MELBOURNE, Fla. — A crash in Melbourne at a railway bridge this week not only put a big dent into a nearly 100-year-old piece of infrastructure, but also into the revenues of some local businesses. 

Melbourne Police cited the driver of a concrete pump truck with a criminal citation after he damaged the overpass of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway near downtown Melbourne on Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  • A concrete pump truck damaged a nearly 100-year-old railway bridge in downtown Melbourne

  • East Melbourne Avenue was closed and a detour put in place starting on Wednesday

  • Crews expect the biggest part of the repair to happen on Sunday morning

The crash bent the underside of the bridge and shifted the tracks above.

The mid-week incident came amid week nine of new food truck, Hog Snappers, setting up shop outside of Rigg’s Outpost. 

Co-owner Justin McIntyre said they missed seeing the wreck, but did catch part of the aftermath.

“It probably happened maybe 10 minutes before we got here. But we were here when the first train went by and he pulled the emergency brake and skidded the brakes and stuff like that,” McIntyre said.

The crash comes at a bad time for Rigg’s as well. Its owner, Anthony Marks, said that the weeks going into summer are their boom time, where they do quite a bit of business in rentals and sales. 

Because of the damage to the bridge, the road next to their businesses is closed for now and they aren’t seeing nearly as many people take the time to make the detour to their businesses.

“We were just coming around the corner to start to feel a little more comfortable about how we were financially, and this kind of put us right back to the second or third week when it was just real, real, real slow,” McIntyre said. 

According to FEC Railway officials at the bridge on Friday, they are planning to cut out the damaged part of the bridge on Sunday morning and replace it with a section of bridge that was brought up from Sebastian shortly after the crash.

A worker said they could make the swap since both pieces were constructed around the same time, in the mid-1920s.

Adjacent to this wreck is the work being doing by Brightline on its new railway. Spokesperson Katie Mitzner confirmed on Friday that their project was not affected by Wednesday’s crash. 

By February 2022, the bridge over Crane Creek will be completed and train traffic will shift to that rail. At that point, the nearly 100-year-old FEC Railway line will be decommissioned and eventually dismantled. 

A parallel Brightline track will be put up in its place, according to Mitzner.