New Traffic Lights To Ease Game-Day Traffic Flow

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The City of Jacksonville is installing sixteen new traffic signals on Bay Street to be used to create one-way traffic flows in and out of events held at and around Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

This week and for the next two months, construction vehicles will be a familiar scene along Bay Street, with eastbound traffic reduced to one lane.

Today, construction crews used a giant Texoma Pressure Driller to auger down 18-feet to prepare for the large steel mast arms that will hold new traffic signals.

Sixteen new red and green lights will run the length of Bay Street to Metro Park, the Stadium, the Veterans Memorial Arena and Baseball Grounds.

There will be no more temporary lanes made of hundreds of orange cones in and out of events. Dixie Drilling is the same company that completed a similar project in Greenville, South Carolina to speed the flow of traffic in and out of that city's stadium.

"And it worked out real good," said Dixie owner Andy Green, speaking about the Greenville City plan.

"They did the same thing. They took traffic into the stadium, then turned around and brought it out of the stadium. And it worked out real well there!"

The project will cost taxpayers $2.4 million, but over time the city expects to make that money back by improving access to events and reducing JSO overtime for dozens of officers who now direct traffic on game days.

A bonus for the workers is digging down to pull up Jacksonville's past, like bricks and more from the era of the Great 1901 fire.

"The old city foundation still exists here. It's just been paved over. And usually between four and eight foot (down) we run into building foundations, old pipelines, stuff that nobody remembers where it came from!" said Green.

The two month construction project is expected to be completed in time to ease the flow in and out of the first pre-season Jaguars game.

Downtown events at and near the stadium bring in an estimated $200 million annually. The city hopes by improving access in and out of events, visitors will leave with a more positive experience and be more inclined to return.