USCG ISSUES SCHEDULE FOR ST. LUCIE RIVER RAILROAD BRIDGE

By Ed Killer for CAM

In the tale of King Solomon, two women were battling over which was the rightful mother of a baby. Solomon, in his infinite wisdom and with the impartial fairness of a judge, offered to split the baby down the middle, giving each woman half.

Realizing how silly this was, one woman quickly gave up her claim, not wanting the baby to be harmed. She would rather the baby go to the other woman than see it hurt in any way.

Seeing this, Solomon rewarded her with the baby, recognizing she was the woman who truly had motherly instincts.

A similar occurrence happened June 8 in Stuart. The U.S. Coast Guard announced a temporary schedule deviation to the railroad drawbridge over the St. Lucie River. It basically split the time open with the time closed at 30 minutes each.

Here are the highlights of what the USCG published June 8 in the Federal Register:

- Bridge will open at 15 minutes and 45 minutes after the hour. Boats will be allowed to clear, but bridge will start closing after 15 minutes.

- Railroad bridge owner must provide a bridge tender, a mobile app and a logbook

- Once trains pass, the bridge must go back to open position

The boating community could not be described as happy, but they accepted the compromise.

“While the best-case scenario would be no trains and no closures, the test deviation is better than what I’ve come to expect from the Coast Guard and Brightline. I’ve said from the outset that the bare minimum our community should accept is 50/50 - equal time for boats and trains - and this proposal meets that requirement,” Mast said in a statement to CAM.

The train companies, however, are less than happy. Reportedly, FEC Railway, the freight carrier, and Brightline, the passenger carrier, had requested the bridge be down for 45 minutes every hour. The companies project 32 passenger trains and 15 freight trains a day. Mast had calculated that would amount to 9-10 hours per day of the bridge being down, restricting boat traffic.

A train company spokesperson said the train companies will not comply with the USCG request. The spokesperson also said the train companies will not be providing a bridge tender before the passenger train service begins in September.

“The temporary deviation issued by the Coast Guard was done unilaterally and without authority or regard for due process. As written, it is deeply flawed and will result in dramatic impacts to local traffic, create safety issues for the public, and is impossible for freight and passenger railroad operations to comply. We will continue to pursue reasonable and equitable resolutions to the issue of bridge operations and simultaneously continue to encourage progress toward the ultimate solution which is the development of a new bridge and a Treasure Coast Brightline station,” read a joint statement from Brightline and FEC Railway sent Thursday to CAM.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in May against the USCG, Army Corps of Engineers and FEC Railway were relieved to see the bridge schedule, which is not ideal, but workable, for their purposes.

The U.S. Coast Guard Seventh District in Miami seeks public comment on or before August 4, 2023 at the Federal Decision Making Portal at https://www.regulations.gov.