Drivers in Boca Raton will have to deal with detours around the Florida East Coast rail road tracks over the next two weeks.
Construction crews have blocked Palmetto Park Road, and will move on to Spanish River Boulevard and Glades Roads later this week. At each stop, crews will close the roads where they intersect the train tracks, near Dixie Highway.
Work is ahead of schedule at Palmetto Park Road, which should reopen Thursday instead of Friday.
Kenneth Scope moved to Boca Raton two weeks ago.
“I live right on Palmetto Park Road,” he said.
He never figured on barricades and hard hats lining his new street.
All Aboard Florida is adding another train track for the Brightline passenger service. High speed trains will shuttle people from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach; and eventually to Orlando.
Crews closed Palmetto Park Road this week, sending Scope and thousands other drivers onto crowded detours.
“The traffic lights are definitely not timed for the new, incoming flow of traffic,” Scope opined.
City Councilman Scott Singer told NewsChannel 5 these closures shouldn't come as a surprise. He pushed the city to share more information on Facebook and place electronic signs along roads warning people of the work a week or so in advance.
“There were a great deal of efforts to communicate, but there can never be too much good communication about useful facts,” he pointed out.
Still, Ingrid Drautz learned about this road closure the hard way.
“Boom, there it is. There was a back up all the way to 4th Avenue,” she described hitting traffic on a recent drive.
“I do pay attention to signs, but it will have the date and then the date comes and you forget about it,” she added.
Bari Magnetta isn’t driving, but she’s using Twitter and Facebook to help drivers find her restaurant in the construction.
“Our entire restaurant is being blockaded by construction,” she said.
Magnetta and her husband run Boca's Best Pizza Bar, which sits right where Palmetto Park Road intersects the FEC rail road.
“It’s killing our delivery business, it's killing our pick-up business, it's killing our walk up business,” she listed.
Because of the construction, deliveries can take more than an hour and most customers don’t' want to wait that long.
Another customer canceled a pick-up order saying she couldn't figure out a way to get to the restaurant. Magnetta delivered that meal for free, eating the delivery charge.
“I totally ate it because I wanted to make sure she ate something for lunch,” Magnetta said.
Singer said he anticipated some hiccups with this construction. But he said when it's all over, the trains will be quieter and customers will come back.
“While we have to deal with some inconveniences now, we'll get the long term benefit once this work is completed,” the councilman said.
Along with adding the extra railway, crews are installing safety measures at the crossings. Those additions mean trains won’t have to blow their horns as they approach the crossings, creating a quiet zone, where trains make less noise.
Here is a list of upcoming road closures in Boca Raton:
• Palmetto Park Rd......Mon, 8/22, 7 a.m. – Thus, 8/25, 6 p.m.
• Spanish River Blvd.....Wed, 8/24, 7 a.m. – Fri, 8/26, 6 p.m.
• SW 18th Street.........Sat, 8/27, 7 a.m. – Tues, 8/30, 6 p.m.
• Glades Road.............Sat, 8/27, 7 am – Thurs, 9/1, 6 p.m.
• NW 20th Street.........Tues, 9/13, 7 a.m. – Sat, 9/17, 6 p.m.
