Picture driving north on A1A toward home and turning left onto Solana Road, then heading west to the Solana Gate. In the design the Florida Department of Transportation presented in June 2026, that left turn would no longer exist. FDOT's traffic report describes a "thru-cut" at A1A and Solana Road that blocks the northbound left turn and the westbound through movement. Drivers making either move would go to a new signalized U-turn about 325 feet north of Solana and come back.
Both of the movements blocked at Solana are trips toward the Solana Gate. That turned a highway-engineering document into a question about getting home. Three months later, the county's working version of the plan no longer has those U-turns. Nothing has been adopted yet, but the plan the community argued about in June is not the plan being refined now.
Two Gates, Four Intersections
Sawgrass Players Club has two controlled-access entrances. The HOA's own history says Arvida built what is now TPC Boulevard and added security gates "at Solana Road and the southern entrance on AIA," with Sawgrass Village opening near that southern entrance in 1984. The community's history page is a quick refresher on why the roads are laid out this way. The southern entrance is the Main Gate where TPC Boulevard meets A1A. The Solana Gate is where TPC Boulevard meets Solana Road.
FDOT's project, "State Road A1A from Gnarled Oaks Drive to the Duval County line Proposed Operational Improvements," touches four intersections next to those gates. Here is how the June 2026 public hearing handout and the traffic analysis describe each one.
| Intersection on A1A | Nearest gate or destination | What the June proposal changed |
|---|---|---|
| Solana Road | Solana Gate | Northbound left and westbound through rerouted to a new signalized U-turn about 325 feet north |
| TPC Boulevard / Country Club Boulevard | Main Gate | Through movements across A1A rerouted; northbound and southbound left turns offset for visibility |
| Sawgrass Village Drive / L'Atrium Drive | Sawgrass Village | Through movements rerouted to a median U-turn with a new signal about 400 feet south |
| Fairfield Boulevard / Sawgrass Drive West | South of the community | Through and left-turn movements rerouted to nearby U-turn points |
The same project would also extend the southbound auxiliary lane from Merchants Plaza to Professional Drive, so traffic coming off J.T. Butler Boulevard has more room to merge. It would also lengthen the eastbound right-turn lane at Ponte Vedra Lakes Boulevard.
Look down the right-hand column and one pattern shows up. Almost every change near the gates targets the straight trip across A1A from one side street to the one opposite. That was the design idea behind the whole plan, and it is the piece that has since been reconsidered.
What the June Design Was Built to Fix
FDOT's case rests on crashes and on future delay. The Traffic Operational Analysis Report, dated June 2026, counted 1,061 crashes on the study corridor from January 2020 through December 2024, with available 2025 data added. Of those, 525 were rear-end crashes, nearly half, and 196 involved injuries.
Fairfield Boulevard/Sawgrass Drive had the highest crash count of any intersection on the corridor. The report lists 41 crashes at an observed rate of 1.003 crashes per million entering vehicles, about twice the statewide average of 0.53 for comparable intersections.
The delay projections look out to 2050. FDOT modeled average intersection delay with the changes and without them:
- Solana Road: 55.7 seconds down to 23.8 in the morning peak, and 43.5 down to 18.8 in the evening.
- Sawgrass Village Drive/L'Atrium: 20.0 down to 7.8 in the morning, and 38.2 down to 16.4 in the evening.
- TPC Boulevard/Country Club Boulevard: 25.3 down to 10.3 in the morning, and 37.1 down to 13.7 in the evening.
- Fairfield Boulevard/Sawgrass Drive: 33.0 down to 3.0 in the morning, and 46.3 down to 2.8 in the evening.
The logic is easier to see once you know how a median U-turn works. A signal that doesn't have to give time to cross traffic and left turns from the side streets can keep A1A's north-south lanes moving longer. In return, the driver leaving a side street turns right, travels a few hundred feet, and comes back through a separate signal. Solana Road shows the largest delay in the no-build model, and it is also where the June design asked the most of anyone heading home to the Solana Gate.
