Clay County Owner's Rep. BTP Project 6B: First Coast Connector (FCC) - (Design-Build) New Roadway Alignment - Wetlands & Environmental Permitting

WGI served as environmental technical lead and an extension of Clay County staff. This project was part of the Clay County Owner’s Rep. Program for the 5-year 2020 roadway improvement Bonded Transportation Program (BTP). It consisted of a new 4-lane ultimate expressway alignment for a new portion of the CR 315/First Coast Connector (FCC), from CR 315A to SR 23/First Coast Expressway (FCE), officially named CR 216/Cathedral Oak Parkway. This new alignment was one of the final remaining segments to provide full east-west regional connectivity and mobility as a component of the Clay County 2040 Comprehensive & Transportation Planning Element. The project featured a divided highway, a new pile-supported bridge crossing Peters Creek, new round-a-bout, and a new stormwater management system, including six stormwater ponds, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and a landscaped median. WGI was tasked with conducting wetland delineations and jurisdictional determinations, wetland functional assessments and habitat characterization, general wildlife and protected species surveys, compensatory wetland mitigation, and environmental permitting. WGI was responsible for preparing/managing a master program plan, budget, and schedule and provided management, planning, engineering design, environmental, survey, right-of-way acquisition, utilities, and construction engineering inspection (CEI) services to support project delivery. Using a Low-Bid Design-Build model. WGI provided the planning, surveying, utilities, engineering design, and environmental services needed to develop the Design Criteria Package (DCP) and aid selection of the Design-Build (D-B) team to perform the work. WGI managed the selected D-B team as they developed final plans and moved into the construction phase.

Project Highlights:

• Complex environmental permitting effort was further complicated by three federal policy changes about federal jurisdiction and regulatory authority, including changes to the definition of waters of the United States, repeal of the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NNWPR), and the Supreme Court Sackett v. EPA (2023) decision and conforming WOTUS rule change.