Stretch Northbound to be Opened Sunday 10am to Midnight

The state apparently heard the loud rage against the machine — and on Monday, relented to a point.

Following a weekend in which northbound traffic out of the Keys was so backed up that it took hours just to get from Key Largo to Florida City, the Department of Transportation said it would open the northbound lane of U.S. 1 on the 18-Mile Stretch from 10 a.m. to midnight this coming Sunday. Initial plans had it open from noon to midnight.

The road’s been closed 24/7 since last Thursday because Granite Construction needs to rebuild part of it — again. Basically, it’s breaking because a below-ground divider between the new northbound lanes and the previously existing southbound lanes cracked.

Now, Card Sound Road is the only way out. But few who were caught in the traffic jam Sunday after spending the weekend in the Keys care about the reason.

“We left Long Key at 4:30 p.m. and got to Homestead at 10:30 p.m.,” says Michelle Byerly of Lake Worth. “Everybody was stopped on that long dark road. We talked to three girls who missed their flight to California because of this.

“There was [a police officer] at the Card Sound Road intersection but he wasn’t directing traffic. He was sitting there with his lights on, so everybody made sure to come to a complete stop. We knew there was going to be a delay — but we couldn’t imagine anything like this.”

“I can only imagine how the people felt who had to catch a flight,” says Ann Henson Feltgen of Hollywood, who was stuck in the jam after spending Father’s Day at Snapper’s Restaurant in Key Largo. It took her and her husband Dennis three and a half hours to get home.

“Folks started out being pleasant, but by the time we reached the Ocean Reef stop light [on Card Sound], people were passing in no-passing zones, acting very aggressively, tailgating, etc.”

She says “it was really neat to see things that I never noticed before. But when I saw a landmark, I realized just how far we still had to go. We were both stiff from sitting so long. I can now imagine what it felt like to be on a wagon train.”

DOT said last week that northbound U.S. 1 on the Stretch would be closed until July 3, when it would open for the Fourth of July weekend. Then it would close again on July 6 if the roadwork wasn’t complete.

Now, it says the window has been narrowed. The road will close at midnight Sunday if crews aren’t done by 10 a.m. that day, but only another few days of closure would likely be needed, the agency says.