Jupiter's U.S. 1 Bridge is closing until 2024. So what's a driver to do?

Lianna Norman, Palm Beach Post
·5 min read

JUPITER — Starting Monday, and continuing for the next 20 months, Jupiter residents and anyone else planning on driving across the U.S. 1 bridge near the town's signature lighthouse will be rerouted.

The Florida Department of Transportation will begin its long-awaited $122 million reconstruction of the bridge that connects Jupiter and Tequesta over the Loxahatchee River.

The new bridge will be taller and stronger and is projected to lessen traffic in the area. But the flow of vehicles around businesses just west of the Jupiter Inlet will get worse before it gets better. Businesses along Alternate A1A are bracing for herds of cars funneling over from U.S. 1, while restaurants and shops on the east side of the bridge are hoping business won’t quiet down too much.

Here's what lies ahead into 2024 and beyond.

Jupiter's U.S. 1 bridge over the Loxahatchee River on March 6, 2023, in Jupiter, FL. The Federal Bridge is closing for more than a year for construction.
Jupiter's U.S. 1 bridge over the Loxahatchee River on March 6, 2023, in Jupiter, FL. The Federal Bridge is closing for more than a year for construction.

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Why will the whole bridge shut down? And when can I drive on it again?

The state has offered Johnson Bros., the Florida general contractor taking on the reconstruction, huge incentives to keep the project on a tight schedule. Town and state officials know the burden the closure will bring to local traffic for the 20-month reconstruction, but it can’t be done any other way.

The bridge isn’t big enough to work on one side at a time and still effectively redirect four lanes of traffic down to two. And there’s no space to construct a new bridge next to it. Since the only way forward is the most inconvenient, Johnson Bros. will get a $3.5 million bonus if it can have one lane of traffic in each direction completed by July 25, 2024.

Guests at the Lucky Shuck take in a a view of the Loxahatchee River, with the Federal Bridge seen in the background, on Monday, March 6, 2023, in Jupiter, FL. Starting March 7, the Federal Bridge will close for more than a year, affecting businesses located along the Loxahatchee River.
Guests at the Lucky Shuck take in a a view of the Loxahatchee River, with the Federal Bridge seen in the background, on Monday, March 6, 2023, in Jupiter, FL. Starting March 7, the Federal Bridge will close for more than a year, affecting businesses located along the Loxahatchee River.

The detour phase is scheduled to end in the fall of 2024 and all four lanes of traffic will be reopened to drivers by the spring of 2025 and finished in 2026.

Northbound drivers will be redirected to use Alternate A1A via Indiantown Road. Southbound traffic will use the same route, using Alternate A1A to reconnect to U.S. 1 via its intersection at Indiantown across the Intracoastal Waterway bridge.

The new bridge will let taller boats pass under it en route to the ocean

The plans to give the bridge a facelift have been churning through Jupiter and Tequesta’s council meetings for years. It has been due for an update since 2014, when an inspection deemed the bridge's structure insufficient.

The bridge was last updated in 1958, when Jupiter's population totaled about 1,000 and Tequesta's hovered near 100. It also was a time when boats plying the local waters were smaller. The current bridge has a vertical clearance of 25 feet. With the reconstruction the clearance will rise to 42 feet, 7 feet taller than Indiantown Road’s bridge across the Intracoastal.

The increase in vertical clearance will allow more boats to pass under the bridge without having to open and stop the flow of car and truck traffic over it, as often as it does now.

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Engineers will monitor traffic in the 'Smart Work Zone' via livestream

Businesses nestled around the waterfront on the east side of the bridge near Jupiter Inlet Colony, like The Square Grouper and Charlie & Joe's at Love Street, are prepared for the possibility of fewer visitors from Tequesta during the 20-month shutdown.

The staff at Charlie & Joe's, a waterfront cmplex featuring four restaurants, are optimistic that regardless of the bridge closure, the Jupiter lighthouse and restaurants across the inlet will remain a destination for tourists and locals on both sides of the bridge.

"We have exciting community events happening in the spring and summer months that are value-driven and charitable," said Liz Soulen, director of operations at Charlie & Joe's.

But businesses along the Alternate A1A detour, like Blackbird Modern Asian Restaurant, Papichulo Tacos and the Lighthouse Diner, can expect waves of new traffic headed their way.

State officials said the Alternate A1A detour is one it knew would pose an issue for Jupiter and Tequesta residents and business owners. To mitigate congestion, FDOT’s traffic management center has labeled the U.S. 1 Bridge Reconstruction detour as a “Smart Work Zone.” This means that from a room full of monitors playing live traffic footage at the management center, FDOT will monitor the detour route to watch for backups and safety problems.

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“We have engineers that are going to optimize traffic signals in the area to decrease the impact to the public,” Daniel Smith, an FDOT operations manager, said in a video. “We have people watching our cameras to observe any safety issues that might pop up. If there are any issues there, we’ll be watching. We can see pretty much every intersection with a camera.”

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 at @LiannaNorman on Twitter. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter U.S. 1 bridge closure and reconstruction to start March 13