JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Supporters and opponents of the plan to convert the Skyway in downtown Jacksonville into the Ultimate Urban Circulator using rubber-tired shuttles that can travel on the elevated structure and on streets will get a chance to weigh in when the Jacksonville Transportation Authority has public meetings for the next phase of the system.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority board voted Wednesday to enter into a $6.7 million contract with HNTB to do an extensive study of various alternatives for moving people around downtown where the Skyway runs. The contract also would cover the cost of doing 30% design for conversion if JTA stays on that course.
JTA has already extensively studied creating the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C for short, using driverless shuttles guided by sensors for moving passengers around downtown and potentially into surrounding neighborhoods.
When the city doubled the local gas tax to 12 cents per gallon in 2021 for a long list of transportation projects, JTA convinced City Council to approve $247 million for converting the 2.5 mile elevated Skyway system as part of the U2C.
But cost for that piece could exceed $247 million. In order to seek state and federal grants covering additional costs, JTA must do a project development and environmental study that looks at a range of alternatives.
The study will come with an "extensive public outreach component," said Greer Gillis, senior vice president and chief infrastructure and development officer for JTA.
"JTA has done that before throughout all of our planning studies already, but we have to document it as part of the environmental process," she said.
The study will examine other types of transit technology that could be used on the elevated Skyway platform, and also assess a "no-build alternative" that doesn't convert the Skyway.
The plan for the Skyway has continued to face criticism. City Council member Rory Diamond, who voted against increasing the gas tax, said in a post Thursday on X that "the time has long since passed to pull the plug on the Skyway-to-nowhere U2C project. This is just throwing more taxpayer money away."
City Council member Jimmy Peluso has also said the city should kill the U2C project and use the $247 million on other projects. He wants JTA to build light rail for transit.
JTA is currently building the first phase of the U2C that will run down Bay Street from the office towers on downtown's Northbank to the sports complex.
Gillis said the study will take an objective look at all the options and the locally preferred alternative for the Skyway makeover might still be to use technology that connects with the the Bay Street corridor in a continuous system for autonomous shuttles. If that is the direction JTA goes, it would build ramps connecting the elevated structure to street level for the shuttles.
JTA still must finalize a contract with HNTB and will work with the firm on developing alternatives for the study. No public meeting have been scheduled yet for the study.
The JTA board previously approved contracting with HNTB in a vote in February, but that contract would not have included the project development and environmental study. JTA decided it needed to make that part of the contract and rebid it. HNTB again emerged as the top-ranked firm.
This story was first published by The Florida Times-Union.
