TITUSVILLE, Fla. — A project to make it easier for rockets to get to the Kennedy Space Center could disrupt boaters in Titusville.

Construction is underway on new NASA Causeway bridges that will connect Titusville to Merritt Island and the Kennedy Space Center.

The $126 million project will replace existing draw bridges over the Indian River Lagoon that were built in 1964.

Experts say the new fixed-span bridges are designed to improve transportation of oversized vehicles like rockets and payloads to get to launch sites at the spaceport.

North of the bridges, at Kennedy Point Marina in Titusville, Kevin Dumoulan is rebuilding docks that were destroyed during Hurricane Irma.

“We’ve been changing the marina over for the past two years to accommodate catamarans,” he said. “And that’s going to become a problem when the bridge is finished — because the catamarans are all 70 feet plus on their mast height, which is going to slow our business down a lot.”

Dumoulan said that to grow the marina business, more spaces are being built to accommodate larger catamarans, which have higher masts. He said he worries that masts that could get by the old draw bridges will be too tall for the fixed-span NASA Causeway bridges.

A Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson said the new bridges will provide a vertical clearance of 65 feet for vessels to pass under, which is similar to other bridges on the Indian River.

Dumoulan, though, said the standard should be taller than that.

“They should start making them higher with the boat traffic getting so much bigger,” he said.

FDOT officials say they looked at the types of vessels that used the draw bridges from 2015 through 2019 when coming up with their design for the new bridges.

The project is expected to be complete in 2025.