Jacksonville, FL (October 17, 2016) Attending the Sweetwater community meeting “Coffee with Katie”, more than 100+ residents turned out to receive the six years in the making news from District 11, Council Member Danny Becton when he announced that a traffic light has been approved, funded and will be erected at the intersection of Sweetwater Parkway and Baymeadows Road in 2017. CM Becton said this is the first of several District 11 Capital Improvement Projects that he made a “Top-Priority” and on September 27, 2016 the City Council approved this project in the fiscal year 2016-2017 budget. CM Becton credited a “Great” working relationship with the administration for the successful budget windfall.
“This is not just me,” Councilman Danny Becton said. ” These approved projects came about by working with the Mayor, his Staff, including Public Works and the Planning and Development departments during my first year in office as collaborative efforts.”
CM Becton invited John Pappas, Public Works Director to the event and gave Special Thanks to John and the Chief of Engineering, Nelson Caparas for their combined efforts to making this project happen. Mr. Pappas said his team is currently designing the project and it is hopeful that the light will be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2017 at an approximate cost of $400,000.
Other District 11 projects coming in the near future include another traffic light on Gate Parkway, a Bridge Widening on Deerwood Parkway and an additional right turn lane on Deerwood Parkway onto Southside Boulevard North. This last project will require a major traffic light modification whereby the current traffic lights are strung from wires, not posts, which require re-balancing once the added turn signal is installed to implement this extra turn lane to the north. The approximate cost is budgeted in the amount of $500,000.