Rick Scott still was governor of Florida when he joined state Department of Transportation leaders in November 2016 to kick off building a new interchange on the Northside of Jacksonville where Interstate 95 meets Interstate 295.
The target date at the time for finishing the $176.8 million project was summer 2020.
Scott is a U.S. senator now and the Northside has grown in leaps and bounds because of subdivision development, expansion of the River City Marketplace mall area, the opening of an Amazon distribution center near Jacksonville International Airport and the increase in people driving to the airport to catch flights .
But one thing hasn't changed for that busy interchange. Construction workers are still building it. Motorists continue to deal with lane shifts and slowdowns as a series of delays has repeatedly pushed back the projected completion date. In the latest reset, the state Department of Transportation says it will take another year to finish the project in spring 2025.
At that rate, the interchange will end up being a construction zone for eight and a half years.
"It's frustrating," said City Council member Reggie Gaffney Jr., who is among the thousands of drivers who regularly use the interchange.
The city isn't involved in the construction. Gaffney said he has reached out to state lawmakers to see if there's a way the state can speed up completion.
"We're getting a lot of other people in Jacksonville and nobody wants to come to a congested interstate where the bumpers are back to back," he said. "So it's definitely important for the quality of life for people in Jacksonville."
State transportation department spokesman Hampton Ray said the scope of the interchange project "is extensive and is expected to see additional capacity open to traffic in the next several weeks, weather and unforeseen circumstances permitting."
He said the state recently did several change orders for the construction that will add more work for safety improvements such as LED lighting that were not in the original contract. He said the additional work will push the completion date to spring 2025 unless weather and "unforeseen circumstances" further affect the schedule.
"FDOT Officials will continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and ensure these investments in infrastructure are completed in accordance with the law," he said.
The upcoming opening of newly-built parts of the interchange continues the piece by piece completion of the junction that gets busier by the year. An open house before construction started said 54,000 vehicles traveled I-295 daily through the interchange in 2014 and that will double to 105,400 by 2040. Traffic on I-95 will grow from 106,500 vehicles per day in 2014 to 140,000 in 2040.
The amount of traffic meant turning the interchange into a construction zone would require patience from drivers while Archer Western, the contractor, rebuilt and reconfigured the interchange.
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"If folks can bear with us, we'll get through this construction and at the end of the day, the drivers will benefit and the rest of Jacksonville will benefit," said Jim Boxold, who was the state's transportation secretary of the time.
Weather-related issues have caused construction slowdowns. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy had supply chain hold-ups and material shortages resulted in delays for all types of construction activity.
Ray said state Department of Transportation officials meet bi-weekly with the construction project team including inspector and the contractor to make sure the work and the expenditure of tax dollars meets requirements of the contract.
The state does work on the interchange at night in order to limit the amount of traffic disruption caused by construction.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Delays ahead: Northside interchange construction will take a year longer to complete
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