Northlake Boulevard by Beeline Highway will close for more than a week by early August for rail crossing upgrades, state transportation officials say, and residents in communities west of State Road 7 are bracing for big traffic jams.
The road will shut down for eight days so freight train company CSX can upgrade signals at the rail crossing, the company and The Florida Department of Transportation said June 20 in emailed statements. July 4 related commutes will not be affected, as work will not start before July 18, department spokeswoman Silvana Ojeda said.
No date has been set yet for work to begin on the road, but it will start on a Friday evening, Ojeda said. Notice of road closure will be sent out three weeks in advance, and transportation officials are working with CSX to make sure work is done before the start of the school year, Aug. 11.
First responders will be able to get past closure
Cars head eastbound on Northlake Boulevard at the Beeline Highway during rush hour in 2016.
To meet that criteria, work would have to start no later than Aug. 1, with public notice published no later than July 11. Once the road is closed, Ojeda said, “CSX has confirmed that 24/7 emergency access, under stringent law enforcement control, will be able to be maintained 24 hours a day.”
CSX will install modern crossing signals “to support” the Palm Beach County Engineering and Public Works Department widening the six-lane road, company spokesman Austin Staton said. “CSX understands that the temporary crossing closure will be a short-term inconvenience for motorists and appreciates the patience of Palm Beach County residents during these critical infrastructure upgrades,” he said.
What alternates exist instead of Northlake Boulevard?
With Northlake Boulevard closed, drivers from The Acreage and Loxahatchee areas who want to go east across Beeline Highway would need to drive more than six miles on Seminole-Pratt Whitney Road and head north to get on the highway, or take two-lane Coconut Road south to two-lane Orange Boulevard, take that to Royal Palm Beach Boulevard, then take that to Okeechobee Boulevard, and drive west.
Distress over the road closure spurred an emergency meeting for Tuesday, June 24 by the Indian Trail Improvement District, tasked in part with helping upgrade roads in and around the semi-rural Loxahatchee area and The Acreage, west of the State Road 7, between Northlake Boulevard and Okeechobee Boulevard. More than 40,000 people live in the district’s boundaries.
“These closures are expected to produce HEAVY TRAFFIC in our community that will severely delay travel times,” the district wrote June 19 on its Facebook page.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m., at the district’s office at 13476 61st Street North, in The Acreage, just east of Avocado Boulevard. Attendees can also join online by going to IndianTrail.com and clicking the “Join Live Meeting” button, the district said in its meeting notice.
District officials did not return requests for comment June 20.
Could State Road 7 extension alleviate residents’ traffic woes?
For Palm Beach County Commissioner Sara Baxter, who represents the area, the road closure is an example of why completing the extension of State Road 7 from Okeechobee Boulevard to Northlake Boulevard is critical.
“Our western communities have long suffered from a lack of east-west mobility, and when a single crossing like Northlake is shut down, there simply aren’t enough viable detour routes,” Baxter wrote on June 18 in her email newsletter. “This project has been delayed for far too long, and it’s clear that our region can no longer afford to wait.”
More: State Road 7 extension will finally come despite West Palm Beach objection, official says
State transportation officials have tried for decades to complete the State Road 7 extension since the 1990s, but West Palm beach city officials have fought those efforts every step of the way.
Most recently, on May 1, a Florida administrative law judge rejected every argument from city attorneys that the extension would damage the wetlands next to the planned extension that supplies the city’s drinking water. The city filed an objection weeks later objecting to an environmental permit for the project. But that will not stop the state from starting construction on the extension, project manager Scott Peterson has said.
Barring successful legal challenges by West Palm Beach, the widening of State Road 7, to four lanes from the current two, would start in fall 2027 and end by fall 2030, while the extension to Northlake Boulevard would finish a year after, the state Transportation Department has said.
Chris Persaud covers transportation in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email news tips and ideas to cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Northlake Boulevard at Beeline Highway in Palm Beach County closing