Bass Pro Shops grand opening spurs traffic concerns among St. Johns County locals

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The new Bass Pro Shops near the World Golf Village will hold its grand opening in less than two weeks.

With the opening now sight, St. Johns County locals are getting excited.

“I’ll be shopping there just like I do at Costco,” said St. Johns local Rich Regan.

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“They’re gonna have that aquarium and stuff in there. So, that’s going to be pretty cool to look at,” said another local, Max McCullen.

But with that excitement, comes concerns about how the new attraction might impact traffic, which is already a big concern in the area due to businesses like Costco and Buc-ee’s drawing a lot of visitors.

“On the way here this morning at the intersection at Buc-ee’s I nearly saw an accident. They need to put a light there. Someone is going to get really, really hurt,” said McCullen.

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But Dick D’Souza, who oversees traffic planning in St. Johns, told Action News Jax a study is underway to identify improvements and FDOT has already made some preliminary recommendations.

“To basically increase the efficiencies of these intersections by either changing signal timing, adding additional turn lanes, maybe restricting certain movements,” said D’Souza.

He explained once those studies are complete, the county will be able to decide which projects to prioritize and how to fund them.

“Everybody that has any involvement is aware and we’re working towards a solution,” said D’Souza.

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As far as a timeline goes, D’Souza expects the study phase should be done within a year.

It will then be another year or two for the design phase.

Smaller improvements could break ground within three years, but larger ones are likely at least five years away.

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