Marcus Nelson Profile picture
Feb 19 14 tweets 8 min read Read on X
I want to start a conversation about something.

Jacksonville is quietly beginning one of the most ambitious transportation projects in its history, and the way that project is built could define the city’s transportation future, but only if we want it to.

Here’s how. #jaxpol 🧵
The John E. Mathews Bridge in Jacksonville, Florida.
The REM in Montreal, Canada.
The Mathews Bridge, Union Street Expressway, & Arlington Expressway represented Jax's entry into the highway era. Completed in 1953, the bridge was the first fixed link between what was then Jacksonville and Arlington, in unincorporated Duval County across the St. Johns River.

The Mathews Bridge under construction in the early 1950s.
The Sports District in Jacksonville in the mid 20th century. The Gator Bowl is in the center, the Coliseum to the left, and baseball stadium towards the top. Stretching from the top center of the picture to the right is the Union Street Expressway.
A colorized photo of the Arlington Expressway early in its life. Little has been developed yet, and the photo is mostly forest.
The bridge & expressways on either end made it possible for thousands of cars to cross the river, enabling the development of new suburbs with thousands of single family homes and dozens of shopping centers for residents to live in and shop at while commuting to work Downtown.
Arlington beginning to fill in throughout the 1950s. The Arlington Expressway crosses the center of the picture from left to lower right. A shopping center is visible near the center, surrounded by many single family homes.
Cars wait to pay the toll on the Arlington end of the Mathews Bridge.
In 1967, Regency Square Mall would be built at the end of the Arlington Expressway, creating a regional hub that could pull shoppers away from Downtown stores. This would set an example for the car-centric suburban growth of Jacksonville, now legally mandated in much of the city.
Regency Square Mall's parking lot.
The interior of Regency Square Mall in its midcentury heyday.
The Mathews is over 70 years old now. It will take years to plan, fund, & build replacements. Those could stand for a century, meaning what is built could define how Jax lives and moves for decades to come. @MyFDOT is beginning the first steps to reimagining this corridor.
A view of the Mathews Bridge from the former Ford Plant near Downtown Jacksonville.
The cover for a study performed by the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, considering options to convert the Arlington Expressway into a boulevard.
Early planning is underway to replace the Union Street Expressway with a new bridge that makes more room for a restored Hogan’s Creek. But that is where we have a choice to make. Tampa has shown a possible path. A concept drawing of a replacement bridge over Hogans Creek. The bridge curves south before making another curve east to rejoin the existing alignment. The bridge has four lanes and a median but no elevated pedestrian path, which is on the surface near the re-exposed creek.
In the 2010s, FDOT began studies to rebuild the Howard Frankland Bridge & the expressways that carry I-275 over Tampa Bay. At this critical moment, the people of Tampa and their representatives pushed FDOT to ensure that the highway project could support light rail in the future.

A statement by FDOT that in listening to the community, they learned that residents wanted infrastructure for transit and pedestrian use, not just for cars.
A display of plans to construct the new Howard Frankland Bridge, demonstrating how future modifications would support the implementation of light rail.
An artist's rendering of a light rail train in the median of Interstate I-275 near Tampa. The train is surrounded by many vehicle lanes.
$25 million paid to strengthen the $850m bridge for future light rail.

A Jax example: when FDOT replaced the Acosta Bridge in 1994, it was designed to bring the Skyway to the Southbank. More recently, the expanded Fuller Warren Bridge included a trail across the St. Johns River.


A view of the Acosta Bridge replacement in the early 1990s. The old yellow bridge is between the new concrete bridge and black rail bridge.
A Skyway train sits at the top of the Acosta Bridge as JTA workers make adjustments during testing of the new leg of the Skyway to the Southbank station at Mary Street and San Marco Boulevard.
The Skyway, crossing the Acosta Bridge behind a First Coast Flyer bus.
Two people walk on the new Fuller Warren Pedestrian Bridge. The St. Johns River can be seen to their right, and buildings on the shore behind them.
So this brings me to a big idea: The replacement of the Mathews Bridge & its expressways could build the foundation for a rail line that stretches across Jacksonville, finally realizing the dream of connecting Downtown to the Beaches & transforming the city along the way. A map outlining a conceptual rail transit line through Jacksonville in relation to the First Coast Flyer BRT network. The yellow rail line starts to the west at Edgewood Ave, traveling southeast through a maintenance facility at the end of Kings Rd, then follows Kings Rd to State St and the Rosa Parks Transit Station in Downtown. The line then follows the Union St Expressway over the Mathews Bridge (or rather, its hypothetical replacement) and then along the Arlington Expressway to the site of what is now Regency Square Mall. The line continues along Atlantic Blvd to Beaches Town Center.
Today, if you get in your car Downtown and drive to Beaches Town Center at rush hour, it could take up to 50 minutes. You’d sit in traffic, passing dying strip malls. You’d have to focus on the road, eyes peeled for threats from other drivers. JTA’s bus is as slow or slower. A Google Maps routing for driving between Downtown and Beaches Town Center during rush hour. The map shows areas of likely traffic, and a travel time varying between 22 and 50 minutes.
But with a new bridge & a modern train, you could make that trip in under 30 minutes, all day, every day. Instead of asphalt, you’d watch as you soar over the river, glide past the urban neighborhood at what was Regency Square Mall, & arrive comfortably just steps from the sand.

