Wes Wolfe
Money secured by Nassau County’s departing delegation of Sen. Aaron Bean and Rep. Cord Byrd is going a long way toward a long-sought fix for a county road falling victim to flooding and shifting soils.
But County Commissioners first have to keep stopgap measures going until doing a full overhaul.
“Every time it rains, people on social media, they’re ‘marked safe’ from County Road 121,” County Commissioner Thomas Ford said. “It really, really — it makes a big difference for those folks out there to get the road fixed.”
The Nassau County Board of County Commissioners awarded Preferred Materials the asphalt services contract for paving County Road 121 in March 2021. The resolution approved unanimously Tuesday night allows Preferred Materials to receive its contracted $147,696 to stabilize the road’s “excessive rutting” problem.
“It’ll … fill in the rut to bring some of that relief from holding the water there on the side,” County Engineer Robert Companion said to the Commission. “Your Road Department crew’s already done a good job of going out and knocking down the shoulders. There were some high points even in the shoulders, even without the rutting it would’ve held water. They got rid of that issue, so now let’s fill in the ruts temporarily to hold the pavement together until we get to the reconstruction project that we know is coming.
“We’re going to start designing it this summer, and be starting before this time next year on fully reconstructing that portion of 121 from the Duval County line to County Road 2.”
There’s around $18 million from the Legislature to work with, County Manager Taco Pope said — $9 million already allocated and another $9 million on the way. The intent is to rebuild parts of the road from the bottom up.
“There are areas that are in not-so-bad shape, especially north of County Road 2,” Companion said. “In between (County Road) 119 and County Road 2 it gets into better shape, where you may be able to get away with a simple mill and resurface, but south of 119, that’s going to require pretty much a full reconstruction.”
While roads like State Road 200 and A1A get much of the attention in Nassau County, County Road 121 is the county’s longest road.
“For the residents of Bryceville who wonder why it has taken so long, thankfully the state has given us the money to fix this,” Commissioner Klynt Farmer said. “Otherwise we would’ve been met with some real financial challenges, especially now.
“So, the timing really couldn’t be better. I’d just like to thank Rep. Byrd and his staff for championing this thing, moving it through the House, and making it a huge priority for Nassau County, because it is a huge burden lifted off the back of Nassau County taxpayers to see state funding fix the longest road and the worst road — behind Kings Ferry (Road), I will say that — in Nassau County.”
