ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — In just the last few years, State Road 16 in St. Augustine has gone from a rural road lined with farmland and woods to a busier road with new neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
"I work up here," Tina Dicken said. She just moved to the area four years ago. She's seen traffic start to clog SR-16 where it intersects with International Golf Parkway.
"When you’re headed that way (west), it backs all the way up," she said.
The Florida Department of Transportation is in the process of studying the possibility of widening SR-16 from two lanes to four lanes from I-95 west to International Golf Parkway. It’s about a six-mile stretch.
This is just in the development phase, and it could take years for the widening project to be complete.
County commissioners say improving this road and getting the money for it is at the top of their list.
During last week's county commission meeting, St. Johns County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst said SR-16 has been the county's "number one transportation priority."
"We just received some federal dollars to aid us with this state road. We’ve been getting some state money and there are some developer obligations," Whitehurst said.
The FDOT’s projected cost to widen the six miles of SR-16 is $279 million.
Whitehurst pointed out what seems to be a steep price jump for road construction from a few years ago.
While speaking to a DOT engineer at the meeting, Whitehurst said: "My math says that’s 46.5 million dollars per mile. We recently watched a meeting where, at that time, the widening project was going to cost us $5 million a mile. That was back in 2018. Can you talk about some of the costs that have been increasing and what’s contributing to it?"
DOT Environmental Engineer Jamie Driggers replied, saying it boils down to supply and demand. He said many Florida cities and counties all need new roads.
"It’s related to material pricing and competition in that industry," Driggers said, "If there’s a select number of vendors, then you’re dependent on that."
He added, "We’re all competing for the same resources. That’s the cause and effect of the trends we’re seeing."
As for Dicken, she welcomes the widening project and the help it could provide to her commute.
"It'll work. I like it," she nodded.