plan that would allow users to pay.
The North Florida Transpotation Planning Organization OK'd the plan at a meeting Thursday.
Most people who were there seemed in favor of the toll, except for one man who said it will create a big mess on the Westside.
"They are going to do anything they can to avoid that $2 hit," Kurt Kinder said of drivers. "Those roads go though residential neighborhoods. They go through schools. They have a lot of signals. They go though shopping areas. They are going to become parking lots."
Prasad was asked about Jacksonville's vote in 1988 to eliminate tolls and replace it with a sales tax. He said the city should just eliminate the sales tax, and added that no one should be surprised that the road will be tolled.
From day one, sir, there has been a sign on this road that said 'future toll road,'" Prasad said. "For people who have been driving this road and saying, 'I am surprised this is a toll road,' there is a sign there (that) there is a project. It's been talked about."
The whole project is supposed to extend into Clay County eventually, where a new bridge will replace the Shands Bridge, but there is currently no funding for that and no plans yet on when that could happen.