Drivers will experience lane and speed reductions on Northwest 16th Avenue due to a 4-mile reconstruction project.
The Northwest 16th Avenue Transformation Project involves the milling, resurfacing and reconstruction of the road area between Northwest 57th Terrace and Northwest 13th Street, according to a press release.
There will be nighttime lane closures along the project’s span and daytime closures at Northwest 51st Street. Lanes have been reduced to one in each direction from Northwest 31st Drive to Northwest 22nd Street, the release said.
Speed limits have been temporarily reduced to 30 mph in the area, said Brian Singleton, Alachua County transportation engineering manager.
“The corridor of the pavement was beyond its useful life, so it was time to resurface the roadway and bring that corridor up to current standards,” Singleton said.
The project will also widen a section of the avenue to four lanes and expand sidewalks. Pedestrian faculties will be upgraded to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and the walls along the road will be stabilized.
Jake Kornblum lives off of Northwest 16th Avenue and Northwest 13th Street, right next to Gainesville High School.
The 22-year-old said the speed-limit change and lane reduction has made his commute to campus and Archer Road “brutal.”
“It just takes twice the amount of time that it would before,” the UF business management master’s student said. He now tries to take alternate routes to campus.
The project is expected to be completed in May.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 1/9/2015 under the headline “Road work causes evening closures, delays"]
