Palm Beach residents heard some welcome news Tuesday about future traffic conditions on the island.
Unscheduled drawbridge openings, tied to the Bonefish Cove environmental restoration project, which frustrated drivers last season, will be limited next season to weekends and holidays so they will no longer interfere with weekday rush hours.
The unscheduled bridge openings are occasionally performed to accommodate barge trips transporting fill material from Peanut Island south to a construction area where two mangrove islands and oyster reefs are being built south of the Lake Worth Bridge.
The drawbridges must open for the barges because they are pushed by tugs, which limits their ability stop at a short distance, Palm Beach Public Works Director Paul Brazil said at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting.
The project, which is being performed by Palm Beach County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, had been expected to reach completion in August 2025, but is now expected to continue until October 2026.
The barges’ new weekends-and-holidays-only schedule will be in effect from Monday, November 17 until May 1.
Between now and November 17, to help expedite completion of the Bonefish Cove project, the barge trips and drawbridge openings will be allowed on weekdays during the expanded hours of 5 a.m. until 7 p.m., Brazil said.
Occasional unscheduled bridge openings will still be possible during weekdays even after the new schedule takes effect on November 17. If a piece of equipment fails, workers will be allowed to remove and replace it by barge on any day and at any time so construction can continue with as little disruption as possible, Brazil said.
The agreement is between Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Palm Beach Town Council, which unanimously approved it on Tuesday.
“During season last year, we had some very negative [traffic] impacts,” Brazil said. “Palm Beach County and the Army Corps realize that this project is going to [continue] into this coming season, and we all worked together to try to find a way … to get this good project done but minimize negative impacts to the town and the traffic.”
The traffic impact to the town during the season is mainly Monday through Friday and during the rush hours, Town Manager Kirk Blouin said. The bridge openings were compounding the already existing congestion, causing traffic to back up for an additional 20 minutes.
Blouin told the Palm Beach Civic Association that the new schedule will result in less congestion.
“They didn’t have to offer this compromise, but they did, so we applaud the county and Army Corps of Engineers for offering this as an option,” he said.
The Bonefish Cove project is about 65 percent complete. The contractor is finishing work on the northern island and preparing to shift work to the southern island, according to the project website.
The project dates to 2015 with a $10 million contribution from the Army Corps and $6.4 million from Palm Beach County, according to the website. When completed, the intertidal islands, with bird-nesting mounds and oyster reefs, will provide critical habitat for threatened shorebirds and protected native mangroves, according to project managers. Water quality will be improved through the new oyster colonies and seagrass beds.
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