You probably can get rid of most of them. Just getting the track high enough so that you could easily clear most of the streets (16-6" should be consistent minimum) means going up something on the order of 22 to 30 feet. With that you should be in the order of 30 feet or more clear of the water. Put in a long bump to go up another 20 feet or so would be no big deal. Not a freight issue either, this would fall under the description of a momentum grade and barely slow the train down. Find out how much clearance the Coast Guard wants. Generally it will be on the order of 50 feet for all but ocean going ships. If some of these weekend Admirals want more than 50 feet clear for their yachts, they need to talk to the Coast Guard about it. You might be left with a couple of waterways where ocean going shipping clearance is required, but they would have to be opened much less often as the majority of water traffic could pass under the higher structure,
They'd transfer to a Lynx Express Bus at Orlando Airport station.
There is something much more spectacular being considered for the replacement of the bascule bridge on the FEC near the Brightline Fort Lauderdale Station...
Unless the commuter SunRail connection comes to be. It's been discussed, but if it happens, it probably won't be until the Disney extension is done, at the earliest. SunRail would share Brightline's ROW between the airport and the existing north-south SunRail line, which goes to the heart of downtown. That part of the proposed Brightline ROW is currently a freight ROW used by the Orlando Utility Commission.
What areas of the current route are being built single tracked? I had the impression that this would be double tracked all over. And regarding the area currently in operation Miami/Ft Lauderdale/West Palm, what is keeping the speed at 79mph? It didnt appear to be much different from the new area they are building to 110MPH speed spec and didn't know if it was track geometry or something else.
There are significant parts of the extension to Orlando that are single tracked, but will be double tracked as demand increases and they run more trains.
All of the upgraded line between WPB & Cocoa will be at least double-tracked. Most of the new construction between Cocoa & ORL is being built single track. Bridge abutments are being built to support double track, so when they decide to double-track those segments they'll just need to add a parallel span.
From studying Roaming Railfan's videos it seems it's not just the bridge spans that would have to be added for double track, but also the earthworks.
I read a handful of articles online mentioning that Brightline was requesting funds to upgrade their grade crossings to prevent further accidents. Would that potentially resolve the grade crossing protection requirement and leave the door open on eventually getting up to 110mph on that segment?
I think the problem is that most of the crossing accidents are not happening in the most densely populated areas, such as downtown Miami (where the line is already partially elevated) but are happening in low density car-dependent areas, where there is not really the same sort of economic case for elevation, due to the lower density of land utilization and value.
