y y Conduit installation (undergrounding)
y y Equipment and cable installation (undergrounding)
y y Pole and wire removal (undergrounding)
y y Watermain installation
y y Drainage improvements
y y Traffic signal modifications
y y Installation of signal interconnect
y y Street Lighting improvements
y y Pump station improvements
and may reduce the width of the travel lanes. However, they will
not eliminate the use of any travel lanes. detour depends on the width of the road. This is further evaluated
below.
Construction activities using shoulder closures are: 9.4 General Project Schedule and Construction
Sequence
y y Conduit installation (undergrounding)
y y Equipment and cable installation (undergrounding)
y y Pole and wire removal (undergrounding)
y y Street Lighting improvements
y y Pump station improvements
y y FPU gas main replacement Short-term Closure
The use of a multiple-lane restriction, weekend closure, or night-
time closure will be determined during design and construction of
each phase. A complete direction closure consists of prohibiting any traffic
by public motorists from entering or exiting the roadway in a
defined direction of travel (i.e., northbound or southbound) for
an established length construction zone and quantitative duration.
In the case of the north-south thoroughfares, this closure could
be applied in both the northbound and southbound directions
of travel. Although not anticipated to be needed often for the
undergrounding program, if needed, these closures could span
a maximum distance of one to two blocks of roadway at a time
and be restricted to a weekend time frame. In the case of the main
east-west arterials and the local residential, commercial or mixed-
use roads, the need for their closure to traffic or availability for a
Shoulder Closure
A shoulder closure consists of prohibiting any traffic by public
motorists from driving on the roadside shoulder in a defined
direction of travel (i.e., northbound or southbound) for an
established length construction zone and quantitative duration.
In the case of the north-south thoroughfares, this closure will be
applied in both the northbound and southbound directions of
travel. The closures are anticipated to span the time required to
complete the construction of facilities outside of the travel lanes
84 | CHAPTER NINE
The undergrounding of overhead utilities, namely electrical and
communication (FPL, AT&T, Comcast) is planned to occur in
eight phases with starting dates from 2017–2024. Additionally,
other sets of improvements are planned to occur during the same
time as the Undergrounding. These improvements include the
Florida Public Utilities (FPU) Gas Main Replacement Program,
City of West Palm Beach Watermain Improvements, the FDOT
Southern Boulevard Bridge Replacement, and the Town’s
Accelerated Capital Improvement Program (ACIP) and Capital
Improvement Program (CIP). The FPU gas improvements
include the installation of new gas pipelines and is proposed
to occur from 2017 to 2021. The City of West Palm Beach
Watermain improvements are expected to occur during the
undergrounding program and be confined to the undergrounding
phase project area during any given year. The FDOT Southern
Boulevard Bridge Replacement will occur between 2017 and
2021. The Town’s ACIP improvements are planned to occur
from 2017 to 2019 with other CIP improvements occurring
within the current five-year planning horizon, to 2022. These
sets of improvements were considered when recommending
Transportation Management options. The table on the following
page has the anticipated construction sequence. See also Section 6 of
this Master Plan.
The initial construction activities in any given phase will include
conduit construction by a mixture of open cut trenches and
directional boring along with the installation of equipment and
cabling. The final six months of any given phase will include
the removal of the existing overhead poles and wires. Therefore,
there will be an overlap when adjacent phases will experience
construction impacts potentially requiring road closures near
each other. In general, the most significant road disruption
(conduit installation) will be scheduled to occur between May
and November. During the season (December through April), less
disruptive activities are planned that will require intermittent road
impacts such as pulling cable and setting equipment.
As the focus of the program is the underground conversion of
overhead utilities and known large infrastructure programs, the
following are not currently included in the major work elements
but could have some impacts to traffic behavior in the Town:
y y Beach renourishment projects
y y Private construction (homes and businesses)
TOWN OF PALM BEACH