by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Laura Street was on the table on Tuesday.
Landing General Manager Janice Lowe met with Paul Crawford, Jacksonville Economic Development Commission de-puty executive director and Laura Street project manager; Bill Joyce, chief of the City’s Public Works Department engineering division; and representatives from the design firms and contractor responsible for the roundabout at the foot of Laura Street.
The discussion was about the timetable to pull up the uneven surface and replace it with a smoother surface.
Crawford said at the beginning of the meeting that the work could begin Monday.
However, Lowe said after the project was estimated to close Independent Drive for 40 days, she was concerned that any delay would result in the Landing being essentially cut off from the May 27-29 Jacksonville Jazz Festival for the second year in a row.
Last year, the street in front of the riverfront retail and entertainment complex was closed during the festival when the original construction of the roundabout took almost five times as long as the City estimated.
Repairing the road surface in the roundabout will require closing the street again, removing all the blocks and the asphalt underneath, then pouring a concrete foundation, re-laying the blocks and then grouting between the blocks with a material more rigid than the sand installed between the blocks the first time around.
When complete, the new roundabout surface will be the same as at the intersections along Laura Street from the Landing to Hemming Plaza.
Lowe said after the meeting that the City had agreed to postpone the reconstruction until after July 4, when event activity at the Landing slows down during the summer vacation season.
“We’ve got so many events scheduled here at the Landing in April and May and then it’s the jazz festival. As painful as it is, it’s good they’re not going to try to finish it before the festival,” said Lowe.
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