County requests funds for ‘problem child’ intersection

Nassau County is asking the state of Florida for funds to improve the intersection of SR 200 and CR 107 (Old Nassauville Road), which Commissioner “Hupp” Huppman called “the problem child.” Another ask of the state is money towards a CR 108 extension that will run North and parallel to SR 200 and essentially connect Hilliard and Yulee. 

More funding is being requested for “land acquisition and demolition of all manmade structures” along Thomas Creek, a water supply expansion south of Hilliard and to the West Side Regional Park, a mobility and master planning exercise in Crawford/South Callahan, 911 console replacements and the SWEAT program. At its Oct. 18 meeting, the BOCC discussed a packet prepared by the county for Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Rep. Dean Black and Sen. Clay Yarborough that detailed the seven requests.

A Canadian-British multinational engineering consulting firm named Atkins is doing studies to continue the widening of SR 200 from Old Nassauville Road to Marsh Lakes Drive. Analysis of that study included adding a northbound dedicated right turn lane onto SR 200 and an additional southbound lane on Old Nassauville Road to Parliament Drive. The county is requesting state funding of $1.5 million, or about a quarter of the estimated project cost, to first see if these changes are possible. Local funding is to be determined by mobility fees.

County Manager Taco Pope said the county has been working with the Florida Department of Transportation on the road project for 18 months. More than 45,500 vehicles travel through the Old Nassauville Road and SR 200 intersection every day, according to the packet prepared by the county.

“As you all know, that intersection is a challenge,” Pope said.

During deliberation, Commissioner Jeff Gray said that “anybody who travels that roadway knows it’s a major, major problem.” Gray said he gets “quite a few calls” about that intersection, along with Commissioner Huppman.

Commission Chairman Klynt Farmer said, “I believe that this CR 107 project is something that needs to be done immediately, and that’s just where I stand on it. It’s substantial.”

“The other thing I’m going to remind you is that the growth in the county right now, the centralized focus of it, it’s happening out there. Along your side, too, Mr. Gray, certainly on Blackrock. So we’ve got all the development there, and we’re already behind the power curve on 107, so we need to go forward at great speed on that one,” said Huppman. “It is the snag point. In transportation, it is the problem child in the county.”

Commissioner Gray mentioned long-range transportation plans for an extension from Pages Dairy Road to Blackrock Road and then Barnwell Road, running close by SR 200.

“Pages Dairy is getting ready to explode,” Gray said.

The county identifies a CR 108 extension as a critical link between the east and west of Nassau County. As a public-private partnership, Nassau County will start construction from the west at US 17 and Wildlight, LLC will start construction from the eastern end of the extension at Chester Road. The total cost estimate is $26.6 million in 2020 dollars but an estimated $31.4 million in 2023 after construction cost inflation adjustments. Nassau County is requesting $3.7 million in state funding for design and permitting and beginning of construction, bringing total grant funding from FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 to $5.2 million. Local funding is to be determined by mobility fees.

Pope said, “this has been a priority of the county going back more than a decade,” and talked about what Commissioner Alyson McCullough called the “buckets” that will fund the projects. Within the transportation bucket, Pope said he doesn’t think giving priority status to either the CR 108 extension or Old Nassauville Road intersection project will matter and that the county will get at least a portion of the transportation bucket for both projects.

“However, that’s how it works,” he said, “there’s limited resources and they negotiate back and forth until they get a balanced budget.”

Commissioner Farmer said as the Nassau County liaison to the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, “it’d be a whole lot easier sell to fund that CR 107 project prior” to the CR 108 project, as its cost is a fifth of the CR 108 project.

After board deliberation, priority was given to the Old Nassauville Road and SR 200 intersection project.

Florida, Nassau County and the Town of Callahan have invested more than $20 million in infrastructure to spur private industrial development at the 1,814-acre Crawford Diamond Industrial Park. 

The county is requesting $500,000 in state funding for a “master plan for the mobility networks and civic facilities to support the industrial users, service providers and workforce” outside of the diamond in the Crawford/South Callahan area. The county will provide $100,000 of in-kind funding.

“We know that area of the county is going to change rapidly,” Pope said.

Crawford Diamond is in Commissioner McCullough’s district. She commutes everyday to and from that part of the county.

“That’s traffic…It is not logistically conducive to commercial growth,” said McCullough.

“Just being in that area every day, I can tell you that Crawford, to me, is a priority up there with (SR) 108 and (SR) 107,” said McCullough. “The same things y’all are facing on this side of I 95, we have that same logistic traffic nightmare on that side.”

During commissioner comments, McCullough said, “We’ve got so many people coming to one single road from SR 200 and up US 301, and I’m very supportive and happy to see a road and transit program where we’re getting relief.”

srosenthal@fbnewsleader.com