St. Augustine drivers worried over planned art sculpture at busy downtown intersection

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Being born and raised in St. Augustine, Christine Harrigan would tell you driving through the city isn’t always straightforward – literally.

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“Even if you drive through this intersection regularly, it can still be confusing,” Harrigan says, driving through the intersection of May Street and San Marco Avenue.

The intersection, more of a circle, is a loop connecting downtown St. Augustine and Vilano Beach. Even after a lifetime of living in the city, Harrigan says the intersection is still hard to get through.

Just last week, Harrigan says she came close to getting into a crash at the intersection.

“People just have no idea what they’re doing when they go through this now,” says Harrigan, “it’s just overwhelming, I think, especially for tourists.”

The city wants to spend $250,000 to put an art sculpture at the intersection. Harrigan thinks the money could be better spent elsewhere, saying traffic will only be made worse with the new artwork.

“There’s already signs posted everywhere, it’s just going to create more confusion, I feel like,” Harrigan says.

But city leaders don’t think the art piece will affect drivers, new or seasoned to St. Augustine. Vice Mayor Roxanne Horvath tells Action News Jax it’s meant to reflect the city’s history.

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“I don’t think it will be a distraction [for drivers],” Horvath says, “we won’t have any signage on it, there won’t be any noise or lights coming out of it.”

The city says it’s working with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to make sure the art sculpture meets all of the agency’s requirements for being built on one of its roads.

But this is far from the only road project planned or proposed in downtown St. Augustine. For months, Action News Jax has been telling you about another project about a mile down the road, an $8.2 million FDOT proposal to redesign the intersection connecting downtown with the western tip of the Bridge of Lions.

Just weeks ago, we reported a separate project to redesign a mile-long stretch of King Street in downtown St. Augustine.

But as the city works to change its roads, drivers like Harrigan hope projects like the artwork planned for May Street and San Marco Avenue won’t be given the green light.

“At the end of the day, it’s just creating more confusion for the people who are driving,” says Harrigan.

The city is taking proposals from artists interested in pitching an idea for the art sculpture project. The deadline for any artist to turn in an application is April 1.

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