Local

Liberty Street: Power back on, repairs months away

The City of Jacksonville restored power to the Liberty Street townhomes two days ahead of schedule.  The twenty homes have been dark since February 1 when the Liberty Street Bridge near Coastline Drive collapsed.

“There are even some owners that have begun to return to their homes,” says Jim Robinson with Public Works on Tuesday.

Robinson says the process thus far has coast about $150 thousand, which he says is still under budget.

The City says it will compensate homeowners for their relocation expenses: substitute housing, loss of rents, loss of use in terms of condo fees paid for no value, etc.  Robinson said the City will probably spent $60 to $80 thousand alone just paying back the families.

“The individual owners have a lot of individual expense,” says Andrew Beaudoin at the Riverwalk Townhomes.

Public Works says the next phase of the project will take a lot longer than the power restoration phase.

“Liberty Street is going to be certainly a costly issue to repair slash replace,” Robinson says.  “It’s certainly going to be many, many months before Liberty Street will be back in service.”

He estimates it will cost a total of $37 million by the time Liberty Street and Coastline Drive are back open for traffic.

Robinson also says at this point, they still have not determined the cause of the collapse.

“Once we start demolishing, we’re gonna probably never know exactly what happened,” he says.

mobile apps

Everything you love about wokv.com and more! Tap on any of the buttons below to download our app.

amazon alexa

Enable our Skill today to listen live at home on your Alexa Devices!