by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Commuters who traverse downtown’s west end may want to dig the maps out of their glove compartments. Permanent road closures surrounding the new Duval County Courthouse site will take effect Jan. 19, forcing Pearl, Monroe and Clay street commuters to seek alternate routes.
The City will close Monroe Street between Broad and Julia streets, Clay between Duval and Adams streets, and Pearl between Duval and Adams. Courthouse construction manager Chris Boruch said the closures were necessary to allow for work to progress on the courthouse foundation.
Although the foundation plan is still in the design phase, Boruch said the City would begin a 15–foot deep excavation next month, allowing construction to hit the ground running once the plans are cemented.
Work will begin immediately underneath Pearl, Broad, Adams and Duval streets, however, Boruch said work on Clay Street could not proceed until BellSouth cleared thousands of feet of communications lines.
“We’re right where we should be in terms of the construction schedule,” said Boruch. “The only hang–up right now is that we need BellSouth to get their stuff pulled out of Clay Street. That’s a pretty big hurdle we need to clear.”
The City has worked since the summer to build a new series of underground utility trenches. Those trenches will house a complex tangle of utility, water and communication lines displaced by the foundation construction. Most of the lines have already been relocated, but the BellSouth lines remained while the City negotiated for months with BellSouth over who would pay the project’s bill.
Boruch said he hoped BellSouth would work “expeditiously” to pull its lines from Clay Street, allowing foundation work to proceed. According to a memo of understanding, the City and BellSouth both reserve the right to haggle about the relocation costs once the project is complete. The City agreed to front some of the cost, while BellSouth agreed to pay to install and test the cable. A decision on the rest of the costs was postponed to keep the courthouse on schedule, said Boruch.