NASA needs to replace aging bridge to KSC

As soon as 2021, an aging drawbridge over the Indian River Lagoon that provides a critical link to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral could be unsafe for spacecraft and other heavy cargo to cross, a NASA engineering study has determined.

The 53-year-old Indian River Bridge connects State Road 405 in southern Titusville to the spaceport, the KSC Visitor Complex and fast-growing Exploration Park, where two commercial space firms are building major manufacturing centers.

NASA is seeking help from state and federal agencies on how to replace the bridge, including how to pay the potential cost in excess of $100 million, but expects no disruptions.

“At this time, it’s all hands on deck to figure out the best solution,” said Tom Engler, director of KSC’s Center Planning and Development Directorate. “We’re very confident that at some point we’re going to have a beautiful new bridge out there without impacting the operations that occur out here.”

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KSC Director Bob Cabana in December told Brevard County’s state legislative delegation that the bridge might present another opportunity for collaboration.

KSC months earlier reached out to the Florida Department of Transportation, Space Florida, Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization, Federal Highway Administration and General Services Administration to help assess its options.

The Indian River Bridge, also known as part of NASA Causeway West, offers the only route to launch pads for national security, science and commercial spacecraft processed at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, which supported at least five missions launched last year and seven the year before that. Roads to the north and south do not have enough clearance.

Astrotech’s parent company, Lockheed Martin, last year announced plans to expand the Titusville operation, adding as many as 300 jobs over four years with help from local and state economic development incentives.

“This bridge is important to us, our customers, and the greater infrastructure around Cape Canaveral,” said Mark Lewis, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. “We are glad that the right officials recognize the importance of keeping it safe and ready to use well into the future.”

The drawbridge also is the clearest path from the mainland to state-of-the-art new factories where Blue Origin will build New Glenn rockets and OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus Group, will build hundreds of communications satellites.

Opening next year in Exploration Park outside KSC’s south gate, the two facilities are expected to employ more than 500 people combined in the coming years.

“It affects the state’s ability to develop the spaceport,” Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida, which manages Exploration Park, said of the bridge. “So it’s a critical item. We need to solve it. But we are working on solutions, both interim as well as permanent.”

More than 13,000 people cross the Indian River Bridge each day, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, including KSC employees and tourists bound for the Visitor Complex operated by Delaware North, which welcomes more than a million guests annually.

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The bridge and State Road 405 also provide a hurricane evacuation route for northern Merritt Island.

The drawbridge structure today is safe for all traffic and undergoing months of maintenance that will require lane closures. KSC says the potential downgrade in 2021 would affect only payload transporters and heavy freight vehicles, not passenger cars and trucks.

NASA budgets anticipate starting to replace the westbound span in 2022, and the eastbound span in 2024.

But that could be too late, if the bridge deteriorates as quickly as KSC’s engineering study warned was possible.

NASA has started studying preliminary designs for a replacement — likely a high-rise causeway — and environmental studies will follow. Those will define the project’s final design and cost.

The fastest path to a replacement might require NASA to turn the bridge over to the state, but that decision may still be several years away.

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State support already has played an important role in KSC’s post-shuttle transition into a “multi-user” or “21st Century” spaceport supporting NASA, defense and commercial missions. Incentives and financing have helped modernize surplus launch pads, hangars and high bays, and attracted newcomers like Blue Origin and OneWeb.

Bridge studies will assess the potential economic harm if nothing were done and the bridge became unavailable for heavy loads for some period of time.

“We don’t need to have a suspect bridge as the main entryway into the space center to remain competitive worldwide,” said Bob Kamm, director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization. “We just can’t have that.”

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.