Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

"Why They Were Changed" ...

I contacted Clairborne Young about ten years ago about this change and he put it in his book . In the ICW and the Banana River, center channel lights used to be located directly on the girder of the bridge. They were changed to the "swinging" type used on draw bridges in order to allow easy access from the bridge deck for maintenance. Unfortunately, these lights hang down into the "air space" in the channel and lower the actual clearance by one or two feet. On my Pearson 28-2 I had to avoid the light to clear the charted 43' bridge at Pineda Causeway becasue of the new lighting. No big government/greedy lawyer/left-wing conspiracy here Rich ... just someone working for FDOT in a little over their head trying to save the taxpayer a few bucks ... Enough folks must have hit the lights by now to have made an impression on the Tideboard Police

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