Balfour Beatty Consortium Selected for Jacksonville’s Phase I Circulator Project

The Jacksonville (Fla.) Transportation Authority (JTA) Board of Directors has chosen the Balfour Beatty Vision 2 Reality team to deliver the Bay Street Innovation Corridor Project.

Final contract terms are under negotiations, and are slated to come before the Board later this year.

The project is Phase 1 of JTA’s Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C), a planned autonomous-vehicle service in downtown Jacksonville. U2C will convert and expand the Skyway automated people mover (APM) from a 2.5-mile to a 10-mile system with transitions to the street level to reach more destinations.

“By transforming the current Skyway, extending the reach within the urban core through the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, and expanding beyond into adjacent neighborhoods, U2C supports the vision of a vibrant, revitalized and better-connected downtown Jacksonville,” according to JTA.

The Bay Street Innovation Corridor Project is a 3-mile, at-grade autonomous-vehicle service along Bay Street, which will run from Hogan Street to the Sports & Entertainment District, near TIAA Bank Field, 121 Financial Field, and the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena (see map, top of page). The approximately $44 million project is fully funded and supported by local, in-kind, state, and federal funds, including the $12.5 million BUILD grant awarded to the JTA in 2019, according to Balfour Beatty.

Balfour Beatty is teaming with Superior Construction Company Southeast; Beep, Inc.; WGI, Inc.; Stantec Consulting Services, Inc.; and Miller Electric to complete the AV-DBOM project.

“This award represents a major milestone for the U2C, the JTA and downtown Jacksonville,” JTA CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. said. “We are confident the Balfour Beatty team and its partners will deliver a world-class project on behalf of the taxpayers of Jacksonville, placing our community at the forefront of innovation.”