Exclusive: Mathews Bridge Replacement Plan Draws Strong Reactions

Mathews Bridge

By Melissa Ross First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Exclusive images broadcast by First Coast News Tuesday are drawing a strong reaction from Arlington residents and business owners.

The pictures are artists' renderings showing what a new Mathews Bridge might look like.

Jacksonville engineering firm Reynolds, Smith and Hills has been conducting a feasibility study for replacing the Mathews. The option they're likely to recommend to the state involves an ambitious, $700 million plan: building a new, four-lane bridge just to the north of the current structure, tearing down the old bridge, and putting up another one in its place, for a total of eight lanes.

Additionally, the Arlington Expressway would be widened to six lanes. But plans to ramp up the corridor and the bridge are unsettling to some.

"I don't see how our property couldn't be taken," said Frank McCafferty, president of Jones College, when he saw the renderings the First Coast News I-Team obtained.

This, despite assurances given to Jones that none of the campus' land would be affected by the bridge plans. Jones sits in the shadow of the Mathews along the Arlington Expressway.

"Even if we don't have to move our campus, there will be a significant impact from traffic coming 30 to 40 feet closer to our classrooms," he said.

Resa Dupree, a resident of the Jones College residential section, agrees. "I've been looking out at it and trying to figure out where it all will go," she said.

RS&H showed First Coast News several different photographs and renderings of options they're considering for the Mathews project, and stress any new bridge construction is years away.

In the meantime, work to replace the much maligned grating atop the Mathews Bridge is slated to begin in February, with traffic reduced to two lanes for the project's 90-day duration.

Later this summer a public hearing will be held so commuters can learn more about the project. There's also a website they can peruse, www.mathewsbridge.com.

And while some are reacting with trepidation to the changes a new bridge might bring, other Arlington residents love the idea of a more attractive and safer route across the St. Johns River.

"It should give the neighborhood a lift," said longtime Arlington resident Larry Phillips, "and it'll definitely reduce tension and congestion."