Bridge or tunnel for commuter train in downtown Fort Lauderdale?

Written by jrood

Bridge or tunnel? The city of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., seems poised to plunge into another contentious debate over the best way to get people past a body of water, the Sun-Sentinel reports. A decade ago, the fight was over what to do with the 17th Street Causeway over the Intracoastal Waterway. Today, it's the Florida East Coast Railway and a proposed commuter train that needs to cross the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale without being held up by boats.

State officials have
proposed three options: A $53 million, 65-foot tall fixed bridge; a $66
million, 45-foot drawbridge; or a tunnel that could cost up to $530 million.

The existing railroad
drawbridge won’t work for passenger rail service because it stands open most of
the time so boats can pass underneath. It is lowered for about a dozen freight
trains a day. But the number of daily trains would double, even triple, with
the addition of passenger service.

Residents in high-rise
condo towers near the tracks say a high-level bridge would be an "ugly
eyesore" that would cut through the heart of the city. Boat owners argue
the fixed bridge could cut off ocean access to the tallest boats moored west of
the tracks or those that are serviced at boatyards and marinas along the South
Fork of the New River.

In March 2009, planners
surveyed boats along the New River between the Andrews Avenue drawbridge and
Interstate 95. They found the average height of the tallest sailboats was about
55 feet, with the tallest at 67 feet. A marine operator who works at River Bend
Marine Center told planners that at least two sailboats a month require a
vertical clearance between 80 feet and 85 feet. Occasionally, there is a boat
that reaches 95 feet in height. The taller boats time their trip at low tide so
they can pass comfortably under power lines that stretch 80 to 100 feet over
the river west of the tracks.

The marine operator said
the average height of boats he serves is 63.5 feet, an intentional design by
many sailboat manufacturers driven by the 65-foot clearance under fixed bridges
on the Intracoastal Waterway. The 17th Street drawbridge is 55 feet tall.

The proposed fixed bridge
over the New River would have to begin rising north of Davie Boulevard on the
south end and south of Sistrunk Boulevard on the north end to reach 65 feet
over the New River. Such long approaches are necessary to avoid closing streets
that would pass under the span, said Scott Seeburger, project manager of the
study for the Florida Department of Transportation.

The 45-foot tall
drawbridge would have the same start and end points as the 65-foot span. But it
would cost $66 million, the higher cost attributed to the drawbridge machinery.
It would not have to be opened as often as the existing drawbridge, which is
four feet above the water when lowered.

Two tunnel options would
bury the tracks under the river and downtown from Davie Boulevard to Sistrunk
Boulevard. One would use a "cut and cover" construction method and
build the tunnel in two phases over 23 months. Boats would be restricted to
half the channel during construction. It would cost between $325 million and
$335 million.

The other option would
bore under the channel and maintain existing boat traffic. But it would cost
$510 million to $530 million.

Any passenger rail
stations built in downtown Fort Lauderdale would be elevated if a bridge is
built or under ground if the tunnel is chosen.

A tunnel wouldn’t be
unprecedented in Florida, but it would add hundreds of millions to a project
estimated to cost more than $2 billion if officials chose to put a commuter
train on the FEC between Miami and Jupiter.

State officials also are
considering building a road for buses next to the tracks for exclusive use by
rapid transit buses. But analysis suggests rail is being favored over buses
because the company that owns the FEC opposes the construction of a busway next
to the tracks but doesn’t object to sharing the tracks with commuter trains.

Fort Lauderdale is home
to the state’s only public underwater tunnel – the Henry Kinney Tunnel on U.S.
1, which replaced a low-level drawbridge in 1960. A $1-billion tunnel is under
construction to connect Miami’s MacArthur Causeway to the Port of Miami.

Opponents back the idea of
commuter trains on the FEC, but argue that a tunnel is the best, less obtrusive
option to cross the New River.

"The illustrations
make the [FEC] bridge look very graceful in the artwork. We don’t believe the
final structure will look like the illustration at all," said Bob
Granatelli, a spokesman for five downtown condominium associations representing
1,000 homeowners. Residents fear the bridge and its approaches will look
similar to the 55-foot tall span that was built for Tri-Rail over the South
Fork of the New River. The bridge is just west of the I-95 bridges over the
river, which also are 55 feet tall. It begins rising where Davie Boulevard
crosses the tracks and ends at the State Road 84 overpass. Unlike the proposed
bridges for the FEC, the Tri-Rail bridge does not cross any streets.

"That is the type of
ugly, massive, intrusive, structure that will be built in our backyards,"
Granatelli said. "Many of us escaped the ‘El’ train running right past our
windows in New York City."

State officials say the
Tri-Rail bridge looks "bulkier" because it was built to handle both
freight and passenger trains. But CSX freight trains continue using the
existing drawbridge because the Jacksonville-based freight railroad objected to
the use of an additive that helps cure and strengthen concrete in the bridge
supports. The company apparently feared a repeat of the April 2004 bridge
collapse on a Tampa expressway.

Seeburger said the
planning is just beginning. More detailed analysis of the river crossing will
begin next year.

"Some have interpreted
our bridge drawings as creating a big wall.  Actually, the higher level
bridges would be built on columns, except at the ends where they come to the
ground," Seeburger said. "Look at the 17th Street Causeway. I’m sure
if you compared the initial renderings with what got built I’m sure they were
dramatically different. If we choose to do a bridge, this will go through that
same design process.

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