Eight-day CSX closing to shut down Northlake Boulevard

Officials planning 30-mile detour to get traffic out of the western communities.

Traffic will come to a screeching halt on Northlake Boulevard for eight days in late July or early August to rebuild the CSX railway crossing at Beeline Highway, threatening massive traffic jams and forcing commuters into a 30-mile detour. 

The railroad work is part of the state’s  $150 million reconstruction of  Beeline Highway. It will block all traffic in both directions on Northlake at the railroad crossing just west of the Beeline. 

An emergency meeting of the Indian Trail Improvement District board, which oversees The Acreage, is scheduled for 6 pm June 24 to let residents know more about the still-developing plans. 

Traffic would be cut off for five weekdays. The closure would not happen before July 18, a Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson said. 

CSX promises to provide three weeks notice through social media, email, flyers and electronic signs. 

CSX would not make a representative available for an interview. It issued a statement saying, in part, officials plan to “install modern crossing signal equipment to support the county’s road widening plan.” 

The state is overseeing the road work, not the county.

“CSX understands that the temporary crossing closure will be a short-term inconvenience for motorists and thanks Palm Beach County residents for their patience as these critical infrastructure upgrades are completed,” the statement said.  

But no one knows yet how commuters will get around the logjam caused by closing off a crossing that provides access for at least 20,000 residents in the gated communities along Northlake and farther west in The Acreage.

FDOT officials say they are contemplating a 31-mile detour that would force traffic through The Acreage. 

“Unfortunately we’re stuck with only having two or three entrances into the community through Northlake, Okeechobee and Southern,” said Betty Argue, a nine-year board member of the Indian Trail Improvement District. “When one of those is closed down or there’s another accident, then traffic has to find another way around and there are no quick and easy solutions.”

Traffic already backs up most mornings as the state has begun work on the Beeline, where workers are reconfiguring turn lanes at Northlake, and county projects farther west add to the congestion.

Sal Faso, president of the North County Neighborhood Coalition, which includes 10 communities along Northlake with more than 60,000 residents, is alarmed, particularly about public safety.

“How is anybody going to go east?” Faso asked Stet News. “A 30-mile detour is unrealistic. You’re not going to make somebody go an additional 30 miles out of their way.

“If you’re a doctor and you have an office east of that intersection and you live west, how do you get there?” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that emergency services are able to be provided around the clock.” 

Despite the inconvenience, Argue called it “a necessary evil.”

“It’s going to create some chaos, but I understand why CSX needs to do it,” she said. “Everybody’s just going to have to be patient, leave earlier, give themselves plenty of time to travel.” 

“Now,” she said, “would be a good time to go on vacation.”

FDOT is aiming to finish the project before school starts Aug. 11.

Aside from serving communities such as Ibis in West Palm Beach and Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens, Northlake is a lifeline for The Acreage, where more than 15,000 single-family homes sprawl out across 1-acre lots. 

West Palm Beach’s Grassy Waters Preserve, which covers 23 square miles and collects the city’s drinking water, serves as an impenetrable barrier between Northlake and Okeechobee, a span of 7 miles. 

Efforts to extend State Road 7 north from Okeechobee have been blocked by legal action from West Palm Beach over concerns about impact to the preserve and to Ibis. Without that north-south connector, the only southern route is through The Acreage.

A route north to the Beeline from Coconut Boulevard is under construction through Avenir but is not yet completed. While environmental concerns blocked the northward extension of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, the county is planning an alternative route that would snake along Avenir’s western boundary.  

FDOT still hasn’t presented plans for the detour. State officials are working with county officials to find a route.  Preliminary plans reveal a 31-mile detour snaking through The Acreage on roads that weren’t designed to handle so much traffic. 

Congestion is anticipated, FDOT spokeswoman Silvana Ojeda said. “Delays will vary given time of day.”

But FDOT assures 24/7 emergency vehicle access will be maintained through the westbound Northlake Boulevard access ramp, which crosses the tracks at a different location.