A $78 million road project is almost complete at J. Turner Butler Boulevard and Interstate 95 in South Jacksonville.
The southbound I-95 exit flyover ramp to Butler Boulevard east will open Wednesday.
Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Ron Tittle said the rest of the project should open by the end of fall.
Gov. Rick Scott and the department announced the project in 2013 to address the growing congestion at the intersection.
Scott said improving roads in Jacksonville has been a priority since becoming governor in 2010.
“We’re spending $1 million a day to improve our roads here in North Florida,” he said.
The project includes an overhaul to the westbound lanes on Butler Boulevard, separating drivers headed toward Philips Highway and I-95.
The change allows oncoming traffic to bypass drivers trying to merge from Belfort Road.
Drivers headed north on I-95 should have a smoother time exiting to Butler Boulevard, too, with improvements allowing drivers to head west on Butler from I-95 north for the first time.
Tittle said the changes will help during major traffic usage times, “typically during the morning and afternoon commutes to work.”
The eastern boundaries of Butler and I-95 are in City Council member Scott Wilson’s District 4.
He said the project will help ease congestion for the increasing number of workers and residents in the area.
“We have a lot of new development along JTB around the Town Center and Gate Parkway area,” Wilson said.
“This is going to open up the connection from Downtown toward the Beaches,” Wilson said.
He said the entire project should age well, even as the area’s population continues to grow.
Tittle said the department is working on $1.7 billion in road projects in the Jacksonville area, including the I-95 Overland Bridge Project on the Southbank in Downtown.
Tittle estimated the northbound lanes there would open late next month at the earliest.
U.S. Rep. John Rutherford said he supports President Donald Trump’s call for a simple majority in the Senate to move key Republican legislation through Congress.
“I think it subverts the will of the public,” Rutherford said of the 60-vote cloture rule needed to end a filibuster in the Senate.
“The public voted on a majority of senators to be Republican, and now they’ve turned that majority into a made-up 60 votes,” he said.
Rutherford said a simple majority of 51 votes is appropriate “to get things done.”
“I think at least for the things that we’ve promised the American people like health care, tax reform and infrastructure,” said Rutherford. “The Senate needs to drop that cloture rule.”
Rutherford, elected in 2017 to represent the 4th Congressional District which includes Jacksonville, said he’s confident health care reform, which failed to get even 50 votes in the Senate, will be back up for discussion soon, but tax reform seems more likely to get done by the end of the year.
“There will be less effort needed to get tax reform done,” he said. “There’s less obstacles in the way.”
Rutherford balked at the notion that high-ranking Republicans are butting heads with the president.
“I’m there. I know that’s not what’s going on,” Rutherford said. “You don’t have to agree with everything to be on the same team.”
“On the major things, we certainly agree and we always have,” he said.
Sheriff Mike Williams said he does not need any more hand-me-down military equipment or vehicles from the federal government.
“We’ve been very fortunate that the city has given us plenty of the tools that we need,” Williams said Monday.
His answer comes after President Trump announced he was peeling back an Obama administration ban on providing some military equipment to local and state law enforcement agencies.
The “1033 program,” as it’s known, was launched in 1990 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act and transfers surplus military-grade equipment to local departments.
In 2015, Obama issued an executive order limiting the program after he said police looked too militarized in their response to riots in Ferguson, Missouri, and other places following high-profile police-involved shootings.
“Our first armored vehicle came from that program,” Williams said. “But we don’t leverage that program as much as some other agencies have done in the past.”
“I don’t see us making a big push for any of that equipment right now,” he said.
