The City of Jacksonville responded to citizen safety concerns with a project to redesign the intersection of Park Street and Blanding Boulevard at the entrance to the FSCJ Kent Campus.
District 7 City Councilman Jimmy Peluso was able to place the project on the City’s list of priority projects through Resolution 2025-0119-A, which was submitted to the North Florida Transportation Planning Association (TPO). TPO approved the approximately $4 million project at its April meeting.
“I am excited this improvement is moving forward and to see the strong community support as the engineering and design phases commence,” said Peluso.
The significant changes currently included in the project design are removing the slip lane that allows motorists heading northbound on Roosevelt Boulevard to directly merge on to Park Street from the highway, allowing a right turn at the traffic light at the intersection of Park Street and Roosevelt Boulevard and installing a roundabout at the intersection of Park Street and Blanding Boulevard at the Kent Campus entrance.
“The conceptual project is expected to promote traffic calming at the location, increase aesthetics and promote traffic flows through the intersection,” said Hampton Ray, FDOT Community Outreach Manager.
Peluso recognized the efforts of the Fishweir Neighborhood Watch to bring the need for this project to his attention and detail the safety issues that this change could address. The Fishweir Neighborhood Watch hosted FDOT District 2 Urban Planning and Modal Administrator Jim Knight for a project update at its monthly meeting on Aug. 19.
“That slip lane has caused most of the headache in that area,” said Knight.
He informed meeting attendees that FDOT is aware of the safety issues created by vehicles traveling off a highway with a speed limit of 50 mph and merging into the residential area of Park Street, which has a speed limits of 30 and 25 mph.
“We believe this design addresses that issue. I always thought a roundabout would work well there and when we got the traffic counts, it really confirmed it,” said Knight. “We looked at the traffic signal there and that really works well out into the future, but the roundabout works even better out into the future.”
Corinne Grant and Brooks Dame hold a section of a diagram for the proposed road project that will add a roundabout to the intersection of Park Street and Blanding Boulevard.
The current project design was displayed at the meeting, though Knight stated the design process is ongoing.
“We are on about our sixth variation to it,” Knight said. “We are still making adjustments to it.”
The project’s progress benefits from its relatively easy implementation and low cost.
“Those two factors often move a project forward quickly. We also had some misfortune on a project or two where they ran into some issues with right-of-way position that allowed this project to move up,” said Knight.
The elimination of the slip lane from the northbound lane of Roosevelt will also create more road frontage for properties on the lane, which will enable the creation of a sidewalk and increase safety for properties with driveways onto Park Street.
“We’ve worked to make all of those driveways (along the slip lane) to where nobody has to back out into traffic on Park Street,” said Knight.
While the project design was well-received at the Fishweir Neighborhood Watch meeting, there were some negative aspects that Knight addressed, including the eventual closure of the intersection for the roundabout construction.
“To install that roundabout, you have to dig up that asphalt out in the middle of the intersection and build a concrete truck apron that is 12 inches thick,” said Knight. “There is no way to do that off-peak, with a lane closed. We have to close it down, completely.”
The current proposal would place the project on the 2026-27 schedule with construction beginning the Monday after the July 4th weekend. The intersection would be closed for two to three weeks, with an estimated completion date before the start of the school year.
FDOT is working on securing right-of-ways for the project and will share information with the public when it becomes available.
“We need some right-of-way from the City and from the college, both have expressed that they are amenable to work with us,” said Knight.
The meeting’s discussion also included some improvements that the attendees would like to see on other roads, including speed humps on Yukon Street to slow traffic along Fishweir Park and a crosswalk at Yukon Street and Valencia Road. Brooks Dame, Peluso’s executive council assistant, said she would investigate those issues.