If the Jacksonville Transportation Authority is going to break ground in January for the Regional Transportation Center Downtown near the Prime Osborn Convention Center, the basic design for the project needs to be approved ASAP.
That’s why a workshop for the first phase, an inner city bus terminal along Forsyth Street near Interstate 95, was conducted Tuesday by the Downtown Development Review Board.
The conceptual design of the site of the new Greyhound Bus Lines Inc. station could be approved by the board as soon as Oct. 20.
Final approval then could be granted in late November, giving JTA, the developer of the transportation center, about two months to secure permits and begin the project.
David Tudryn, vice president and senior architect for Michael Baker International, said the design of the station will be Greyhound’s latest prototype and similar to new stations in Baltimore, Nashville and Sacramento, Calif.
His Pittsburgh-based firm and Pond & Company, a local architectural firm, were selected by JTA to design the center.
JTA CEO Nathaniel Ford said in April if all goes according to schedule, the $33 million transportation center that includes a new Downtown terminal for the authority’s fixed bus routes, a hub for the First Coast Flyer rapid transit bus system and administrative offices could be complete in 2019.
Discussion at the workshop focused on traffic circulation around the bus station site.
Board member Carol Worsham said she’s familiar with the area because she drives through it each day. She described it as a “dangerous intersection” because Forsyth Street is the exit ramp off Interstate 95.
That traffic, plus other vehicles, pedestrians, Greyhound buses using the station and the eventual use of the site as JTA’s main transit hub, could create conflicts, she said.
Allan Iosue, director of development for Pond & Company, said the project could require redesigning Forsyth Street and other changes may be in store as well.
“We want wider sidewalks and more pedestrian activity,” he said.
Another issue will be screening mechanical components of the bus station.
Tudryn said in addition to a trash container inside the station, there also will be a waste pumping station to empty restroom holding tanks on the buses and an above-ground fuel tank.
He also said an elevated pedestrian walkway above Forsyth Street is being planned to connect the Greyhound station with the administration building and JTA hub.
Commenting on the short timeframe remaining to meet JTA’s desired starting date for construction, “we’ve got some work to do,” Tudryn said.
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