Here's how $147 million federal grant for Jacksonville's Emerald Trail will be spent
Jacksonville is getting a $147 million federal grant for work on 15 miles of the long-planned Emerald Trail network of urban green spaces, local and federal officials said Wednesday.
"We're all excited that more shovels will be in the ground soon,” Mayor Donna Deegan said in a release outlining plans for construction on five trail links spread from the city's old Eastside to the Woodstock and Durkeeville areas west and north of downtown.
Those links are parts of a master plan developed five years ago to connect creeks, paths and parkland in the city's core as a 30-mile chain of green space stitched together as a vast amenity encouraging cycling, walking and running in the heart of Jacksonville.
The grant is part of a $3.3 billion bundle of funding the U.S. Transportation Department is distributing to communities in 41 states to redress disruptions that earlier generations of infrastructure created in old, often minority neighborhoods.
The city, the nonprofit Groundwork Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority applied jointly for the funds and sent representatives to Washington in September to lobby federal officials and ask members of Congress last fall to speak up on their behalf.
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Last year's lobbying bore fruit this week.
"I’m glad to support the Emerald Trail project with financial resources that will jumpstart the work and bring us closer to this nature trail becoming a reality,” U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean wrote in an annnouncement about the funding posted on his congressional website. The message linked to a support letter Bean and U.S. Rep. John Rutherford both signed and sent to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
About 40 percent of the Emerald Trail is in design, under construction or already finished, but the new funding should move the sprawling project much closer to completion.
"This is a win for all of us, especially the residents of our urban neighborhoods who have been underserved for far too long. This grant will accelerate our work and bring major investment to these neighborhoods,” Groundwork Jacksonville CEO Kay Ehas said.
For the new DOT-funded grant, JTA will manage work in five remaining trail segments connecting Riverside to McCoys Creek; linking North Riverside, Woodstock, and Robinsons' Addition; to Durkeeville, College Gardens, and New Town; connecting the Eastside, Phoenix and Springfield; and the S-Line Connector tying the former rail line into the rest of the network.
Championed for a decade by Groundwork Jacksonville, the project has gained a varied list of supporters, from the JTC Running club to cigar manufacturer Swisher, which last year donated $500,000 to help complete work remaking the long-dormant S-Line rail route near its production facilities as part of the trail system.
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Groundwork Jacksonville has worked to incorporate the trail into expensive public works projects before, working with the city for years in an extensive remaking of flood-prone McCoys Creek and last year landing federal funding to study rebuilding ramps to downtown’s Mathews Bridge to address a man-made bottleneck blamed for flooding in Hogans Creek.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville getting $147 million grant to move Emerald Trail to reality
