Meet lunch location-slated for the ‘60s-‘70s era Blue Boy Sandwich Shop location at 6514 Norwood Avenue (SR 117), Jacksonville, FL 32208 at 11:30 A.M.
Post-meet dinner location-slated for the original (1949) Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q location at 4907 Beach Boulevard (US 90), Jacksonville, FL 32207 (exact time TBD).
Beach Boulevard was built westward from Shetter Avenue and Third Street (aka Pre-1945 FL 140, which was renumbered as SR 1 during the 1945 renumbering, only to be renumbered again the following year as SR A1A in order to avoid confusion with US 1) in Jacksonville Beach to the old post-Civil War Hogan Road (which ran from Hendricks Point in South Jacksonville towards Saint Augustine) between 1937 and 1949 (construction was suspended between fall 1941 and 1945 due to World War II), was originally legislated as SR 376, was built on the right-of-way of the Florida East Coast Railway’s Mayport Branch (also known as, and originally built as, the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railroad) to relieve traffic on parallel Atlantic Boulevard (originally legislated as SR 140), and was finally dedicated on December 17, 1949, along with the original B.B. McCormick Bridge (which was a four-lane drawbridge, replaced in 2009 by a two-span, six-lane fixed bridge) over the Intracoastal Waterway.
Stop #2: Race Track Road Connector and Interchange at SR 9B (I-795) (this connector is actually called Peyton Parkway, presumably named after the same Peyton family that founded Gate Petroleum in 1960, and will eventually connect with a massive development area off of CR 210 and Race Track Road to the west of US 1-FL 5-Philips Highway)
Stop #3: Saint John’s Parkway stub-end south of CR 210 (current plans call for Saint John’s Parkway to extend all the way down to CR 208 to the west of the Saint Augustine (Premium) Outlets, with a spur/connector to SR 16 and SR 16A)
On the way from Stop #3 towards Stop #4, there is a (at least partially) graded ROW north of the CR 210 intersection with Greenbriar Road; this is where CR 210 turns to the south in order to head towards the intersection with SR 16A and Longleaf Pine Parkway. The ROW heads north from this intersection towards the intersection of Longleaf Pine Parkway and Veterans Parkway (this ROW may/may not still be planned as part of Veterans Parkway, but I couldn’t find anything pertaining to this ROW, so the project may very well be dead in the water now).
Stop #4: SR 16 1963 Shands Bridge and 1929 Shands Bridge Piers (current plans call for a replacement bridge in order for the SR 23 First Coast Expressway to cross the Saint John’s River without a major bottleneck and connect with I-95 at or near SR 9B aka I-795 in Saint John’s County; this construction won't happen until 2023, which could mean another area road meet or mini meet-stay tuned)-there are historical information marker signs on both sides of the SR 16 1963 Shands Bridge, with at least one of them detailing about naturalist William Bartram, son of naturalist John Bartram of Bartram’s Garden (1728, Kingsessing, Philadelphia) fame, who explored the Saint John’s River in 1774 (after failing as a planter at Picolata, a former fort location at the intersection of CR 13 and CR 208, seven years earlier in 1767) after initially landing at Amelia Island. In case y’all were wondering who Shands was, his name was William Augustine Shands, was born somewhere in Alachua County in 1889, served as a Democratic member of the Florida Senate from 1940 to 1958 where he advocated for the establishment of a state medical college and teaching hospital, and died down in Gainesville in 1973. (Note: Hurricane Matthew destroyed a portion of the 1929 Shands Bridge Pier on the Clay County/Green Cove Springs side of the Saint John’s River during the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season)
Optional: Depending on whether or not the entire initial stretch of the SR 23 First Coast Expressway toll road is open by the time of the mini meet, we will attempt to drive it (this toll road will eventually cross the Saint John’s River on a replacement of the SR 16 Shands Bridge and connect with I-95 at or near SR 9B aka I-795 in Saint John’s County; there is also discussion of another extension serving the Northside of Jacksonville and Nassau County). If it isn’t completely open by then, I will drop it from the iteniary. Also, we may check out construction of the second stretch between SR 21 Blanding Boulevard and the SR 16 Shands Bridge if FDOT has started construction on it before the road meet is held (which is somewhat likely).
Stop #7: US 1-US 90-SR 5-SR 10 1941 Main Street Bridge in Jacksonville (we will park under the bridge on the Downtown-Northbank side next to the Jacksonville Landing festival marketplace, where there was a notorious mass shooting on August 26, 2018 at approximately 1:30 p.m EDT-current plans call for the Jacksonville Landing to be eventually torn down and replaced with a massive city riverfront-waterfront park)
This road meet will be held on February 23rd 2019. Facebook event is up and running:
https://www.facebook.com/events/286403948879827/?ti=iclA rough draft of the iteniary can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-4tiXlI4CebKzowIXKbTcz9tPf6podhIxH_NzufS6oY
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Topic: Jacksonville Road Meet-February 26, 2022 (Read 17656 times)