BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Port Canaveral leaders are pushing the Florida Department of Transportation to get a $120 million bridge replacement project back on track after the agency put the project on hold this month.
The proposal to replace the State Road 401 drawbridge leading into the port has been years in the making. The current 25-foot bridge is considered old, small and obsolete.
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Dozens of times each day, the bridge has to open for nautical traffic to pass, port officials report, which stops vehicle traffic and threatens a breakdown.
“It’s a single point of failure for everything that happens on the north side of our port,” CEO Cpt. John Murray said during a press conference Wednesday.
Read: Project to replace Port Canaveral drawbridge placed on hold
Murray said the space industry flagged the project well after the public comment period ended, worrying that the planned fixed replacement bridge was too small at 65-foot clearance and would restrict rocket parts or boosters from being carried underneath.
Port officials said the space industry was focused on an issue that didn’t matter.
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“The ones that are landing the rocket vehicles in a vertical position which might require a drawbridge would never fit through the canal locks which are right behind the bridge,” Murray said. “The ones that, for example, SpaceX is using, they’re all 150 feet wide and the locks are only 90 feet wide.”
It’s not clear how long FDOT’s pause will last. The agency’s communications staff said they were gathering information in order to provide a statement or response to the port’s press conference.
Read: New cruise ship to start sailing from Port Canaveral this year
Murray said the State Road 528 widening project to bring more people to the port was also being delayed as a result of the pause.
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