Expect overnight road closures this week at this key Wellington-Royal Palm Beach intersection

WELLINGTON — A state project to revamp a busy intersection between Wellington and Royal Palm Beach is prompting lane closures this week.

Drivers will not be able to pass directly through the intersection of Southern and Forest Hill/Crestwood boulevards from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday this week, the Florida Department of Transportation said.

Crews are installing traffic signals as part of the larger project, which includes additional and longer turn lanes. One of those lanes, a continuous right-turn from northbound Forest Hill onto eastbound Southern, already is open.

Travelers will have to maneuver through the intersection by making right turns, FDOT said:

• Drivers going east on Southern will turn right onto Forest Hill, then make a U-turn at the light for Quercus Lane and turn right to continue east.
• Drivers going west on Southern will turn right to go north on Crestwood Boulevard, make a U-turn at Crestwood Square/Renaissance School Road and go back south on Crestwood to turn right on Southern and continue west.
• Drivers going north on Forest Hill toward Crestwood Boulevard will turn right to go east on Southern, make a U-turn at Crestwood Court North — there is no traffic signal there — and then go west on Southern to turn right and continue north on Crestwood.
• Drivers going south on Crestwood toward Forest Hill will turn right to go west on Southern to make a U-turn at Palms West Parkway, then come back east on Southern to turn right and continue south on Forest Hill.

Work on the roughly half-mile, $5.7 million project began in October 2019 and is slated for completion in the spring. 

Once finished, the project will add a third westbound to southbound left-turn lane from Southern to Forest Hill, widening the bridge over the C-51 Canal and broadening Southern east of Forest Hill to make room for the new free-flowing right-turn lane from northbound Forest Hill, the state said. 

Farther east on Southern Boulevard, the state is expanding the intersection at Southern and Lyons Road/Sansbury’s Way. Construction on that $7.5 million project began in October 2018 and should be completed this year, according to the latest road report from the Florida Department of Transportation. 

Work there includes adding an eastbound right-turn lane and a second westbound left-turn lane from Southern to southbound Lyons, adding a second right-turn lane from northbound Lyons to eastbound Southern, adding a second northbound lane on Lyons/Sansbury’s and widening the Lyons Road bridge over the C-51 Canal.

A $33.5 million project to widen Southern Boulevard from west of Forest Hill Boulevard to west of the entrance road to Lion Country Safari began in July 2018 and should be completed next summer, FDOT said. 

That work spans 7.2 miles and will widen Southern from four to six lanes, add a 12-foot multi-use path on the north side of the road and provide bike lanes.

kwebb@pbpost.com

Twitter: @kristinawebb