JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For Jacksonville’s Arlington residents, Merrill Road already presents its fair share of traffic headaches.
“You got the O’Reilly’s, the auto place … you got the Waffle House … you’ve got pizza place, you’ve got Wendy’s, so it’s already busy with the drive-thru traffic and stuff like that,” Arlington neighbor Roslyn Ross told Action News Jax Sunday.
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Now, from Monday, June 2, until August, that busy road will be restricted to just two lanes, with JEA set to begin work replacing the sewer in order to make way for a new pump station in the area.
Construction will begin by first closing the eastbound lanes and detouring traffic through the westbound lanes. Once work on that section is complete, the closure and detour will shift to the westbound lanes.
Neighbors Action News Jax spoke to Sunday morning are wary about the traffic backups the project may bring.
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“My [house’s] back faces where the Wendy’s is and all, and I hear lots of stuff going on just right there,” Ross said. “So I can imagine I’m going to hear many accidents, many more accidents, I guess I should say. I just don’t think it’s a smart thing to do.”
Another concern by neighbors Action News Jax spoke to off of Merrill Road: that the project will push even more cars onto their neighborhood streets, where they say cars already come flying through on a regular basis.
“It’s gonna be much more worse,” an Arlington neighbor named David told Action News Jax. “You know, now we’re gonna have traffic here. They cut to that side, cut to that side, and it’s gonna just make this neighborhood a mess.”
However, in the end, Ross said she just hopes the project’s benefits are worth the temporary headaches, with flooding a major problem in their neighborhood streets.
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“We do have a lot of storm flooding up here because the things get blocked,” Ross said. “I don’t even know what they’re called, where the water goes down, so hopefully that will help. I hope the end justifies the means.”
JEA said of the project, “JEA is working to minimize impact on commuters and the Arlington neighborhood. We appreciate customers’ patience as we work to upgrade our pump station and accommodate future growth in the area.”
You can find more information on the project and expected closures by clicking the link here.
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