FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Brightline operations were restored this morning (Thursday, Jan. 19) after about a four-hour interruption between Fort Lauderdale, Aventura, and Miami because of issues with the New River Bridge in Fort Lauderdale.
Limited operations continued between West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Fort Lauderdale during the outage on the southernmost portion of the West Palm Beach-Miami route.
Crews from route owner Florida East Coast Railway restored the bridge to operation after a malfunction that also affected marine traffic, WPLG-TV reports.
As of Friday, Jan. 20, the bridge is locked in the down position, WSVN-TV reports, which allows rail traffic to operate but blocks large boats from moving through the area. Repairs may take several days.
— Updated at 4:30 p.m. CST with restoration of service; updated at 6:15 p.m. on Jan. 20 with further update on bridge status.
FWIW here is the bridge on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Real+Party+Boats,+Near+River+Walk+North,+Fort+Lauderdale,+FL+33301/@26.118877,-80.1453257,19z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x88d9003ba9b0e4b5:0xe91454c975547bc7!2sNew+River,+Fort+Lauderdale,+FL+33301!8m2!3d26.1109199!4d-80.1122665!16s%2Fm%2F047np38!3m5!1s0x88d90163166482ed:0x4db945ef559e9732!8m2!3d26.1187863!4d-80.1449213!16s%2Fg%2F11s84pyh32
According to https://wsvn.com/ live news,the bridge got stuck in the up position. Brightline is offering free shuttle service to Miami Central in the interim.
At the moment all boat traffic has been blocked.
WSVN live reporter said the bridge has been subsequently been fixed, but they are going through a series of checks to see why the bridge malfunctioned.
And, what were/are the issues?