A newcomer's guide to the Bonner Bridge controversy

Here is a edited summary from the story ...

A: It is located on the Outer Banks about a three-hour-plus drive from Raleigh. It goes over the Oregon Inlet, which is basically a hole in the Outer Banks between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound that was created by a hurricane nearly 170 years ago. When you drive over the Oregon Inlet on Highway 12, you’re going over the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge. It’s 50 years old, and the state wants to replace it. Here is a photo gallery of the bridge.

Q: Why is it so important?
A: The bridge is the only way by road between North Carolina’s mainland and Hatteras Island. Besides the thousands of people who live on Hatteras year-round, a couple of million tourists visit Hatteras and another island, Ocracoke, further south. Incidentally, one of the confusing things about this story is that when we think of islands, we usually think of round things surrounded by water. The barrier islands that make up the Outer Banks aren’t round. They are narrow and long strips of sand. Unless you really know the Outer Banks, trying to understand this story without a map and a lot of concentration is next to impossible. When I edit stories about storms and hurricanes that involve the Outer Banks, I have a fetish about over explaining the geography that occasionally drives reporters batty.

Q: Why hasn’t the bridge already been replaced? How did it get so old?
A: People have been talking about replacing the bridge since the mid-1970s. But there has been endless debate over how to do it.

Q: What are the options?
A: The state and, it seems, most people on the coast want to build a short, 2-3 mile parallel bridge near the old one. Environmental groups want a 17.5-mile bridge that basically would take Highway 12 from the north side of the Oregon Inlet, out into the Pamlico Sound and then curve it back onto Hatteras Island at Rodanthe.

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Q: What’s the latest on this?
A: Well, the controversy over the bridge flared up recently. A federal judge said the whole thing has been studied enough, and the short bridge over the inlet can be built. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has been challenging the short bridge, decided to appeal the decision.

Q: Was that all?
A: No. The appeal was filed in October. Then, at the end of November, inspections by state DOT crews showed some alarming things around the old bridge. Erosion had caused sand around support structures to be scoured away. The DOT closed the bridge on Dec. 3, and said it might be closed for 90 days while repairs took place.

Q: So the bridge is closed. What are Hatteras Island people doing?
A: The state has put on some emergency ferries from the island to the mainland, across the Pamlico Sound. But this is not a very convenient alternative to the Bonner Bridge, to put it mildly. And many Hatteras islanders are not putting it mildly. And politicians are helpfully suggesting that they direct their anger at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

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