What Happened to the A1A U-Turn Plan in Ponte Vedra Beach After June

"The new plan removes U-turns and minimizes tree impact while still providing the same traffic relief."

St. Johns County Public Works Director Greg Caldwell said that to the Ponte Vedra Beach Municipal Service District on Sept. 14, at the board's monthly meeting at Christ Church. It was the clearest public sign yet that the State Road A1A proposal residents crowded into a hearing to question on June 23 is no longer the plan headed for the pavement. Someone checking the Florida Department of Transportation's project page today would not know that. The page still lists the June package and the June documents.

So there are now two versions of the A1A project. One is posted online. The other was worked out over the summer through MSD meetings, a community traffic task force, and a notice from the county commissioner's office. Anyone who drives the corridor between J. Turner Butler Boulevard and Sawgrass Village every day will be using the second one.

The Version Still Posted Online

FDOT calls the project "State Road A1A from Gnarled Oaks Drive to the Duval County line Proposed Operational Improvements." It is Project No. 210404-4, with an estimated cost of $7.1 million. The start date and the expected completion date are both listed as "TBD." The page lists two hearings: the in-person session on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, and a virtual session on Wednesday, June 24. No future meeting is listed.

The June proposal covered six locations. At several of them, the plan rerouted cross-street through traffic or left turns. Those were the movements that would have pushed drivers into U-turns on A1A. At the hearing, MSD Chair Kitty Switkes warned the changes could confuse drivers and asked how buses and trucks would handle the U-turns. Commissioner Krista Joseph praised the turnout and suggested the state consider one or some of the improvements instead of the whole package.

News4Jax reported that residents filled the room and pushed back. Steve Russell questioned the design's justification and its cost and argued for signal changes. Chris Grens said a traffic light would fix a merge hazard in the fast lane. Joan Grune urged planners to put neighborhood residents first. FDOT took comments through July 7.

Intersection by Intersection, What Has Shifted

Joseph's suggestion to take the package piece by piece is close to what happened next. At the MSD's August meeting, Trustee Mickey White said Joseph had sent out a notice listing steps the state and county had agreed on. Those steps were a roundabout at the J. Turner Butler Boulevard exit onto Marsh Landing Parkway, offset left turns, an upgrade at the TPC intersection, protection for palm trees, leaving the blinking light at Fairfield as it is, and no U-turns. FDOT was also studying alternatives to the U-turn at Solana Road. The MSD's minutes from that meeting describe a joint statement from Kim Kendall and Krista Joseph.

Here is how the June list compares with what has been reported since. Where the table says "no update reported," that means no source found after the hearing mentions that location. It does not mean the item was approved or dropped.

The newest item on the list is the roundabout at Marsh Landing Parkway. It sits just outside the six June locations, at the spot where traffic leaving JTB reaches the corridor. The two lane extensions are the least contested items. No published comment found in the research argues against either one.

Mickler Road and Ponte Vedra Boulevard do not appear anywhere on the list. A July letter from the president of the Community Traffic Task Force said the Mickler Road and A1A improvement had been finished the year before.

Why Solana Road Stayed in the Plan

Solana is the one intersection where U-turns were taken out but the project itself was kept, and the summer debate explains why. At the MSD's July meeting, Trustee White argued for fixing Solana. He pointed to a Community Traffic Task Force survey in which, by his account, 85% of respondents wanted that intersection addressed. He also warned that turning down the proposal could mean losing $8 million he described as earmarked for the work. That figure is a little higher than FDOT's own $7.1 million estimate for the whole corridor. White also said the task force supported safety upgrades at the other intersections, but not every U-turn shown at the hearing.

Greg Leonard, president of the task force, made a similar case in a letter to the Ponte Vedra Recorder. He supported considering the projects one at a time. He argued that a Solana fix could cut down westbound backups and the cut-through traffic on Le Master. He also urged keeping the offset left turns at TPC and at Sawgrass Village for safety.

That left the county with a narrow task: solve the problem at Solana without the U-turns. Caldwell's Sept. 14 update described a plan that does that. According to the Ponte Vedra Recorder, Caldwell said the two main takeaways from the June meeting were to cut down U-turn movements and limit the impact on palm trees and other plants. The new plan removes all U-turns at A1A and Solana Road and may affect just one tree. He said one of its biggest advantages is that crossing A1A from the east side to the west side, or the other way, would not change at all. He also said the updated plan would have the same effect as FDOT's original model.

For anyone who lives near Solana, crossing A1A was exactly what the June proposal would have changed. The June concept rerouted westbound through traffic and northbound left turns at that intersection. The September version, as Caldwell described it, keeps the crossings and still aims for the same traffic relief.

"We are looking to establish these projects and get something moving forward as quickly as we can, but we want the community to know what we are doing and why we are doing it." Greg Caldwell, St. Johns County Public Works Director, Sept. 14, 2026

The Dates Nobody Has Confirmed

The September plan has not been published. Caldwell said Public Works was still checking that every change was doable and would inform the community once there was a set plan. He also said there would be "some type of interaction with the public." He did not give a date. In August, the MSD minutes recorded that more changes were in the pipeline and would be discussed "after the election." The minutes also note that Kendall's weekly newsletter reported FDOT was working on a non-U-turn design for Solana.

The construction timing is just as unsettled. Here is what is on record:

1. MSD minutes from May 11, 2026, refer to four intersection improvements planned for 2028.
2. The Ponte Vedra Community Association's July newsletter said FDOT was prepared to carry out selected recommendations when A1A is resurfaced in 2027 or 2028.
3. FDOT's project page lists both the start and the completion as "TBD."

The official record is the most cautious of the three. Until FDOT updates its page or the public outreach Caldwell promised takes place, the June drawings are best treated as a draft that has been replaced, not as the adopted design.

The MSD meets monthly at Christ Church, and its agendas and minutes are posted on the Ponte Vedra Beach Municipal Service District site. Those minutes have been the most reliable record of how this project has changed since June. FDOT's project page is where any new drawings will be posted officially, and the Ponte Vedra Recorder has covered each MSD update.

Changes along A1A at Solana, TPC, and Sawgrass Village affect daily driving and the streets around them. If you're thinking about selling or buying near this corridor and want a clear read on what's planned versus what's still a proposal, Tonya O'Quinn Group can help. Request your free home valuation or relocation consultation, and we'll keep you up to date as the revised plan goes public.