The Indian Trail Improvement District, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue are marshaling their forces as the Acreage/Loxahatchee area faces “car-mageddon” at the end of July or early August.
It’s then that CSX railroad workers will block all four lanes of Northlake Blvd. at the Beeline Highway to repair tracks used by freight and passenger trains. Doing so is expected to force as many as 41,000 additional vehicles daily onto Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and ITID’s narrow two-lane streets, as drivers try to reach the area’s only alternate east-west routes — Okeechobee and Southern boulevards.
“No matter how bad you think it’s going to be, it will be at least that bad,” District Engineer Jay Foy told a packed house at a Tuesday, June 24 emergency meeting of the ITID Board of Supervisors. “Every road that’s paved will be a parking lot… This is a health and safety issue. This is going to be dangerous.”
ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson asked for the meeting in hopes of getting the board’s approval for use of emergency powers to close the southbound lanes of three district roads that connect to Northlake — Hall Blvd., Grapeview Blvd. and 140th Avenue North — in an effort to limit cut-through traffic.
Southbound traffic will be allowed on Coconut Blvd., which will funnel it to Royal Palm Beach Blvd.
Supervisors approved the plan 4-0 and granted Hanson additional powers to work with the PBSO, PBCFR and district staff to implement such plans as necessary to protect the community. Supervisor Betty Argue did not attend the meeting. State Rep. Meg Weinberger (R- District 94) and Loxahatchee Groves Mayor Anita Kane were in attendance.
“We have no plans to close all our roads,” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando told the gathering. “[But] a lot of these side roads are dead ends. People will just get lost and frustrated.”
CSX has said the work will begin on July 18, July 25 or Aug. 1, and the closure could last as long as eight days. UPDATE: CSX has since announced that the closure will not start before July 25.
However, some good news arrived Tuesday night, when Accomando learned that CSX had agreed to work 24/7 rather than a typical workday.
“While this is going to be a major inconvenience, the alternative would be much worse,” she said. “We certainly don’t ever want to see a derailment with people hurt or worse.”
PBCFR District Chief Amanda Vomero said the department can stage units at specific locations and bring in extra units as needed.
PBSO Capt. Robert Sandt, who oversees law enforcement in the area, said his agency will be ready to help.
“This is going to be a big traffic event,” Sandt said. “But we’ll have the assets we need — boots on the ground, motorcycles, cars. We’re going to get through this, I promise you that.”
ITID officials already are anticipating that that district won’t get through the vehicular logjam unscathed, at least not financially.
“Not only do we have to look out for our residents’ safety,” Accomando said, “we also have to look out for their wallets. This is going to cost residents quite a bit of money.”
The costs will include damage to roads from excessive traffic, including heavy trucks, that roadways in the semi-rural district were not designed to handle, rental of electronic signage equipment to direct traffic, and the purchase or rental of perhaps dozens of “No Through Traffic” signs in an effort to keep drivers out of dead ends.
Hanson said that ITID will attempt to get as much reimbursement as possible from CSX.
Accomando urged residents who can to consider working from home during the closure or to enjoy vacations or staycations, and to plan their day based on the traffic.
“If you need a doctor’s appointment, make it during the middle of the day,” she said.
Much of Tuesday’s two-hour session was taken up with residents and others — including a group from the Ibis Golf & Country Club — expressing their frustration during public comment, even though local, county and even state officials have little or no control over railroad operations.
Accomando said Wednesday that she was happy to “listen to the venting. People needed that.”
She was also happy to see the amount of participation in person and online, where a record 1,500 people tuned in.
The western communities “are often treated like stepchildren, but we’re a big family of stepchildren,” said Kane, whose Loxahatchee Groves community will be impacted by expected backups on Okeechobee and Southern boulevards. “As long as we stand together and work together and try to find solutions… we’re going to get through this with smiles on our faces, and hopefully create new friendships and new partnerships.”
