WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s only 13 miles of a 129-mile project, but this week’s planned activation of a second main track between West Palm Beach and Jupiter, Fla., represents tangible progress in Brightline’s northward expansion.
Restoration of the second main on Florida East Coast’s line to Cocoa, Fla., helps establish a fluid, 110-mph-capable corridor where fast passenger trains and steady freight traffic can peacefully coexist. The activity also illustrates the complexity of adding capacity to enable Brightline trains to reach Orlando International Airport by the end of 2022, according to the company’s latest estimates.
Passenger service south of West Palm Beach has been suspended since March 2020, but is scheduled to resume later this year on a date to be determined [see “Brightline to resume South Florida service in November,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 10, 2021].
Through 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17, crews are integrating the new track’s switches and signals with the existing single-track main. The process involves providing flag protection for motorists at each of 17 highway grade crossings in five communities while systems are deactivated and cut over, then testing all components before moving on to the next crossing. Stoplights at nearby intersections need to be coordinated with train movements, so those interfaces must be linked as well. A total of 155 highway crossings will have to be similarly modified.
Construction on the West Palm Beach-Cocoa project began in mid-2019, along with an entirely new 35-mile east-west extension following Florida Highway 528 to the airport [see “Orlando Bound,” September 2020 Trains].
The previous double-tracked FEC north-south main had hosted fleets of streamliners to and from the Northeast and Midwest until service ended following a 1963 strike; a state-mandated Jacksonville-North Miami train made its last run in 1968.
The second main was soon eliminated over most of the route and the remaining track —along with buried cables and utilities — rearranged on the right-of-way. Now that work south of Cocoa is being reversed with more space added between track centers and dwider-radius curves to accommodate higher speeds.
Although repositioning crossing protection and then re-establishing double track is a monumental task, replacing or restoring more than two dozen aging fixed-span bridges and reconstructing the drawbridge at Jupiter are most significant.
Tracks are being raised over the Loxahatchee River so that a new bascule span will allow larger pleasure craft to pass underneath without requiring a bridge lift. The old bridge was closed for two days in August, and more work is expected during the coming months. A Brightline video below shows the scope of the project.
The much longer drawbridge and approach trestle over the St. Lucie River at Stuart, Fla., will remain a single-track structure until after service to Orlando begins, but work continues on replacing four fixed spans with new double track bridges over Crane Creek at Melbourne, Fla., and three other locations.
Share this article
