West Palm Beach approves $3 million FDOT grant for Fern Street railroad crossing

President Joe Paduzi presided as the City Commission on Tuesday approved a state-funded grant agreement and accompanying appropriations to advance the Fern Street railroad crossing project.

The commission voted to accept a $3 million grant from the Florida Department of Transportation and to authorize the city’s matching transfers after a presentation by Kevin Volrech, director of engineering services. Volrech said the city expects the roadway portion of the work to cost about $14.8 million and estimated the crossing will divert about 10,000 vehicles from Okachobee and Banyan boulevards onto Fern Street.

"This is obviously a new at-grade railroad crossing between Tamarind and Australian," Volrech said, describing the conceptual alignment. "Our anticipation is to get this ready to go out to bid as a design-build project in the fall of this year, with expected construction to start sometime early in 2027 and our target date is to finish this in early 2028." He said the city currently has roughly $3.7 million budgeted for the project and proposed transferring additional reserves (about $3.6 million) to cover the city match.

Volrech listed other potential funding sources the city expects to rely on, including a pending HUD award, mobility-fee proceeds, Community Redevelopment Agency funds and further state or federal grants. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about coordination with stakeholders including FDOT, SFRTA and Palm Beach County traffic control; Volrech said the project team is already coordinating with those partners.

The resolution accepting the grant (recorded in the meeting as resolution 119-26) and an appropriating F-resolution (recorded as 120-26F) passed unanimously. Staff noted the record contains minor transcription inconsistencies in the resolution numbering; the city clerk’s final record should be treated as authoritative.