The estimated cost is $7.1 million, under project number 210404-4. On the FDOT project page, both the start date and the expected completion are still listed as TBD.
What Ponte Vedra Said on June 23
FDOT held an in-person hearing on June 23, 2026, at THE PLAYERS Community Senior Center at 175 Landrum Lane, and a virtual hearing the next evening. News4JAX reported a crowded room. Speakers said the designs were complicated, could create new problems, and didn't justify their cost, while others raised concerns about high-speed merging and access to their neighborhoods.
The Ponte Vedra Recorder's account adds detail. Several residents worried about losing palm trees and displacing wildlife, and some suggested lower speed limits or more traffic signals as alternatives. St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph urged people to "join the conversation" and suggested choosing only one of the proposed improvements instead of all of them. Kitty Switkes, chair of the Municipal Service District of Ponte Vedra Beach, focused on the mechanics:
"It's going to cause a lot of confusion, and I am not sure how school buses and trucks are going to make those U-turns."
The concept drawing for the TPC Boulevard to Sawgrass Village Drive stretch labels a U-turn bulb-out designed for a "WB-62FL" design vehicle, though its text doesn't say exactly where that bulb-out would go. Comments for the official hearing record were due by July 7, 2026, but the handout notes that FDOT accepts comments on the project at any time.
The September Version Keeps the Crossings
The most important update so far came at the MSD's monthly meeting on September 14 at Christ Church. According to the Recorder's September 17 report, St. Johns County Public Works Director Greg Caldwell said his department had been working with FDOT on an alternate plan. He described the two main takeaways from June as reducing U-turn movements and minimizing the impact on palm trees and other plants.
As Caldwell described it, the new plan removes all U-turns at A1A and Solana Road and would possibly affect only one tree. He called its biggest positive the fact that there would be no change to movements from the east side of A1A to the west side or the reverse. He said the updated plan would still produce the same effects as FDOT's original model.
"The new plan removes U-turns and minimizes tree impact while still providing the same traffic relief," Caldwell said.
Go back to the table with that in mind. In the June design, the through movements across A1A at Solana, TPC Boulevard and Sawgrass Village Drive were the main targets. Caldwell's description keeps east-west crossings unchanged, and at Solana it removes the U-turn that would have replaced the left turn toward the Solana Gate. If the alternate goes forward as described, the trips that would have changed most for Sawgrass Players Club households are the ones most likely to stay as they are today.
The Recorder report doesn't explain how the alternate handles the offset left turns at TPC Boulevard, the median U-turn at Sawgrass Village Drive, or the Fairfield Boulevard changes. Caldwell said Public Works is still checking that the changes are workable and will inform the community once there is a set plan. "There will be some type of interaction with the public to make sure the information is provided," he said.
What Is Still Officially on Paper
As of October 8, 2026, the official record hasn't caught up with the September discussion. FDOT's project page still describes the work as proposed and links the June 2026 hearing boards, presentation, concept drawings and traffic report. It shows no revised design, no funding year and no construction schedule. For now, the June drawings are the only published design, and the county's alternate exists only as Caldwell described it at a public meeting.
For anyone who drives through the Main Gate or the Solana Gate every day, the next milestones are concrete:
- A revised concept posted to the FDOT project page. The current Solana Road and TPC Boulevard to Sawgrass Village Drive concept drawings would be replaced or added to.
- The public meeting Caldwell promised. The county said residents would be informed once the plan is finalized.
- MSD of Ponte Vedra Beach monthly meetings. This is where the September update first came out.
- A start date in place of TBD. That would be the first sign the project has moved from planning toward construction.
Questions go to FDOT Project Manager Tyler Klemm, P.E., at (904) 360-5608 or [email protected].
Road projects near your gate can raise practical questions about timing, access and what a future buyer might ask, especially if you're thinking about a sale or a purchase in Sawgrass Players Club over the next few years. Laura Worrell follows these projects closely and is glad to talk through how the A1A plan fits with your own plans. Request a consultation whenever it's useful.
