STUART, Fla. — Design work and other preparations for the new Florida East Coast/Brightline bridge over the St. Lucie River in Stuart are under way, the TC Palm newspaper reports, while FEC seeks a federal grant to address the $31.5 million grant to address the unfunded portion of the $218 million project.
The current Stuart drawbridge is the only single-track segment on the shared Brightline/FEC corridor between Miami and Cocoa, Fla., and is a bottleneck because of that and the scheduling of bridge openings to accommodate marine traffic. The project to replace the current 91-year-old span received a $130.5 million federal grant late last year [see “Congressman says Stuart, Fla., will receive grant …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 18, 2023].
About 15% of the design for the new bridge is complete, the newspaper report. The design presented at a recent meeting would increase the vertical clearance over the river from the current 6 feet, 6 inches — which only allows about 22% of marine traffic to pass without a bridge lift — to 17 feet, 9 inches. That’s an increase from earlier plans for a 16-foot clearance, which reportedly would have allowed 80% of traffic to pass. The newspaper reports some marine-industry representatives would like a fixed span with greater clearance.
The design process is likely to take until the end of 2025, with construction beginning early in 2026 and taking up to three years. That timeline could be delayed by approval under the National Environmental Policy Act, which also addresses historical concerns. The current bridge is considered a historical resource, the newspaper reports.
Maybe a solution would be to build a high single-track bridge that would only be used by passenger trains? Keep old bridge for those few freight trains.
TriRail’s New River bridge was done so: single track drawbridge remains for freight and a (relatively) steep two track bridge right next to it for pax. In Stuart there isn’t enough room for both without knocking down and replacing more infrastructure.
They should of raised movable bridge in Jupiter FL ,to a stationary bridge like the fixed highway bridge right next to it about 10 feet higher. They rebuilt the single track movable bridge with a 2 track movable bridge.
OMG, another North Dakota bridge in he making?
How is the current bridge “a (an?) historical resource”? Just age? On that basis, some of us should qualify.
Brightline removed plenty of FEC bridges of similar vintage during the rebuilding of the line. Cannot see this one being an exception.
On behalf of we “old farts”….Preach, George!!!!