A REM train in Montreal, crossing over a bridge that could be similar to the replacement for the Mathews Bridge. It includes 6 lanes for cars, a pedestrian trail on its edge, and two rail tracks in the median.
A rendering of a train station near new apartment buildings, similar to what one might imagine at a redeveloped Regency Square Mall.
Beaches Town Center, between Atlantic and Neptune Beach. A stylized jaguar statue is visible in the foreground.
The part of the Union Expressway planned for replacement by FDOT will cost over $120 million. The Mathews could cost a billion dollars. A little more would lay the groundwork to change how people move in Jacksonville, to introduce travel that suits the motto, “It’s Easier Here.”
A map outlining a conceptual rail transit line through Jacksonville in relation to the First Coast Flyer BRT network. The yellow rail line starts to the west at Edgewood Ave, traveling southeast through a maintenance facility at the end of Kings Rd, then follows Kings Rd to State St and the Rosa Parks Transit Station in Downtown. The line then follows the Union St Expressway over the Mathews Bridge (or rather, its hypothetical replacement) and then along the Arlington Expressway to the site of what is now Regency Square Mall. The line continues along Atlantic Blvd to Beaches Town Center.
A water taxi passing Downtown Jacksonville. A "JAX, Florida: It's Easier Here" sticker is imposed over the photo.
I’m sure your very first question is “how on earth would we pay for that?” and I’m glad you asked, so share this, hit the follow button and stay tuned because the money is out there if we want it and I’ll explain how soon. If there are other questions in the meantime, ask away!
Oh, and TL;DR: A bridge & highways are probably being replaced within about a decade, we should take advantage of that to help build the train to the beach people have wanted since forever! It'd transform how we live and move along the way, and it's worth at least considering.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Marcus Nelson

Marcus Nelson Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @marcuscnelson

Dec 8, 2023
Today is a great day for the future of passenger rail in America. But there’s so much more work to do, so much at stake, and it starts with the 2024 election.

Here's why. 🧵 A map of the Federal Railroad Administration's Investments to Enhance Intercity Passenger Rail.
Two years ago, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill into law.

It reformed how rail projects are funded & operated, but more importantly it included billions of dollars to make those changes a reality. For this let's focus on two ways of funding two programs. President Joe Biden signs the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act into law.
The Corridor Identification & Development, or Corridor ID Program, establishes a list of projects that are ready to be built by guiding them through the necessary planning and permitting. Once ready, those projects are funded through the next program. Corridor ID creates a foundational framework for identifying and developing new or improved intercity passenger rail (IPR) services.
Read 10 tweets
Dec 2, 2023
I've been meaning to talk about this, and here's a good reason to do it:

Bringing @GoBrightline to Jacksonville, a 🧵

The Downtown Jacksonville skyline, facing Riverfront Plaza.
A Brightline train passing Boca Raton station.
The history, real quick: Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway historically operated rail service from Jacksonville to Miami (and at one point Key West) during the late 19th and early 20th century.
A photo of Henry Flagler.
A map of the Florida East Coast Railway at its greatest length, extending from Jacksonville to Key West.
The FEC, along with several other railroads, converged in LaVilla, at the Jacksonville Terminal.

Once the largest rail station south of Washington, D.C., 20,000 passengers a day boarded long distance trains here to other Florida cities, New York, Chicago, and points west.
An overhead view of the Jacksonville Terminal in the early 20th century. Many rail tracks are visible, some of which are crossed by a bridge.
People crowd the concourse at the Jacksonville Terminal in the early 20th century.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 22, 2023
In celebration of @GoBrightline's grand opening to @MCO, I thought I'd take a look back at Florida's high-speed rail story, and how the dream of connecting the state's biggest metro areas with fast passenger trains *finally* started coming true. 🧵 Two Brightline trains at the Orlando station at Orlando International Airport.
There's plenty of rail history in Florida, but the story of HSR starts in 1982, with Governor Bob Graham. That year, Graham would ride the Shinkansen bullet train in Japan. After he signed the 1984 HSR Act, two consortiums were ready to compete to build a new HSR line in Florida.
Former Governor Bob Graham of Florida.
A Shinkansen 0 Series high speed train.
But a combination of Reagan-era legislation that blocked HSR projects from federal bonds and the state's unwillingness to provide funding support or permit Transit-Oriented Development around HSR stations led to the withdrawal of both companies & the program's collapse by 1991.
Former President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George HW Bush.
A report on the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984. This legislation blocked high speed rail projects from gaining access to federally-backed bonds often used by transportation infrastructure programs.
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(