by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Barren plots of land near the Main Street Bridge on the Southbank will finally get the landscaping that was expected to be in the ground months ago.
Downtown Vision, Inc. and Greenscape began advocating the approximately $200,000 planting project in 2003.
“We’ve just gotten back a contract from the City, which is a definite positive,” Greenscape’s Anna Dooley said. “We’re awaiting instructions from the various departments that are going to be involved, but we expect to put a bid out to do the work soon.”
However, Dooley was uncertain when the planting process would begin.
“I wouldn’t want to speculate on that,” Dooley said, “but we are looking forward to starting as soon as possible because the City is already looking really good right now and it’s about to look even better.”
Designed by Euthenics Studio, large palms and ground cover will be planted and an irrigation system installed from the St. Johns River to Prudential Drive.
DVI executive director Terry Lorince said in October that crews could not do the work then because of space constraints.
At that time, the Florida Department of Transportation was still in the middle of ongoing bridge work and repairs. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s efforts to light the bridge had yet to begin.
Lorince had hoped the landscaping crews could work in tandem with the FDOT and the JTA. However, delays in those projects as well as in securing City grants ultimately made it clear that it would have to wait.
“Things are just taking a little longer than we thought they would,” she said then. “In the end we figured it would just be better to hold off for a little while so that we wouldn’t be rushed.”
Council member Suzanne Jenkins, who sponsored legislation to appropriate money from the Tree Protection Trust Fund, said she’s ready to see the work start.
“I’ve done my part, which was to secure the necessary funding,” Jenkins said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of it come together.”
Lorince agreed.
“We like to think of that portion of land on the Southbank as being a portal in and out of downtown,” she said. “When this project is finished it will, ideally, place even more emphasis on how attractive the Main Street Bridge really is.”