Glades Road to close several days for repairs at railroad tracks

BOCA RATON — A stretch of Glades Road, one of Boca Raton’s most heavily trafficked corridors, will close for three days, diverting about 40,000 drivers each day.

To allow workers to safely repair a stretch of railroad. Glades Road will close at the the railroad tracks just west of Dixie Highway starting at 6 a.m. Saturday through midnight Monday — or Tuesday if extra time is needed to complete the work, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Anthony Barber, who owns Troy’s Barbecue at the corner of Glades Road and North Dixie Highway, learned Thursday of the upcoming road closure outside his restaurant. “I’m just laughing in disbelief,” he said. “I fear that there may have been a mailer that didn’t land, so I don’t want to feel like the same city that said I can’t put up a tent without a permit is continuing to disenfranchise me.”

Barber said he didn’t know about the work that’s expected to be done. The city said it would announce the closure and detours on its social media channels Friday morning. But Barber said he doesn’t follow the city on social media and anyone planning to go to his restaurant may not know about the road closure until they drive up to barriers and detour signs in the road.

“Normally we do about $15,000 on weekends, so that’s a $15,000 loss at least,” he said.

The following detours will be in place:

During the closure, workers will set out to repair defective rails and replace the crossing surface. Transportation officials say the work will improve ride quality.

The work will come just two weeks after a similar announcement in Fort Lauderdale prompted an outcry from city and county officials. That work would have shut down Broward Boulevard for three days at the height of tourist season until it was rescheduled.

For the work to be done in Boca Raton, transportation officials announced the road closure about two weeks in advance and an electronic sign on each side of the tracks at Glades Road warned motorists of the upcoming closure at least a week prior. A city spokeswoman said staff was given notice from the Department of Transportation on the closure about two weeks ago.

City staff and elected officials said they have not heard any complaints or concerns from residents about the closure, and Mayor Scott Singer said such a closure typically isn’t an issue in the city.

“In the past, folks have typically been understanding that work needed to be done,” he said Thursday. “A little bit of inconvenience and ongoing maintenance is a small price to pay for outstanding infrastructure.”

The work is largely being paid for by the Florida East Coast rail company, but the Florida Department of Transportation has contributed approximately $214,000 toward the railroad crossing rehabilitation, according to Guillermo Canedo, an agency spokesman. That money comes from state funds that are designed to work on railroad crossings on state roads.

Approximately 40,000 cars travel on Glades Road over the Florida East Coast railroad tracks per day, according to the city’s transportation department.