The Alachua County Commission held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for a new fire station in Alachua.
The station is the second of four fire stations in Alachua County being built to relocate fire rescue crews closer to areas with growing populations.
Once the construction is complete, Alachua County Fire Rescue Station 21 will move from its current location near Highway 441 to 16121 NW 173rd Street in Alachua.
Fire Chief Harold Theus said the new location will help firefighters get to up-and-coming sections of the county more easily.
“As Alachua is growing, it’s growing further west. And so this location I think, for us, in a few years is going to be a very key centralized location,” said Theus.
The new fire station will be more than twice the size of the current fire station and is meant to last more than 50 years.
The unincorporated area is the fastest-growing part of the county, according to Alachua County Commission Chair Mary Alford.
“This station will benefit the public in that it is closer to I-75 and not far from 441, so those are two main veins of traffic that cut through this area, and, of course, where you have a load of traffic, you have a lot of accidents,” said Alford.
Fire Station 21 will have environmentally friendly features, including solar panels and landscaping native to Florida.
The construction is expected to take about a year to complete.