MIDDLEBURG – Florida Department of Transportation is now accepting public comments on the project to add two lanes on a stretch of road on Blanding Boulevard from County Road 218 to the Black Creek bridge in Middleburg.

Transportation officials held a public hearing Dec. 1 to expand the roadway from four lanes to six lanes, a $21 million project officials said will provide more efficient east-west movement at the intersection of Blanding and CR-218. The project will also include widening the CR-218 bridge over the south prong of Black Creek.

Blanding is Clay County’s main thoroughfare, prone to backups and traffic jams. With the completion of the project – first announced in 2013 – the intersection of Blanding and CR-218, a major choke point on the road, will see alleviated traffic.

“Clay County is growing like crazy,” said Bill Henderson, district planning and environmental manager with FDOT. “One of the places that’s really growing is south of Middleburg, towards Penney Farms.”

The project is part of a larger reconstruction effort along a six-and-a-half mile stretch of the road dating back to 2002. Officials knew they would have to execute the buildout in sections. The widening project from Knight Boxx Road to Old Jennings Road saw its completion in 2009. A section from Allie Murray Road to Old Jennings similarly saw completion.

Construction for the remaining section from Black Creek to Allie Murray will begin in the winter of 2018, with the stretch from Black Creek to County Road 218 expected to begin a year afterward.

“It’s a very high volume road,” Henderson said. “So we’re really trying to expand that to get people through quicker. It should do a really good job.”

The project all ties in with construction and widening currently underway on Blanding Boulevard from Old Jennings Road to south of Branan Field Road that began in August 2015 at a price of $16 million. The leg now under construction includes adding four-foot bike lanes and six-foot sidewalk in both directions, replacing the traffic signals at Coppergate, Branan Field and Old Jenning roads, adding street lights from Bear Run Road to just south of Branan Field Road and constructing a new drainage system including new pipes, inlets and a small pond. Medians are being narrowed to allow for the roadway widening and curb construction, according to FDOT data.

Henderson said some businesses could expect decreased access for short periods during construction, but said once the road is finished business owners could expect higher traffic to shuttle through that segment of road.

FDOT held a similar call for public comment in 2013, however the plan changed slightly based on updated traffic count information collected since. Regardless of how smoothly the construction will go, businesses remain concerned.

“People are definitely going to get hit, eventually,” said John Placzkowski, owner of Clay County Transmission. “And I don’t want to be responsible. I don’t want to lose my business over it.”

The FDOT plans to put a crosswalk in front of Clay County Transmission where a traffic light is currently in place. The only problem, Placzkowski said, is the traffic pole standing where they want to station the traffic walk has been hit so many times he had to put tires around it.

He attributes the crashes with the traffic pole to the current street design. He said Palmetto Street feeds into his business’ driveway. After speaking with project managers and transportation authorities about his problem, however, Placzkowski said, he is more comfortable with the plan after having had his voice heard.

“I’ve got time, it’s going to work out either way,” Placzkowski said. “But if they decide to initiate the plan the way they have it, I don’t agree with it, let’s say that.”

Public comment is still underway for the project. The DOT asks those interested to contact project manager Leigh Ann Bennett at (800)749-2967 for more information or to submit comments before Dec. 12.