Brightline to close road in Melbourne, Fla. through June 2022 for rail bridge construction work

Brightline

Brightline is moving forward with major construction that will leave a road in Melbourne, Fla. closed for a year.

E. Melbourne Ave. in downtown Melbourne will close for one year to allow Brightline to complete work on the Crane Creek bridge project. The section of E. Melbourne Ave. under the Florida East Coast Railroad bridge will be closed from east of Henley Ct. to west of Brecht Ct. beginning at 7 a.m., Monday, June 28, 2021 and will remain closed until June 2022. The work is part of Brightline’s Orlando extension project, connecting South Florida to Orlando International Airport with high-speed rail.

Local businesses on E. Melbourne Ave. west of the work area will maintain local business access only off the section of E. Melbourne Ave. between E. Melbourne Ct. and Henley Ct. All other eastbound traffic will be detoured up E. Melbourne Ct., to E. New Haven Ave. while E. Melbourne Ave. is closed. Brightline began construction to replace and double track the Crane Creek bridge in 2020. Over the next year, Brightline will continue work on the new east bridge, which is expected to be completed in early 2022. At that time, trains will be switched from the old bridge to the new east bridge. The old bridge will then be demolished and a new bridge constructed in the footprint of the old main track.

Brightline’s work will include the following improvements for traffic on E. Melbourne Ave. and for watercraft on Crane Creek:

• The bridge span over E. Melbourne Avenue will increase vertical clearance by 11 inches.
• The clear waterway openings between the supports on Crane Creek will increase from 45 feet to 65 feet.
• In two of the bridge spans, to serve as navigation channels, the vertical clearance for boats under the bridge will increase by approximately one foot. For the remaining in-water spans, the vertical clearance will decrease by approximately 21 inches.

Detailed closure and detour information can be found below and on the Brightline website.Motorists and boaters should proceed with extra caution through work zones and adhere to posted detour signs, speed limits and other signage.