MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — It's called one of the most dangerous roads in all of Martin County. Several people have died over the past year in violent wrecks on Bridge Road.
But WPTV is learning new details about safety improvements that could begin as soon as next week.
Many of those deadly crashes were head-on collisions. There's practically no shoulder and nowhere to go when another car comes into your lane.
The sheriff's office has stepped up enforcement, and now we know more safety improvements will be coming to this dangerous stretch.
Inside village bike shop in Hobe Sound, Brian Wesson spends a lot of time fixing bicycles when he's not out riding himself.
"We typically like to head out to the beach and then we will typically head south of Hobe Sound down Jupiter Island," Wesson said.
But an area he avoids is Bridge Road from U.S. 1 to Interstate 95 in particular because there is no shoulder and heavy traffic.
"Bridge Road is absolutely the top of my list of one of the most dangerous spots to be cycling and driving," Wesson said.
A woman was killed two weeks ago after being hit head-on, and according to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, four people died in car crashes on this four-mile stretch of Bridge Road in the past 11 months.
Now Martin County Public Works is detailing safety improvements, which originally included bike lanes but now includes adding shoulders on Bridge Road from Pratt Whitney Road to U.S. 1 and installing more streetlights.
"Public works staff is looking into strategic locations to implement some no passing zones," said George Dzama, Martin County's deputy public works director.
WPTV also learned rumble strips will be added in the center of the road to alert drivers who swerve into the oncoming lane.
"We actually reduced the timeline for construction to get these improvements implemented quicker," Dzama said.
This is now a six-month project is set to begin this month and finish in July.
We're told FDOT has done studies which show those rumble strips reduce head-on collisions by 44% to 64%.
