Designs for an operations and maintenance facility for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s automated vehicle replacement for the Downtown Skyway monorail system, the Ultimate Urban Circulator, will be considered for conceptual review by the Downtown Development Review Board on Oct. 12.
The proposed 40-foot-tall JTA Autonomous Innovation Center at LaVilla would replace a surface parking lot at Jefferson and Water streets.
The project was originally heard by DDRB at its Aug. 10 meeting.
It is substantially revised and is being heard by the board as a new report, according to the DDRB staff report.
The facility would function as the center for operations for the U2C program, the staff report says.
The site is 1.11 acres and comprises the block between Jefferson, Broad, Bay and Water streets.
The facility will have repair bays for the automated people movers expected to start operation in 2025 on the 3.2-mile Bay Street Innovation Corridor loop from JTA’s Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center to the Jacksonville Jaguars football stadium.
An application included in the board material lists Balfour Beatty LLC as the design-build principal of the project.
In January 2022, JTA signed a $49 million contract with Balfour Beatty LLC — Vision 2 Reality Team to complete the Bay Street Innovation Corridor phase of the U2C for 12 to 15 automated vehicles.
The Balfour Beatty group is a consortium comprising Superior Construction Co. Southeast; Beep Inc.; WGI Inc.; Stantec Consulting Services Inc.; Miller Electric; Urban SDK; and Balfour Beatty.
The application says JTA intends to start construction Dec. 1, 2023. It does not provide a completion date.
Eventually, JTA plans to connect the innovation corridor to a 10-mile automated vehicle loop linking Downtown to Riverside, San Marco, Brooklyn and UF Health Jacksonville in Springfield.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room at the Main Library at 303 N. Laura St.
