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Main Street Bridge Construction On Hiatus For One Spark

Denise Cox
/
WJCT

With crowds expected to flock to next week’s One Spark festival in downtown Jacksonville, work on the Main Street Bridge will be temporarily paused. The project of rehabbing the nearly 70-year-old bridge often causes delays with frequent lane closures. That work is scheduled to be complete by summer, but Florida Transportation Department spokesman Ron Tittle says other traffic delays are here to stay.

"In the next year or two, we’re going to be almost doubling our projects in and around the Jacksonville area, so we’re really trying to urge patience and caution with our traveling public," Tittle said.

The biggest project is building the I-95 Overland Bridge at the south end of the Fuller Warren downtown. Tittle says that project is expected to last for a couple more years. And it will involve frequent lane shifts and closures. Overall, the department is expected to invest about $800 million in Jacksonville’s roads and bridges through 2017.

Jessica Palombo oversees local news at WJCT News 89.9 and Jacksonville Today. With a master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism from Syracuse University and bachelor's in journalism from the University of Florida, Jessica is a nearly lifelong resident of Jacksonville. You may have once seen her on a local community theater stage. These days, you can most likely catch her reading a book in a school pickup line.