Three RR Bridges in Florida Draw 3000 Comments
As described in Jim Flannery’s article below in Soundings Trade Only Today, the USCG got more than they bargained for when they requested comments on three railway bridges, see /?p=145271
Florida boaters flood Coast Guard with comments on bridge openings
Posted on January 7th, 2015
Written by Jim Flannery
The Coast Guard gathered around 3,000 comments in hearings in November about the navigation needs of mariners at three railroad drawbridges that run over the New River in Fort Lauderdale, the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter and the St. Lucie River in Stuart, according to Barry Dragon, chief of bridge administration for the Seventh Coast Guard District.
Half to two-thirds of those comments registered concern with the All Aboard Florida high-speed passenger service proposed for the 128.5-mile Florida East Coast Railroad corridor from Miami to Cocoa and a new 40-mile east-west rail corridor on state-owned right-of-way from Cocoa to Orlando. But Dragon said that wasn’t the hearings’ purpose. The purpose was to gather information on how mariners use those waterways and what their `reasonable navigation needs’ at the bridges are ‘” today.
`The hardest part was getting mariners to tell me what their needs are, not what they think about All Aboard Florida,’ Dragon said.
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Comments from Cruisers (1)
I attended and spoke at the USCG hearings in Stuart re: St. Lucie River RR Bridge closings issue.
While the USCG did state that they have no jurisdiction over the railroad, and therefore cannot take a position on the viability (or not) of All Aboard Florida’s (AAF) attempt to add 32 highs speed trains per day to the tracks between Miami and Orlando, USCG did say they are responsible and have jurisdiction over the waterways in so far as safe navigation is concerned. They can (and did in CT at the CT River Amtrak bridge in the 80’s) limit the closing of RR bridges if they interfere with the safe passage of vessels.
The proposed AAG 32 high speed trains between Miami and Orlando would increase the “bridge close time” to a total of 75 minutes every hour (greater than one hour for those not mathematically inclined) which represents not only a navigation safety issue, but is in actuality a “BLOCKADE”.
To be successful with the USCG in this matter, we must focus on what the USCG can affect, which is the impact of the bridge closings on safe navigation of the waterways.
Capt. Ken Wright, North Palm Beach, Florida