Edgewood Avenue gets new roundabout for traffic, murals by local artist on overpass

A new roundabout on Edgewood Avenue is nearing completion after the main street for some Murray Hill shops has been under construction for two months.

The new roundabout intersects at Edgewood Avenue and Plymouth Street, just before the train tracks and the overpass for U.S. 17/Roosevelt Boulevard. The project started in early March, shortly after CSX worked on a new railroad crossing in the same area.

A notice from FDOT on May 1 said Edgewood Avenue from Mayflower Street to Plymouth Street will close nightly from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. through Wednesday, May 8, for paving and installation of new parking stops. Detours will be in place.

Additionally, paving will take place on the newly-constructed roundabout, and overnight parking will not be permitted in the area through Wednesday. Vehicles left in the area will be towed.

The decision to put a roundabout on Edgewood Avenue was based on FDOT’s work, said Jimmy Peluso, the City Council member representing District 7, which includes Murray Hill, Riverside and Avondale.

“They’ve been working for years [to] create a more consistent driving pattern,” he said. “They didn’t want a stop sign to hold a bunch of folks up, and there are definitely parts of the day where it does.”

Peluso said the projects on Edgewood started about two and a half months ago — though some work began in October — with the work on the roundabout beginning about four weeks ago. The roundabout, which should be part of the last phase of construction for Edgewood Avenue, was expected to take about eight weeks to complete.

The purpose of putting a roundabout where a regular traffic light used to be is to ensure “a more constant vehicular motion,” Peluso said.

“Right now, the amount of cars that back up into the shops area could get pretty congested around there,” he said. “It harms the traffic patterns all throughout Edgewood, and Hamilton gets blocked off. It becomes a problem, especially when a train comes through.”

Peluso said the addition of the roundabout “should reduce pedestrian and car crashes and accidents.”

Most people seem to be more interested in the mural artwork and new lighting pattern that have been added to the overpass though, he said.

David Nackashi, a local artist, was tapped to create the mural on the overpass.

“Long story short, I’ve kind of had to comply with DOT regulations and make something pretty original and not too orderly,” he said. “It started with just kind of simple geometry to brighten the area up.”

Nackashi is known for other artwork around Jacksonville as well, including the Cowford Cows underneath the Acosta Bridge, a dragonfly in San Marco and 800 feet of the colors and patterns of Corkscrew Park.

With some art deco motifs and peeling tape, he said he kept thinking about how to spice up the area with “hopefully-not-boring geometry.”

Nackashi also has done a few projects for Downtown Vision and the Downtown Dwellers, and the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville reached out to him for this project, he said.

“Putting tape on there just seemed kind of Murray Hill, kind of punk rock,” he said. “Everybody was telling me how it should reflect the working class, and the first suburb in Jacksonville and that Murray Hill helped build Jacksonville.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Murray Hill intersection of Edgewood Avenue and Plymouth Street gets new traffic pattern