by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
While construction continues on Riverside Avenue, the Florida Department of Transportation has informed area businesses the stretch of road from the Acosta Bridge to Forest Street will be closed entirely, beginning Friday evening through Monday morning.
“This is actually the third time we’ve had a complete closing,” said Mike Goldman, a spokesperson for the FDOT. “We’ve already noticed businesses owners about it and we haven’t had any problems.”
According to Goldman, who said the FDOT tries to schedule complete shut downs for weekends when the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t playing in Alltel Stadium, Park Street will serve as the main detour while underground utility pipes are installed this weekend.
“It’s really just your usual work and Park [Street] will provide feasible access while Riverside [Avenue] is closed,” said Goldman. “We’ve looked at the different times when we could do something like this and we’ve found that, with the decreased traffic patterns, the non-Jaguar weekends are our best option.”
Goldman said, in addition to several more single lane closings, additional Riverside Avenue shut downs are already on the calendar for November.
When the entire streetscape project is completed — it’s at about 25 percent currently — Riverside Avenue will be expanded from four to six lanes. Forest Street — now a two-lane road — will also be expanded to three lanes.
“We should be finished by early 2005,” said Goldman. “It’s our goal to be finished in time for the Super Bowl.”