Officials hope road widening, micro-mobility ideas can address South County traffic issues
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DELRAY BEACH — A fast-growing population in southern Palm Beach County prompted officials to discuss ideas to improve traffic and look at future growth and planning as more construction is set to take place.
Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Maria Sachs spearheaded the June 21 South County Civic Center workshop, which featured engineers and panelists.
Sachs’ main concern is gridlock in various of the county’s most populated locations like Glades Road and Lyons Road.
“This is something that will stop our growth, if we cannot understand and control the issues of traffic,” she said. “I’m not an engineer, so I decided to bring in all of the county engineers.”
Florida Department of Transportation engineers, too, were there, along with about 120 residents. Other panelists included Roadway Production Director Morton Rose, Community Services Director James Green and Palm Beach County Palm Tran Director Clinton Forbes.
The workshop launched with a detailed look at planned projects and their status. The county received a “Safe Streets and Roads for All” grant to develop a Safety Action Plan that will be used to identify future road safety projects that qualify for funding through the grant. The plan is expected to be completed in two years.
The road safety, traffic projects discussed:
The widening and reconstruction of Lyons Road from two lanes to four from Atlantic Avenue to Clint Moore Road. With the design in progress, construction on this would start in 2026 and last two years. The estimated construction cost is $18 million.
Also on Lyons Road, widening the median divided roadway from two lanes to four. Construction would start late next year and also last about two years. The cost would be an estimated $14 million.
Finally, intersection improvements — aligning the intersection across Atlantic Avenue to Smith Sundy Road. Construction would begin in early 2024 with an estimated cost of $2.5 million. Another idea was a new two-lane roadway at State Road 7.
Work on Lyons Road from the L-38 Canal north to Atlantic Avenue in suburban Delray Beach is expected to be completed soon. The L-38 canal lies near the large-scale developments of the Bridges, Lotus and Seven Bridges in suburban Boca Raton. Residents in the area have complained for months about delays and confusing lane adjustments that have resulted in multiple crashes.
The work has been affected by supply-chain issues and the discovery of utility pipes underneath the road which forced a delay of more than six months.
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Traffic safety was also discussed and the future of the county’s transportation, which, according to an expert, can be managed with the ideas of connectivity and micro-mobility.
Connectivity refers to building communities where residents can live functionally without needing to get around in a 2,000-pound vehicle. Micro-mobility refers to the ways this can be done: By using electric power, such as electric vehicles, golf carts and scooters.
“The benefits are incredible,” Sachs said of electric vehicles.
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They benefit the climate and bring the community together by the use of small vehicles making people more apt to connect with each other, Sachs said.
“The days of the suburbs, with gated communities, where people have to get in the car and drive to Publix, drive to take the kids to school, drive to the soccer field, that really needs to be a thing of the past,” she said.
For now, the general consensus is the construction of residential communities requiring gas-powered vehicles to get anywhere needs to stop.
“Any new developments that are going to come up here have to have at least access within 5 miles to groceries, live, work and play,” Sachs said. She was thinking of San Francisco and New York City as examples.
A new Glades Road interchange and Brightline train stop will help
The discussion focused on the suburban Delray Beach and Boca Raton areas, but within city limits there is also huge growth and construction. The new Brightline train station in Boca and the Glades Road interchange have helped alleviate some traffic issues.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the Glades Road diverging diamond interchange is projected to reduce crashes by a third by Glades Road and Interstate 95.
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In the coming weeks, Sachs said she will continue speaking with communities in other workshop-style discussions with local engineers about their particular issues with traffic.
Additionally, the Florida Department of Transportation is currently extending I-95 express lanes into Boca Raton to south of Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach. That will add an additional lane in both directions. Construction on that project began in November 2019 and is expected to be finished by the end of this year,
Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @jasminefernandz. Help support our work. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Electric cars, widening Lyons Road will improve Delray, Boca traffic
