The Jacksonville City Council granted final approval March 25 to contribute city funding to a $117 million project to raise JEA power lines over the St. Johns River to accommodate large container ships at JaxPort.
Council voted 16-0, with member Mike Gay abstaining, in favor of Ordinance 2025-0194, an interlocal agreement to increase the height of six high-voltage lines near JaxPort’s Blount Island terminal to 225 feet from their current height of 175 feet.
Under the ordinance, the city will reclassify $17.5 million in funding for the project from a loan to a grant. The city also will contribute $3.5 million in previously allocated funds and reallocate $7 million in savings from funding it provided for the $420 million deepening of the harbor channel to allow for passage of larger ships.
In addition, the city agreed to provide $5 million toward cost overruns.
The Florida Department of Transportation committed to providing $22.5 million, and JEA and JaxPort each are putting up $32.5 million.
JEA officials say today’s larger cargo ships require 205 feet of overhead clearance.
Council’s final vote came on a compressed, two-week timeline for the ordinance. The exception to the normal six-week cycle was designed to lock in a guaranteed maximum price of $90 million for construction by Houston-based contractor Quanta Infrastructure Solutions Group LLC.
The remainder of the $117 million estimated cost of the project includes purchases of towers, cables, lighting and other materials involved in elevating the lines.
Since mid-November, when an original guaranteed price was established with a deadline of April 3 for the parties to finalize the deal, JEA and JaxPort officials had worked to negotiate the price downward, draft the agreement, conduct a financial study and work with their respective boards to approve funding for it.
By the time the JEA and JaxPort boards each agreed on their funding for the project in late February, the normal Council cycle would have extended beyond the deadline.
On March 14, Council members Nick Howland, Will Lahnen and Chris Miller questioned JEA and JaxPort officials extensively about the project during a public meeting, including over an initial JEA cost estimate of $42 million to $54.4 million.
JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson said that estimate was from a feasibility study aimed at determining whether the project was technically possible and providing options on how it could be accomplished. It was not designed to determine the cost of construction and design.
After Quanta was contracted, Wilson said, it was discovered that the feasibility study underestimated the workforce needed for the project and omitted such elements as the cost of concrete for foundations of towers on each side of the river.
A JEA timeline for the project calls for completion in the summer of 2027.
Gay said his abstention was to avoid a conflict of interest, as his company, M. Gay Constructors Inc., performs work related to the project. Council members Reggie Gaffney Jr. and Jimmy Peluso were not present.