State Road 202 (SR 202) is a 13.042-mile-long (20.989 km) state highway that extends from U.S. Route 1 (US 1; Philips Highway), in Jacksonville, Florida to SR A1A (Third Street), in Jacksonville Beach, near the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Ponte Vedra Beach, and includes a bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. To locals, the road is better known as J. Turner Butler Boulevard, Butler Boulevard, or JTB. Despite being named as a boulevard, the road is a completely limited-access expressway, with the exception of the westernmost 0.5 miles (800 meters) between US 1 and Interstate 95 (I-95),. It was constructed in sections by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (before 1971, the Jacksonville Expressway Authority). The first section opened in 1979, but the entire road was not completed until 1997.[2]
 State Road 202 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. Turner Butler Boulevard | ||||
 Florida State Road 202 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by FDOT | ||||
| Length | 13.042 mi[1] (20.989 km) | |||
| Existed | 1979–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end |  US 1 in Jacksonville | |||
| East end |  SR A1A in Jacksonville Beach | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Florida | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
Route description
editSR 202 begins at U.S. Route 1 (Philips Highway) and starts its run east as a divided, six lane surface street, going east towards I-95 and becoming a six lane freeway. Between SR 115 (Southside Boulevard) and Hodges Boulevard, the freeway is seven lanes, with the westbound lanes carrying four lanes going into town, and the eastbound lanes providing three lanes going towards the beaches. The freeway passes many areas of residential development and office parks, as well as a turbine interchange with I-295 (The East Beltway) before passing through mostly marshland as it heads east towards the Intracoastal, before entering the Jacksonville area beaches and ending at SR A1A, just west of the Atlantic coastline.[3]
Points of interest
editSt. Johns Town Center, a super-regional shopping mall is located near the I-295 intersection, as is the University of North Florida. Further east, Mayo Clinic Florida is located near the interchange with San Pablo Road.
History
editThe expressway is named for J. Turner Butler, a well-known Jacksonville attorney and Florida legislator who was instrumental in advancing various transportation projects in the region and the establishment of the Jacksonville Expressway Authority. J.T.B. was a toll road until 1988 when the JTA removed all the toll-collection facilities in Jacksonville.
When J.T.B. initially opened, it was described by locals as "the road to nowhere".[4] The moniker has diminished over the years as increased growth in Jacksonville's Southside area, as well as at the beaches and northeastern St. Johns County, has transformed the road into a major commuter route. Because of the heavy traffic on J.T.B. and projected continued growth in the Jacksonville area, the Florida Department of Transportation, in the early 2000s, conducted a study on making long-term improvements to J.T.B. The study results recommended widening the road and designating "inside" express lanes with limited on and off points along the route, surrounded by additional "outside" local lanes, albeit at a considerable cost. While this was not implemented, most of the highway between I-95 and the Intracoastal Waterway was widened to three to five lanes in each direction in the early-to-mid 2000s.
The Arthur Sollee Bridge spans the Intracoastal Waterway and is known by locals as the "Whubba Whubba" bridge, due to defects in construction that make for an amusing bouncy ride on the eastbound side of the roadway.
Between the summer of 2005 and December 24, 2008, an $80 million freeway-to-freeway turbine interchange was constructed at the interchange of J.T.B. and I-295, with the final piece to open being a flyover ramp from J.T.B. east to I-295 north.
Until late 2017, access to J.T.B eastbound from I-95 southbound was handled through a traffic-signaled intersection that was located near the highway's western end. This configuration created significant congestion during rush-hours, causing traffic to back-up onto I-95. To alleviate this situation, a flyover was constructed during the mid-2010s from I-95 southbound to J.T.B eastbound, along with other improvements to the I-95/J.T.B/Belfort Road/Salisbury Road interchanges. Under this new configuration, the signaled intersection remained in place but is now only used to provide access from I-95 to the Belfort/Salisbury/Southpoint commercial area since the new flyover merges into J.T.B eastbound past the existing off-ramps in the Belfort/Salisbury interchange.
In 2022 work was completed to reconfigure the San Pablo Road interchange to a diverging diamond interchange format (with right-in/right-out access to Mayo Clinic).
Improvements
editIn late 2022 construction began on a loop ramp in the southeast quadrant of the Kernan Blvd interchange that will replace the existing traffic light for eastbound J.T.B. traffic headed to northbound Kernan Blvd.
Exit list
editThe entire route is in Duval County. All exits are unnumbered.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville | 0.000 | 0.000 | US 1 (Philips Highway / SR 5) | At-grade intersection | |
| 0.189 | 0.304 | Bonneval Road | At-grade intersection | ||
| 0.51 | 0.82 |  I-95 (SR 9) – St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Downtown Jacksonville, Savannah | I-95 exit 344; western end of freeway | ||
| 1.11 | 1.79 |  Belfort Road / Salisbury Road | No direct entrances from Salisbury Road; westbound exit has right-in/right-out to Southpoint; access to St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside. | ||
| 3.03 | 4.88 |  SR 115 (Southside Boulevard) | Cloverleaf interchange | ||
| 4.02 | 6.47 | Gate Parkway | Access to St. Johns Town Center | ||
| 5.22 | 8.40 |  I-295 (SR 9A) – Jacksonville International Airport, Daytona Beach | I-295 exit 53; freeway-to-freeway turbine interchange | ||
| 6.29 | 10.12 | Kernan Boulevard | |||
| 8.21 | 13.21 | Hodges Boulevard north | Southern terminus of Hodges Boulevard | ||
| 10.05 | 16.17 | San Pablo Road (CR 101A) | Diverging diamond interchange; access to Mayo Clinic Florida | ||
| | 10.358– 11.228 | 16.670– 18.070 | Bridge over Pablo Creek (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) | ||
| Jacksonville Beach | 12.65 | 20.36 | South Beach Parkway | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |
| 13.042 | 20.989 | SR A1A (Ponte Vedra Boulevard) – Jacksonville's Beaches, Ponte Vedra, St. Augustine | Trumpet interchange; access to Baptist Medical Center Beaches | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
References
edit- ^ a b FDOT straight line diagrams Archived March 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 2014
- ^ Mabry, Donald J: "Chapter 6 - The Sixties" World's Finest Beach, ISBN 1-59629-967-3, May 2010
- ^ "overview map of State Road 202" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
- ^ "Kings Avenue garage 'right on track'". Jax Daily Record. 2002-07-18. Retrieved 2023-08-08.