All lanes on Donald Ross Road bridge have reopened to drivers ahead of schedule

Maya Washburn, Palm Beach Post
·2 min read

JUNO BEACH – The Donald Ross Road bridge is entirely open to drivers again after facing lane closures for a month.

The westbound lanes on the span across the Intracoastal Waterway in Juno Beach opened Friday, May 17, a week ahead of schedule.

Crews closed the lanes to drivers on Wednesday, May 8, to install new high-pressure cylinders — the parts that move the bridge up and down — and electrical controls, said Zach King, the chief construction coordinator in the Palm Beach County Engineering and Public Works Department. The project costs $5.7 million.

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The eastbound lanes on the Donald Ross bridge in Juno Beach, Fla., are closed for upgrades from Tuesday, April 17, 2024, to Saturday, April 27, 2024, Palm Beach County engineers said.
The eastbound lanes on the Donald Ross bridge in Juno Beach, Fla., are closed for upgrades from Tuesday, April 17, 2024, to Saturday, April 27, 2024, Palm Beach County engineers said.

The same work was done to the other side of the bridge when its eastbound lanes were closed from April 27 to May 1. That construction took longer than expected because crews ran into technical problems.

The westbound lanes reopened earlier than projected because crews took “proactive measures” to prevent delays before they started the second phase of the work, according to a county statement.

The new cylinders will cut the time it takes for the bridge to open and close and also reduce the time that lanes will need to close during future maintenance projects, according to the county statement.

King said no functions on the bridge are broken, but that the span is due for these upgrades because it is more than 20 years old. The bridge opened in 1999 and sees average daily traffic of 11,000 vehicles, about 10% of which are trucks, according to 2022 state data.

Palm Beach County plans to perform more work on the bridge through Sept. 5 but does not anticipate future lane closures, the statement said.

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Maya Washburn covers northern Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Donald Ross Road bridge opens all lanes to drivers ahead of schedule