The $24-million overpass being constructed on Pineda Causeway west of U.S. 1 – originally planned as a state requirement for the four-lane artery – has evolved into a safe way to cross railroad tracks that will soon see 32 trains per day running at speeds up to 110 miles per hour.
Florida Department of Transportation didn’t know all the details a decade ago about All Aboard Florida and the Brightline passenger trains, not to mention a now-expected increase in freight trains, when planning the Pineda extension back to the interstate.
Had the bridge not been already in the works and starting construction with about two years left to build, the expected increased rail traffic could have caused major problems, especially around a storm event. The causeway which crosses the tracks serves as a hurricane evacuation route for beachsiders on Merritt Island, South Patrick Shores, Satellite Beach and other areas.
“The benefit of the overpass is even greater than before considering the future increase in passenger and freight traffic,’’ said Georganna Gillette, executive director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization (TPO). Pineda has one of the highest automobile traffic levels of all the grade crossings in Brevard, she said.
Proposed in 1969 to help ease heavy traffic from Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Air Force Base, the Pineda Causeway was completed at a cost of about $7.7 million. It was opened as a toll road in 1971 and classified as a state road two years later. It was named after Pineda, a former village east of Suntree on U.S. 1. The tolls were removed in 1990. The causeway, or State Route 404, became an official hurricane evacuation route in 2011. The bridge will be named for Major General John R.D. Cleland, a resident of Indian River Colony Club who passed away in 2017 at the age of 92. Traffic counts in the section of the road between Wickham Road and U.S. 1 where the bridge is to be built averaged 33,120 cars a day in 2017, she said.
“The causeways in Brevard are extremely important for hurricane evacuation and to get the necessary resources back to the barrier islands after the storm has passed,’’ Gillette said.
“Once the (Pineda railroad) overpass is open, there are convenience and safety aspects that will greatly benefit the motoring public, which will no longer be stopping at the railroad crossing. (It will also become) a more convenient evacuation route for folks on Beachside if and when evacuations become necessary,’’ said county spokesman Don Walker. The bridge will cost about $24 million with county staff having oversight of the project, Walker said.
The Pineda Causeway extension west to the I-95 interchange, completed in 2011, added nearly two miles to the 7-mile causeway, enabling it to become a key hurricane evacuation route. The causeway ends just west of I-95, but plans call for the road to connect eventually to Stadium Parkway in Viera.
