Showing posts with label OBX news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OBX news. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
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.
...
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.
...
Story from News and Observer editors blog http://www.newsobserver.com
Monday, December 9, 2013
New Cell Tower - Southern Shores
Southern Shores Town Council unanimously approved the issuance of a Conditional Use Permit to AT&T for the construction of a flagpole cell tower. AT&T should have received a Building Permit from the Town to start construction. AT&T anticipates construction to start in March or April of 2014 and their objective is to be up and running by tourist season 2014.
OBX bridges
Dec 15
North Carolina transportation officials say the Bonner Bridge on the Outer Banks could re-open next week if dredged sand placed around exposed pilings compacts well.
The transportation department said crews performed underwater sonar surveys and divers examined part of the bridge Wednesday.
Dare County Commissioner Allen Burrus said the initial indications from the review were better than expected.
Transportation district engineer Jerry Jennings says the bridge could reopen next week or as late as March.
The bridge was closed Dec. 3 because sand was washing away from the bridge supports. A dredge dug 30,000 cubic yards of sand over the weekend from the Oregon Inlet channel and put it around pilings.
An emergency ferry route was set up between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point, a 17-mile trip that takes more than two hours.
The state last week gave Carolina Bridge Company of Orangeburg, South Carolina a $1.6 million contract to place layers of interlocking jacks and sand bags on both sides of part of the bridge. The contract requires the work to be done in 90 days.
Dec 4th
Herbert C. Bonner Bridge - update
Two days of dredging from the Oregon Inlet navigation channel to an area under the Bonner Bridge has wrapped up, but it will be several days before the N.C. Department of Transportation knows if the span is any closer to reopening to traffic.
The dredge Alaska, which has been digging out the chronically clogged channel since early November, spent Saturday and Sunday moving sand from near Bodie Island spit to an area where sand surrounding a set of pilings had washed away, forcing the state to shut down the 50-year-old bridge a week ago ... more here
Dec 3rd
Closing of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.
Access to Hattaras Island is limited to ferry's from Stumpy point. This time the access is not due to a bad storm but instead Oregan Inlet currents have damaged the footing of 10 pilings, at the south end of the bridge and left nine of them anchored in less than 20 feet of sand, the minimum level considered structurally safe. The bridge was closed Tuesday Dec 3rd.
North Carolina transportation officials say the Bonner Bridge on the Outer Banks could re-open next week if dredged sand placed around exposed pilings compacts well.
The transportation department said crews performed underwater sonar surveys and divers examined part of the bridge Wednesday.
Dare County Commissioner Allen Burrus said the initial indications from the review were better than expected.
Transportation district engineer Jerry Jennings says the bridge could reopen next week or as late as March.
The bridge was closed Dec. 3 because sand was washing away from the bridge supports. A dredge dug 30,000 cubic yards of sand over the weekend from the Oregon Inlet channel and put it around pilings.
An emergency ferry route was set up between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point, a 17-mile trip that takes more than two hours.
The state last week gave Carolina Bridge Company of Orangeburg, South Carolina a $1.6 million contract to place layers of interlocking jacks and sand bags on both sides of part of the bridge. The contract requires the work to be done in 90 days.
Dec 4th
Herbert C. Bonner Bridge - update
Two days of dredging from the Oregon Inlet navigation channel to an area under the Bonner Bridge has wrapped up, but it will be several days before the N.C. Department of Transportation knows if the span is any closer to reopening to traffic.
The dredge Alaska, which has been digging out the chronically clogged channel since early November, spent Saturday and Sunday moving sand from near Bodie Island spit to an area where sand surrounding a set of pilings had washed away, forcing the state to shut down the 50-year-old bridge a week ago ... more here
Dec 3rd
Closing of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.
Access to Hattaras Island is limited to ferry's from Stumpy point. This time the access is not due to a bad storm but instead Oregan Inlet currents have damaged the footing of 10 pilings, at the south end of the bridge and left nine of them anchored in less than 20 feet of sand, the minimum level considered structurally safe. The bridge was closed Tuesday Dec 3rd.
Wright Memorial Bridge - lane closure continue
Work on a project to improve the ride across the Wright Memorial Bridge has resulted in the closing of the westbound span for up to eight months. The project will replace the top of the existing concrete on the bridge deck with a layer of latex-modified concrete that will smooth out humps and provide a better ride.
The Mid Currituck Bridge?? http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/tourist-traffic-highlights-need-nc-bridge
Saturday Summer traffic to the Outer Banks routinely backs up more than 15 miles on U.S. 158. With 50,000 vehicles each Saturday in July/Aug this causes frustration with tourists and restricts what owners can do at the weekends. "By the time people get to the beach, they are so angry, and they're taking it out on our staff at the visitor center," O'Neal said. "It's horrible." The North Carolina Board of Transportation approved a funding formula that ranks projects by how they score in categories such as cost, saved travel time, congestion relief, safety and economic benefits. Local support and funding could be additional factors. So, maybe the bridge project might get a decent ranking and become funded. We can hope !
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