MCRAE – County Road 315C runs from Keystone Heights to Putnam County and it’s finally received the love it’s needed for years.

Anyone who has driven on 315C in the past few decades knows just how bad of a drive it is. Its pavement was not in great shape. These roadways were tight and the turns were dangerous due to a lack of shoulders. All of that has changed now and it might be one of the nicest roads in the county thanks to a nearly year-long project to add fresh pavement, widened roads, new shoulders and more.

“Residents here have been waiting a long, long time for this,” Clay County Commissioner Betsy Condon, who represents Keystone Heights, said during a grand reopening ceremony on June 4. “One of our top priorities in Clay County is roads and...it’s exciting to finally be here today.”

The original road was built by the Florida Department of Transportation more than 50 years ago, and as such, it was very narrow. It worked as a rural road back then, but as growth continues in Keystone Heights and Clay County, the road hasn’t been able to keep up with the growth.

The county broke ground on its massive 2.74-mile, $2.8 million project which was funded by a $2.7 million grant in July 2020. It took just a touch longer than expected to finish, but June 4 marked its finish and when all was said and done, the county came in $100,000 under budget. The project cost just under the $2.7 million grant, commission chairman Mike Cella said.

Bette Danse was at the official groundbreaking for the project last summer, and she was at the grand reopening. It was a day of celebration for her as she’s been fighting to have 315C fixed for almost a decade.

“I’ve been here since 2006 and I remember calling the county’s road director [Dave Austin] in 2012 about problems with this road,” she said at last year’s groundbreaking ceremony. The fixes never came, despite Austin and Danse’s persistence to make it happen.

She said Friday she called Austin that morning to tell him the road was finally complete. Austin felt just as much joy as she did, she said.

“I’m so pleased,” Danse said. “This was one of the worst roads in the county and now look at it: it’s in great shape, finally.”

The county’s director of traffic and engineering, Richard Smith, said it didn’t take long to realize how much better the road now is when driving on it. Its lanes have been widened to 12 feet and it features five feet of shoulders now. It has a posted speed of 45-50 mph, depending on where you’re at, Smith said. He said the road was designed to handle much faster speeds.

“That’s not a challenge, though,” Smith said. “Drive the speed limit. It just means the road is safer now.”

Smith was likely referencing how dangerous 315C and its sister road, 214, were. Anyone speeding on either road was risking an accident around one of its treacherous turns. With wider lanes and new shoulders, the road is better adapted for drivers.

He said the road will last longer too because it’s been designed to not hold still water following a storm, something 315C struggled with after every rainfall.

Clay County director of economic development Chereese Stewart said fixing 315C was a big deal for the area’s economic development. She said the road is the gateway between Keystone Heights in Clay County and Putnam County and that this new and improved road will continue the economic growth seen in the area.