Crossing A1A in Highland Beach: Unfinished Crosswalk Fixes

"For most people in town, the project is done."

That's Town Manager Marshall Labadie, talking to Boca Daily News in January about the $8.3 million overhaul of Ocean Boulevard that had kept Highland Beach under orange barrels for the better part of two years. He wasn't wrong. The milling is done. The bike lanes are striped. The road is smoother than it's been in a generation.

If you've tried to cross A1A on foot lately, particularly around 3310 South Ocean Boulevard, the town's website reports that the crosswalk light signals there are currently out of service.

The roadwork is substantially complete, while some pedestrian improvements remain planned for this stretch of A1A.

What the Roadwork Covered

The FDOT project that ran from May 2024 to early 2026 was never just a repaving job. According to the official project scope, the work included milling and resurfacing the roadway, widening it in both directions to add five-foot bicycle lanes, modifying swales to improve drainage, and upgrading signage and pavement markings to current standards. The contractor was The Stout Group LLC, and the state's own project page lists a completion date of April 15, 2026, a few months later than Labadie's "substantially complete" comment in January, which tracked with what residents were seeing on the ground: barrels gone, green bike lane paint down, the daily disruption largely over.

What the scope didn't include, by design, was the pedestrian signal upgrade. That was always meant to be phase two. Labadie told Boca Daily News in January that the only remaining piece of the envisioned upgrade was the installation of lighted crosswalk signals pedestrians could activate on demand, and that State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman had asked the state for an appropriation to fund them in the next legislative session. His caveat was blunt: what makes it into a final state budget is never guaranteed, and if the state didn't come through, the town would look at funding it locally.

The Linton Boulevard Signal

Another traffic issue concerns the signal at A1A and Linton Boulevard, an intersection residents use to get on or off the barrier island.

Before construction, the signal there ran on demand, triggered by an inductive loop embedded in the pavement that detected when a car was actually waiting to turn. That loop had to be removed during the stormwater drainage work tied to the resurfacing project. Since then, according to Boca Daily News, the light runs on a fixed timer set by the county rather than responding to actual traffic. The practical effect, especially with the seasonal population back in town, has been backups at this intersection. The electrical work to restore demand-based timing hadn't been completed as of Labadie's January remarks.

None of this means the project failed. It means there was still signal work to finish, which matters to people using this corridor, including residents of Regency Highland and elsewhere along South Ocean Boulevard.

The Walk That's Still Unfinished

The more relevant issue for anyone crossing on foot involves water, not cars. Widening and regrading the road changed its elevation and drainage pattern. According to Boca Daily News reporting from August, that elevation and drainage shift has caused flooding in places and, in some spots, forced pedestrians off the shared-use path and into the travel lane to get around standing water.

That's not a hypothetical inconvenience. It's the reason the town's next infrastructure project, still ahead of it, explicitly bundles pedestrian lighting with path regrading rather than treating them as separate problems. The fix for the sidewalk your dog doesn't like walking through after a storm is tied to the same contract as the fix for the crosswalk that goes dark.

The Fix That's Under Contract, Not Yet Scheduled

That next project is real, funded, and contracted, but it doesn't have a public start date yet.

Highland Beach commissioners approved a $283,920 agreement with Lux Solar Inc. to install in-road LED lighting at all eight mid-block pedestrian crosswalks along Ocean Boulevard, part of a broader $375,000 state-funded pedestrian safety package. The new lights will be bi-directional flashing yellow units embedded directly in the roadway, activated by the same push buttons already installed at several intersections. The same contract covers milling, repaving, and regrading sections of the adjacent shared-use path specifically to correct the flooding the resurfacing project introduced.

The catch, as of the most recent reporting, is timing. The contract requires the work to be finished within six months of the date the town issues Lux Solar a formal notice to proceed, but that date hadn't been made public. In practical terms, the eight-crosswalk fix is funded and under contract but not yet running on a calendar anyone outside town hall can check.

What This Means for Your Evening Walk

If you're heading out for a sunset walk or a bike ride on the new lanes tonight, a few things are true at once. The pavement is better than it's been in years. The bike lanes are wider and more clearly marked. And at the same time, at least one crosswalk signal is confirmed out of service by the town's own site, the Linton Boulevard light may hold longer than it used to during busier hours, and parts of the path can still pool water after a hard rain in a way the road wasn't designed to do before the regrade.

None of that is cause for alarm. It's the normal, unglamorous middle stretch between a finished road project and a finished pedestrian one. The town has been transparent about each piece as it moves, publishing updates through its newsflash system and its My Highland Beach app, and it's worth checking those before you assume every signal on your route is working the way it used to.

For people crossing the road on foot, a second project still has no public start date. In the meantime, treat the push buttons as a courtesy, not a guarantee, and give yourself an extra beat before stepping off the curb.

We spend a lot of time on this stretch of coast and follow the updates that affect it. If you're curious what else is moving along this corridor, or you'd simply like a local perspective the next time you're weighing a decision about property here, Your Luxury Listing Group is always glad to talk. Request a Private Consultation whenever the timing is right for you.