Joel EngelhardtCSX, FDOT finish work a day earlier than planned, reopen railroad crossing at Northlake Boulevard.
Update Aug. 9: After a weeklong closure the CSX railroad crossing at Northlake Boulevard reopened Saturday morning, a full day earlier than planned, the Florida Department of Transportation announced.
The reopening comes with a new lane configuration for eastbound Northlake traffic. Lanes will be shifted to the inside, with two through lanes and one dedicated right-turn lane, through summer 2026, to allow for road-widening.
Update Aug. 7: Crews have installed concrete panels across the tracks in preparation for reopening the railroad crossing at Northlake Boulevard, which is still on schedule for Sunday, Aug. 10, state consultants reported Thursday.
Crews completed wiring and testing of temporary train signals and gates along eastbound Northlake Boulevard at the crossing and declared that they work, the daily report from the Corradino Group said.
A contractor for West Palm Beach continued relocation work of a 120-foot water main west of the tracks.
FDOT crews continued anchoring a temporary concrete barrier wall and installing temporary crash barriers to prepare for a traffic shift once the lanes reopen.
The contractor is finishing construction of a temporary roadway base, with temporary asphalt placement expected Thursday night.The traffic calamities predicted for The Acreage Monday did not come to pass.
ORIGINAL STORY
Morning traffic appeared to flow smoothly — “smooth congestion” a sheriff’s office spokesperson called it — despite the closure of a main artery: Northlake Boulevard at the CSX railroad crossing west of the Beeline Highway.
“It really is moving well,” said Elizabeth Accomando, president of the Indian Trail Improvement District board, which oversees The Acreage. “It’s a combination of everyone preparing — a lot of businesses are adjusting schedules, letting people work from home, some even paying for hotels east of the crossing for their staff — and the county being able to control the traffic lights and PBSO watching it as well.”
Northlake is an east-west lifeline for communities west of the Beeline, including Ibis and Avenir, as well as the thousands of single-family homes in The Acreage/Loxahatchee. Monday marked the first weekday commute since the closure at 8 pm Friday.
Until it reopens, the 45,000 cars per day that cross the rails in both directions will be forced to follow detours to Okeechobee or Southern boulevards stretching from 20 to 35 miles. The Beeline Highway remains open but frustratingly out of reach for many.
But many of those drivers didn’t venture out Monday.
Traffic never got bad enough for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to employ the pickle, a device that allows deputies on the ground to change the timing of traffic signals, said Lady Hereford, spokeswoman for Palm Beach County Engineering and Public Works.
“Everyone is pleased with how it’s gone so far,” she said before what she hoped would be an uneventful Monday afternoon rush hour.
“What GREAT news!” echoed sheriff’s spokesperson Teri Barbera about the morning rush. “We saw smooth congestion.”
The afternoon rush hour didn’t add any drama. Some intersections slowed but few mile-long lines of cars formed. Northlake itself, the end of the road for most, remained wide open most of the day.
CSX began working on the crossing at 8 pm Friday with plans to rebuild the roadbed and the tracks before Aug. 11, the first day of school.
Over the weekend, crews removed the rails and installed a new section of track so that trains could rumble through slowly during construction, the Florida Department of Transportation said in a “project summary.”
Workers could be seen Sunday in drone photos shot for Stet by Scott Bunkelmann of Spectrumystic Studios.
The tracks, owned by CSX, carry freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains. A few miles south, the tracks change ownership to the state of Florida and add Tri-Rail passenger trains to the mix.
The bottom line in the state’s report: Work remains on track to meet an Aug. 10 reopening date.
At meetings last month, Mel Pollock, senior project engineer for state consultant the Corradino Group, said CSX told state officials that past rail work at the crossing, done in stages, created problems that will not be repeated if the work can be done all at once.
He said the work needed to be done now because trains are bottoming out on the rails crossing Northlake.
CSX is taking advantage of the state’s $150 million-plus reconstruction of the Beeline Highway, including rebuilding the Northlake Boulevard intersection, to complete the work before the winter season brings even more motorists.
State workers will take advantage of the street closure to replace and rebuild train signals and gates to match the footprint of the new road and advance their work on Northlake, Pollock said.
Commuters can check county traffic cams here.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
