STUART, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard has issued new rules for a Florida East Coast Railway drawbridge, removing a requirement to open the bridge for up to 15 minutes twice each daylight hour and striking a compromise between boating and rail traffic.
The change is crucial for the planned start of Brightline passenger service between South Florida and Orlando in September.
The revised “temporary deviation,” effective Aug. 15, strikes the current rule requiring opening the single-track bridge across the Okeechobee Waterway of the St. Lucie River at Stuart to marine traffic at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour, and remaining open for up to 15 minutes. That plan gave boaters priority without regard to movement of long FEC freights or the schedules of 16 daily Brightline passenger round trips set to begin crossing the bridge next month [see “Coast Guard bridge plan ignores practices elsewhere …,” Trains News Wire, June 18, 2023].
The new arrangement accounts for the twice-hourly passage of Brightline trains, whose crossing times at Stuart are driven in part by the need to avoid conflicts on the 125-mph, single-track segment between the FEC main line at Cocoa, Fla., and a point where double tracks begin east of the Orlando International Airport. The rest of the route south of Cocoa to West Palm Beach was double-tracked and equipped with positive train control for 110-mph top speeds over the last four years.
A long-term solution at Stuart is likely to involve a second rail bridge to eliminate the short single-track segment.
“The new temporary deviation is the result of several parties working together for the good of the region and the good of the state,” FEC and Brightline said in a joint statement to News Wire. “Ultimately, the revision will allow mariners to have more than equal access to the waterway while allowing for successful movement of passenger and freight trains. We’re already working with federal, state and local partners to accelerate the schedule for a new bridge.”
The new conditions, published in the Federal Register today (Friday, Aug. 11), maintain predictability by providing a 10-minute period for boaters at the top of each hour between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. An additional 5 minutes of navigational time is added at 8:55 a.m. Monday through Sunday and at 9:55 a.m., 10:55 a.m., 12:55 p.m., and 4:55 p.m. weekends.
The bridge will normally be open if there is no rail activity. But it may close for trains and remain closed for as long as 50 consecutive minutes as long as it can raise for the specified windows. Overnight, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the closure maximum increases to 1 hour.
Personnel making dispatching decisions at DispatchCo, the independent company owned jointly by FEC and Brightline, need to be able to expedite passenger trains across the single track at Stuart to maintain schedules while adjusting freight operations so the long, slower freights don’t converge either when passenger trains are due or when the bridge is scheduled to be open. The new order mandates no more than a 5-minute delay for bridge openings if a train is approaching at a scheduled opening time.
Additionally, a bridge tender must be stationed at the bridge from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily to provide estimated times of openings and closures; a mobile app and telephone line is required to furnish the same information 24 hours a day.
The new deviation order is in effect Aug. 15 to Dec. 17. It is considered temporary because it will be used to determine the long-term bridge operating rules. As in previous periods, the Coast Guard is encouraging public comments at https://www.regulations.gov. Commenters type USCG–2022–0222, in the search box and click “Search,” look for this document in the “Search Results” column, click on it, then click on the Comment option.
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