CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT GUIDE • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • April 20, 2022 • Page 33
$2.7B Brightline Plan Includes New Rail Bridge in Jupiter, Fla. A modern railroad drawbridge is planned to be erected soon spanning the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter, Fla., for Brightline, the company currently building a high-speed rail line to run between Miami and Orlando International Airport. The drawbridge’s construction is to begin April 10, and when work is finished on placing its components in late May, a critical piece of Brightline’s $2.7 billion Orlando expansion will be completed, the company said in an April 5 press release. The new structure will replace the current drawbridge, built in 1926, and provide improved reliability and efficiency to the crossing, which carries trains across a popular navigation channel in Palm Beach County. An Important Brightline Crossing Point As one of two movable bridge structures on Brightline’s Orlando expansion project, the Jupiter drawbridge is a key connection between south Florida and central Florida. Due to the type of construction work and necessary safety precautions, installation of the new drawbridge will require a temporary closure of the river channel, located just west of the Atlantic Ocean, and limiting boats
from traveling freely between the river and to prepare it for high-speed passenger rail. finished by the end of 2022, the company the Jupiter Inlet and Intracoastal Waterway This new structure is another important told the Palm Beach Post, with passenger rail over a seven-week period in April and May. example of the significant investment service projected to start in early 2023. In addition, Brightline also is rehabbing Brightline is making to improve Florida’s the entire 583-ft.-long Loxahatchee River transportation infrastructure.” Bridge Components to Be bridge with full replacement of its Floated to Work Site electrical system and operating Building the new Loxahatchee machinery as well as installing a River drawbridge will require multiple second track. barges and cranes in the navigation Once the bridge is completed, channel, Brightline said in its release. boaters will see the benefits it is “The Loxahatchee River bridge Plans call for the structure’s pieces to designed to provide, Brightline be loaded onto barges and floated into noted in its release, including represents one of the more place, blocking the waterway from improved dependability of bridge boat traffic. openings and closings, and added complex construction projects At the beginning and end of the 52clearance for small watercraft. For along our Orlando extension.” day project, no boat traffic will be instance, at its south end, the bridge allowed to pass, and freight traffic will is to get a new small-craft navigabe briefly suspended. During the sixtion span that will increase its verMichael Cegelis week work period in between, the temtical clearance by 14 ft. and allow porary span for the railroad bridge will Brightline more vessels to pass without the be lifted out twice daily to accommoneed to open the drawbridge. date the busy waterway and let boats “The Loxahatchee River bridge pass. represents one of the more comBrightline’s bridge work is being plex construction projects along coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard our Orlando extension,” explained Michael Scott Bridge Company, headquartered in (USCG), the Jupiter Inlet District, the Cegelis, executive vice president of Rail Opelika, Ala., was selected as the contractor Florida East Coast Railway, and local Infrastructure and Development for for the drawbridge replacement project. municipalities. The clearance improvement Brightline. “Considerable work was Brightline’s expansion of higher speed project also is made in collaboration with the required on the nearly 100-year-old structure trains between Miami and Orlando will be Jupiter Inlet District.
