Brightline contractors have moved a construction crane into place alongside the train tracks near the 4th Street railroad crossing to prepare for the $1-million expansion of the South Canal Railroad Bridge.
The 250-ton Link-Belt 298 HSL crane sat next to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks between U.S. 1 and the Woodlawn Mobile Home Park earlier this month with its boom extending about 200 feet into the air.
It will be used for pile-driving operations to install a temporary work trestle alongside the existing railroad bridge, according to Brightline.
A new concrete bridge will be built next to the 125-foot-long, 16-foot-wide steel bridge to carry a second set of tracks, Brightline says. The project is expected to take eight months.
A dedicated observer will monitor the South Canal waters during the pile-driving operations to watch out for manatees, under the requirements of the project’s state environmental resource permit.
Work will cease immediately if construction activities appear to injure a manatee and won’t resume until Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission officers are consulted, the permit says.
Brightline rejected a request by the Indian River Farms Water Control District to raise the South Canal Railroad Bridge by 18 inches to prevent floating debris from getting caught on the span during heavy storms and creating a dam that could cause upstream flooding.
“We wanted them to elevate the bridge,” said Water Control District Superintendent David Gunter. “My concern mainly was with flooding caused by trash hanging up on the bridge.”
“In a 100-year storm, we’re going to have truckload after truckload of floating debris, tree, limbs,” Gunter said. “When they get to that bridge, the horizontal member is going to catch them and it’s going to start building top to bottom. Besides flooding upstream out, it’s going to wash the bridge out.”
Despite those arguments, St. John’s River Water Management District rejected the water control district’s administrative appeal contesting Brightline’s environmental resource permit on the grounds the bridge project didn’t meet drift clearance requirements.
The water control district’s three canals provide storm water drainage for 54,000 acres in southeastern Indian River County.
The South Canal Railroad Bridge is Brightline’s first major construction project in greater Vero Beach as part of the $2.7-billion extension of high-speed passenger rail tracks to Orlando from South Florida.
Brightline’s plans call for 34 passenger trains per day to traverse Indian River County at speeds reaching 110 mph starting in late 2022.
Brightline passenger service in South Florida stopped on March 25 to slow the spread of COVID-19, but construction on the Orlando extension continued.
Brightline anticipates building new concrete bridges alongside the 118-foot-long Main Canal Railroad Bridge and 100-foot-long North Canal Railroad Bridge in Vero Beach later this year. They will cost $1 million each.
Brightline is also spending $33 million to replace the 94-year-old St. Sebastian River Railroad Bridge linking northern Indian River and southern Brevard counties.
At the South Vero site, Brightline contractors working from the temporary trestle will install new concrete piles and pile caps west of the existing South Canal bridge. The new west bridge deck will be installed atop the new pile caps.
Once the trestle is removed, FECR trains will start using the new bridge. Next, the old bridge will be shut down so a new maintenance walkway can be installed.
Both bridges are expected to be operational by August.
Brightline built a second bed for the railroad tracks between the South Canal and the 4th Street railroad crossing in October. Brightline also installed new drainage culverts beneath the railroad tracks and dug a drainage pond alongside the tracks.