Civil Engineering By Region
Civil Engineering in Clay County, therefore, is its own entity, with a different set of officials, practices and timetables. To build in Jacksonville is mostly subject to Duval County regs… until you cross the river heading west.
Clay County nestles into the western shore of the St. John’s river – opposite much of the greater Jacksonville area. While Jacksonville city proper is also Duval County, there are parts of Jacksonville that sit on the North and Western parts of the river. An address might have Jacksonville as the city designation, if it sits in Clay County, that address is under the jurisdiction of the Clay County planning board, with their zoning regulations and their permitting procedures.
The soil base is largely clay. As you would expect, that is how the county got its name. There are lots of springs because of the clay. Dirt can’t rise up with the water thanks to the clay, so there is a lot of sand. This makes Clay County an environment where a civil engineer is critical to a project’s successful outcome.
And there is substantial expansion continuing…
TWO LARGE ON-GOING PROJECTS IN THE COUNTY
- First Coast Expressway – a 3-phase link from Route 10 to I95 through Duval, Clay and St. Johns Counties.
- Oakleaf Plantation
According to The Clay County Quality of Life Report 2017, the county has seen extraordinary population growth over the last 18 years:
From 2000 to 2016, Clay County’s population grew by 48 percent, or more than 67,000 residents
and it is this that makes Clay County both an opportunity and a significant challenge to anyone looking to create business in the area.
Recent Project:
A Daycare Facility in Clay County
Economic Growth
Clay County has 30% more job now, than in 2004, says the Quality of Life report, yet 52% of residents still commute to work outside of the county. Unemployment is down, and wages are up…though not as high as in other counties in Florida.
Key Economic Statistics from The Clay County Quality of Life Report
Long considered a commuter suburb for Jacksonville, Clay County residents commute to all five surrounding areas, with increasing numbers crossing into St. Johns County.
Cars are increasingly more efficient, so the additional commute time is not that people are moving further away to work. It is the increase in traffic. While Jacksonville has not reached the nightmare of Miami traffic, not the toll infrastructure of Orlando, it is getting busier on the roads. Builders and their work crews should budget additional travel time if they are trying to arrive at a job site during peak rush hour times. Their advantage will be that they will be heading IN to Clay when everyone else is coming OUT, and vice versa at the end of the day.
Civil Engineering in Clay County
But to truly understand the full challenge of civil engineering in Clay County, one needs to understand the history of the county.
History
Early 19th Century
Thanks to access via the St John’s River and Black Creek, the fertile area was considered a gateway to Florida’s frontier. The U. S. Army used the area to stock troops for the Seminole Wars. The lands were heavily ravaged by the two Seminole Wars, but by the mid 19th century the area was prospering again. In 1858, the county was carved out of Duval to have its own representation and management. The Civil War should have decimated the county once more, but the Confederates saw little action until 1864, and even then there was only one battle, which the Union lost and the South suffered no casualties.
Resort Era
Following the Civil War, various Northeastern Florida towns became resorts for Northerners looking to escape cold winters. Enterprising folks in Orange Park, Hibernia, Magnolia Springs and Green Cove Springs built hotels; steam boats delivered tourists as regularly as trade supplies. Green Cove Springs was the primary resort area.
“Saratoga of the South” was the name for Magnolia Springs, come the mid-1870s. Should a fire brought down a hotel or boarding house, it was quickly rebuilt. The area flourished as did citrus farming. Until the freezes of 1894-1895. That moved farmers further south, and it wasn’t long before Henry Flagler’s railroad took the tourists further south as well. One by one the winter hotels either closed or became apartment buildings.
Clay County lay fallow and quiet until renewed interest during World War II. Camp Blanding was built as a training base, as were several small airfields. Then in the 1950s, the Navy installed a mothball fleet in Green Cove Springs. (mothballed? Ready but not maintained at full throttle) The base in Green Cove did not last long.
In the early 1970s, Northeastern Florida started to grow again. Warm weather, low taxes, access to water…Clay County was resurrected once more.
Substantial residential development means more water run-off. Water run-off causes lots of problems if not properly managed. From standing water – a breeding ground for mosquitoes – to flooding and destroying the roads (by diluting the limerock and turning the foundation into slush and chalk). One doesn’t attribute over-development & urbanization to diminishing rainfall. Usually. But with climate change, weather patterns will shift, and it is likely that is what we are starting to see here with the lower rain numbers in Clay County. In neighboring St. Johns county, residents of Nocatee (another vast new development) report weeks on end with no rain, when there is plenty in both Ponte Vedra and St. Johns. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
As if….
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