Another deadline gets away in replacement of N.C.'s Bonner Bridge

Another planning deadline has been missed in the replacement project for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, but bridge officials say the project is still on schedule.

"The let date has not changed," state Department of Transportation project manager Beth Smyre said Wednesday, referring to the construction contract for the new bridge to Hatteras Island.

Smyre said the completion date for the final environmental impact statement is delayed until August while information is await ed from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on threatened and endangered species.

Initially, the environmental statement was to be done by April, she said. The Record of Decision, which will finalize the bridge design to be built, also has been moved back. Rather than August, she said, the record is to be completed by late 2008.

"But the overall schedule hasn't changed," Smyre said. The bridge, planned on and off since 1991, is still expected to be open by 2013.

Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, said he is skeptical that the project is on schedule, considering the timetable has a series of seemingly interdependent deadlines.

"I'm gravely concerned," he said. "I don't see how it can be."

Although the DOT says the current bridge, the only land link to Hatteras Island, is regularly inspected and is safe, its low sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100 has made its replacement a matter of urgency to local officials and residents.

"It is absolutely an issue of public safety, health and welfare," Judge said. "We're not even getting into the whole economic impact. That's an encyclopedia of issues."

Repair of the concrete subcaps and pile jackets on the 45-year-old bridge were completed in May at a cost of $532,000, according to the DOT.

An extensive concrete repair project costing $15 million is expected to be done in November 2010. The contractor on that project is permitted to narrow or close lanes on the bridge in the summer only at night from Monday through Thursday.

Fender system repairs on the bridge have been delayed and may be postponed until spring of 2009. The work, which will replace the boat bumpers under the span, has no effect on the bridge's structural integrity.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com