STUART, Fla. — A new double-track bridge for the Florida East Coast Railway at Stuart would cost about $218 million and take four years to build, Brightline Vice President of Community Relations Ali Soule told Martin County officials on Tuesday.
WPTV reports Soule appeared before Martin County Commissioners to ask them to pass a resolution supporting construction of the new bridge over the St. Lucie River. A new bridge would address the single-track bottleneck that has become an issue with the impending start of Brightline service because of the conflict between keeping the current bridge down for rail service and up for mariners. The U.S. Coast Guard last week introduced new rules regarding bridge openings that try to strike a compromise between the two sides [see “Coast Guard revises Stuart bridge directive …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 11, 2023].
Soule said there would be a “48-month timeline for design, permitting, and construction” of the new bridge, followed by three months of demolition of the 90-year-old existing bridge. She said the company is seeking a federal grant for about $130 million, with state and private funding likely to provide the difference.
The current bridge has a vertical clearance of just 6 feet, 6 inches when closed, along with a 50-foot horizontal clearance, the TC Palm newspaper reports, and only allows about 22% of marine traffic to pass when the bridge is closed. Plans for the replacement call for a 16-foot vertical and 90-foot horizontal clearance, which would allow about 92% of marine traffic to pass when the bridge is down.
Soule also said Brightline’s service between Orlando and South Florida will now start no earlier than mid-September. The company has yet to announce a start date, but at one time was selling tickets for service beginning Sept. 1; earlier this month, it stopped offering tickets for dates before Sept. 15 [see “Brightline delays new Miami-Orlando ticket sales …,” News Wire, Aug. 7].
Commissioners did pass a resolution in support of the bridge project, after adding an amendment at the request of the marine industry that would include them in planning design, construction, and operation. The TCPalm notes that the Stuart City Commission adopted a similar resolution in June and agreed to oversee grant implementation.
— Updated at 8 a.m. CDT with additional details.
Definitely a positive, the opposition from boaters was the one “legitimate” NIMBY objection, ensuring the NIMBYs don’t have a leg to stand on is extremely helpful.
For those interested, the major problems with bridge replacement are:
1. The existing bridge, imperfect though it is given the capacity, is not really due replacement. Despite being mostly wooden and around a century old it’s in excellent shape. It’s always been a single track bridge unlike, say, the one in nearby Jupiter, even back when the FEC was double tracked.
2. The area the railroad needs to cross starts shortly after going under the New Roosevelt Bridge, a large concrete road bridge with just enough clearance for the double stacked trains the FECR is running. There’s a railroad crossing on the other end that’s needed for people to get into a nearby housing complex. So the scope for raising the grade is extremely limited. An additional 6′, as described by the article, seems about the limit for what they can achieve without using inclines that’d kill freight traffic over the bridge. (I guess they could do a parallel bridge for freight but that’d bring its own problems.)
3. This is Florida, it’s hard rock about 3-6′ under the water table (the river being crossed is very shallow) so pretty much no tunnels are options. Especially as this is close to the “historic” (some of those buildings are over 50 years old!) Stuart downtown, and you’d have to begin blowing things up ahead of Downtown Stuart in order to get a low enough incline. Plus where do you put the railroad crossings if you do that? Also isn’t the usual rule of thumb that a tunnel costs 10-100x the cost of an equivalent bridge?
So, while it’s not ideal, this is probably the best bridge that’s likely on the table, and at least small boats will be able to get past it. Definitely a good thing.
I will throw my comment in here. As Rodney King said, :CAN’T WE JUST GET ALONG” Tolerance is appreciated.
Still think a “trench in place” tunnel using pre-cast concrete segments would be cheaper/faster. Just like what they are doing in the Denmark Strait, except shorter distance, less depth involved, (read: cheap)
I don’t see anything about the bridge structurally. It has held up under a lot of freight trains which are demonstrably heavier than any passenger train. This is strictly an economic replacement. Delayed trains cost money.
Certainly, less costly than North Portal bridge.
The proposed bridge would accommodate 92% of marine traffic when closed, with 16-foot vertical and 90-foot horizontal clearances. The span would be moved slightly west, in between the highway and the existing bridge.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Thank you, Dr. Obvious.
The unnamed old railroad bridge needs to be replaced before it caves in on itself and someone gets hurt.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Sage advice from a world expert on bridges.
Just bridges? Imagine what would happen to poverty, disease, and world hunger if he focused on those.
My dear doctor, if you are impugning any deficiency in the extant structure you need to review the pertinent facts including recent work and inspections of said bridge for suitability for hourly passenger service.
Wut??
Ahhh, Trains News Wire, where the snarky people come to play. While the docs comment are obvious to most of the readers they are no more inconvenient than some of the right wing lunacy we are exposed to on a daily basis. Additionally, while a lot of commenters here can barely speak NASCAR English the doc communicates in a second language. Even if he uses a translation app his structure is accurate. Keep working on your Turkish and try not to be the ugly American.
Mr.Phillips executes a neat trick: Call opposing views “snarky,” while at the same time snarkily calling right wing views “lunacy,” and other posters illiterate because they speak “NASCAR” english. You know, those car guys. The deplorables. The ones that won’t buy Bud Light. Dr. Ustun would be better served, methinks, commenting on “The Little Engine That Could.”
George, I speak nascar English. My wife cheers for Denny and I root for Kyle Busch. Like Forrest Gump said “ I am not a smart man” but I try to be a nice man.
I suggest that we all -including Dr. Güntürk Üstün himself- thoughtfully consider what has been brought-out onto the comments section here of late. And, it all seems to revolve around him.
Some advice I received from the first Program Director I worked for, almost fifty years ago applies here: “Just because it can be said, and is on your mind, doesn’t mean that it needs to be said.” In radio, the risk is losing an audience. Paying for the use of a comments forum doesn’t give anyone the right to dominate the forum or any comment thread within. We are all passionate about railroading in its many forms. And, we all pay for the use of this forum. However, 99% don’t comment on every article. Indeed, the variety of commenters helps make the forum lively. Seeing the same name on seemingly every article has brought things to this forum that this hobby is not about.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, “It’s better to keep comments to one’s self and thought a fool than to comment wantonly and remove any doubt.”