Jupiter is planning for three big changes to help ease traffic on its busiest road
JUPITER — The town’s annual traffic report revealed that Jupiter saw just over 1,000 car crashes in 2022. Nearly half of those collisions came from one street: Indiantown Road. But the section of roadway where Indiantown and Interstate 95 meet will soon expand to allow space for the growing number of drivers that Jupiter sees each year.
In the same report, the town revealed a three-part project along Indiantown near I-95, which will widen the road in three of its busiest points and bring roadwork construction — and probably a few traffic delays — to the area.
The project is on the Florida Department of Transportation's construction schedule for the 2024 fiscal year. Jupiter will put up only $4 million of the estimated $20 million cost for the projects.
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Indiantown is Jupiter's main road, spanning from Jupiter Farms to the beach, and also its busiest. Four intersections along the roadway made the town’s list of most crash-heavy intersections last year.
Here’s a breakdown of three changes that the town hopes will lessen traffic at bottleneck points.
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One more westbound lane is coming to I-95's northbound on-ramp in Jupiter
The first of the changes for Indiantown Road will affect I-95’s northbound on-ramp near Jupiter West Plaza at Central Boulevard.
The on-ramp, at exit 87, is now considered a rural interchange, a point where one or more roads feed into a larger road, like most of the junctions on I-95 in the Jupiter area. The construction of another lane will transition this ramp from rural to suburban and mitigate traffic backups, which can be heavy during the morning rush-hour.
Starting east of Island Way and merging onto I-95, there will be four turning lanes instead of three.
A new stop light in Jupiter will help regulate traffic exiting I-95 toward Central Boulevard
According to Thomas Hernandez, Jupiter’s director of engineering and public works, this project will add a traffic signal and the off-ramp will be widened to create three right-turn lanes for northbound I-95 drivers coming off the highway onto Indiantown.
“You’ll come off of I-95 northbound and stop at an actual traffic signal,” Hernandez said during the town’s annual traffic report presentation in February. “There will no longer be a hot right.”
Council member Cameron May expressed his hope that this redesign of points along I-95 in Jupiter will help make more space for first responders who are called to car crashes where Jupiter’s local roadways meet the highway. May is a Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue firefighter and paramedic.
Going hand-in-hand with the first phase of the FDOT-funded project, the second phase increases the eastbound turning lanes between I-95 and Central Boulevard to four from three as well.
The turn lanes at Island Way and Indiantown Road are expanding
In the third portion of the project along Indiantown between Jupiter West Plaza and its intersection with I-95, the town and FDOT plan to expand Indiantown at its intersection with Island Way.
The intersection ranked as Jupiter’s third busiest and most dangerous intersection in 2022, with 44 crashes.
In the eastbound direction, additional lanes will be added from the I-95 overpass to Central Boulevard, according to the FDOT.
Lianna Norman covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at lnorman@pbpost.com. You can follow her reporting on social media @LiannaNorman on Twitter. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Indiantown Road, Jupiter's busiest roadway project to ease traffic
