by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Football fans attending Sunday’s Jacksonville Jaguars vs. St. Louis Rams football game will be the first motorists who will get to road test the new traffic management system on East Bay Street. Sixteen mast arms have been installed above the roadway from Ocean Street to Talleyrand Avenue near the Sports Complex. Green arrows, red Xes and white turn lane arrow icons can be displayed above each lane to indicate the current traffic pattern.
The Sunday football game pattern involves devoting most lanes on Bay Street to moving traffic toward Jacksonville Municipal Stadium before kickoff and away from the stadium after the game. While orange safety cones and police officers to direct traffic will still be employed, having the system that can change with the flip of a switch allows the City to adapt traffic to an event without relying solely on manpower and equipment to modify the pattern hours in advance of the event.
The system can also be used to block off sections of Bay Street to accommodate block parties like those held during Super Bowl XXXIX.
The usual complement of police officers will be deployed Sunday on Bay Street to ensure motorists adapt to the new system during the inaugural implementation, said Sgt. Leonard Propper of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Community Affairs and Special Events Division. He also had a message for drivers encountering the new system for the first time.
“The new lights are lane designation indicators, not traffic control devices. There will be 47 green arrows above Bay Street but the public needs to be mindful that when the traffic light turns red they have to stop (even if they are in a lane with a green arrow above it),” cautioned Propper.
The $3.5 million East Bay Street improvement project also included resurfacing the roadway and changing the normal traffic pattern in the block between Ocean and Newnan streets from three one-way westbound lanes to a two-way configuration (one westbound lane, one eastbound lane and a turn lane). That will allow northbound vehicles to turn right onto Bay Street off the Main Street Bridge.
356-2466