Building Up Jax: 95/Butler flyover opens, lots of hunkering

This week, most of the “construction” activity in Jacksonville consisted of “hunkering down” prep for the pending arrival of Hurricane Irma. Businesses – particularly those in coastal areas – boarded up their windows and shut down early in preparation, and ongoing construction projects adjusted their schedules and did as much weatherproofing as was reasonably possible.

That being said, there are still a handful of news items from this week in Jax development.

JTB FLYOVER NOW OPEN

The flyover ramp that takes southbound traffic from I-95 directly to eastbound Butler Blvd. is now open.

The ramp, which has been under construction since 2014, officially opened on Thursday after a ceremony the previous week.

Meanwhile, the new traffic signal at the northbound I-95 exit onto Butler was scheduled to activate yesterday.

The remainder of the project is expected to wrap up by the end of fall.

NOTED PROJECTS

• A permit was issued for the construction of a new Chipotle location at 9395 Atlantic Blvd., where Pier One Imports closed last year.
• House of Leaf & Bean, an organic drive-thru café opening soon at 14474 Beach Blvd., received a permit for its build-out.
• Yogurt Mountain will open a new location in The Strand at St. Johns Town Center.
• Tropical Smoothie Café will open in the shopping center at 13820 Old St. Augustine Rd.
• Popeye’s at 1324 Dunn Ave. will get a $50,000 remodel.