The bustling construction off Riverside Avenue by the Acosta Bridge in downtown Jacksonville presents an odd sort of upside-down world to people observing the site while they pass by it.
Earthmoving equipment has dug a big channel for the future route of McCoys Creek where it makes the final leg of its journey to the St. Johns River. But until next year, that brand-new channel won’t carry any water from the creek.
The current channel is full of water but it’s hidden from view — as it has been for decades — because it flows through underground structures that only a few have gone through.
But in spring 2025, the city will move the flow of the creek to the new channel, a shift resembling a railroad switching yard that takes a freight train from one set of tracks to another. The current underground structure will be filled in so water no longer flows through the existing channel.
“It’s going to be an incredible transformation compared to what it was,” said Kay Ehas, CEO of Groundwork Jacksonville, a nonprofit working with the city on the restoration of McCoys Creek. “It was totally underground and you didn’t know it was there. Now it’s going to be there in all its glory.”
The major change to the creek comes at a hefty cost. Mayor Donna Deegan’s proposed 2024-25 budget would add $10.5 million for work on the creek between Myrtle Avenue and the St. Johns River, bringing the total tab to $63.6 million, according to her capital improvements program.
When it’s done, “sunlighting” that part of the creek so it’s visible again will make it a place where people can walk along it as one of several entry points to the planned 30-mile Emerald Trail network connecting downtown with surrounding neighborhoods.
And the rerouted creek will be part of a larger flood control project that will create more space for water to flow and drain the areas along upstream sections creek that have suffered flooding for years.
In a recent presentation to City Council members about various downtown projects, Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said McCoys Creek is among the most important construction projects the city is doing in downtown.
She said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had ranked McCoys Creek as the No. 1 most needed flood relief project in the entire city for 10 years until the city pulled together enough money to do the work.
“What that does is take over 150 properties out of the flood zone and dramatically improves flooding in the vicinity of McCoys Creek Boulevard upstream as well as in this area,” Boyer said.
That part of McCoys Creek has been out of sight since the Florida Times-Union constructed its former office building, printing press and parking deck on the property. But those who knew about the creek still paddled it because there was enough room for someone in a kayak, for instance, to make that short journey, albeit in darkroom conditions even in daytime.
Some of that trip went under the parking deck and other structures that covered the creek as part of the old Times-Union building, demolished in 2022 to make way for construction of 1 Riverside, an apartment development that also will feature a Whole Foods Market.
Continuing away from the river, the creek goes through a large arch culvert that resembles a tunnel where the current channel passes under what’s now an elevated portion of Riverside Avenue.
The big arch culvert will remain in place after the city shifts the creek to the new channel. Construction workers will pump a “flowable material” to fill up the culvert, according to the city. In addition to keeping waters from going into the culvert, that material will provide support for a new road the city will built over where the arch culvert is.
That material in the arch culvert also will fill in part of the box culvert that supported the former Times-Union buildings. The rest of the box culvert will undergo demolition of its top and northern side, while the other side will be cut down but otherwise remain intact. The city will use dirt to fill the open hole left behind by the demolition.
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The city will use riprap to cover the place where the mouth of the current channel goes into the St. Johns River. According to the city, the riprap will blend in with the existing riverbank and support it.
As for the area where the new channel flows into the river, reconstruction of the riverwalk will connect to trail that will go along one side of McCoys Creek and continue along the creek as part of the Emerald Trail.
On the other side of the creek, the city plans to build a new park in the area between the creek and the railroad tracks. The construction of the park isn’t included in the $63.6 million budget for rerouting the creek channel.
“I think anytime you can see a body of water that makes you feel good,” Ehas said. “You’ll be able to walk down the riverwalk and either go to the park space that will be between the creek and the railroad tracks, or use the Emerald Trail itself.”
She said Groundwork planned to apply for a grant to pay for creating “floating wetlands” in that part of the creek that will be habitats for fish and wildlife.
The city also has been working on another part of McCoys Creek further upstream between King Street and Interstate 95. In that section, the city restored the meandering flow of a natural stream that has enabled it to hold more water during heavy rainstorms.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: McCoys Creek project in Jacksonville will help recreation and flooding
Source Agencies
