Hearings nudge N.C. closer to new Bonner bridge

MANTEO, N.C.

Public hearings held last week offered small but necessary changes in the state's efforts to build a new bridge over Oregon Inlet, which was first planned 20 years ago.

At best, construction would start in two years on a new 2.7-mile-long Herbert C. Bonner Bridge just west of the current deteriorating structure at a cost of about $300 million. Completion is expected in 2015.

Among changes since an environmental impact statement was released two years ago:

- The new bridge would land just west of where the current bridge is. Earlier plans had the new bridge landing about where it does now, a configuration that would tie up traffic during construction.

- Plans to bridge parts of N.C. 12 near Rodanthe would now stay out of the historic district, which had been a sticking point with some local residents.

- A coastal monitoring program will keep watch on erosion and overwash on N.C. 12 between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe. Flexibility is the key to making improvements as needed, including short bridges over hot spots and beach nourishment. Among the most notorious hot spots is the S-curve at the Mirlo Beach area north of Rodanthe.

- An option to build a long bridge stretching 17 miles all the way to Rodanthe is eliminated because of its $1.3 billion price tag. Some environmental agencies and groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center, supported that option as the best for the coastal ecology. A spokesman for that group could not be reached Thursday.

"We can't afford it," said Drew Joyner, a public hearing officer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Opened in 1963, Bonner Bridge has been due for replacement for years and has been rated structurally deficient. The bridge is deemed safe for traffic, but the state is in the midst of shoring up parts of the old bridge.

"Public safety has to trump bureaucracy at some point," said Beth Midgett, chairwoman of the Citizens Action Committee to build Bonner Bridge.

The public hearings in Manteo and Buxton and an information open house in Rodanthe followed the May release of an environmental assessment, a months-long review of the plans and their consequences required by the federal government.

That requirement followed an environmental impact statement, a review that took years before it was released in 2008.

State and federal agencies, environmental groups and local citizen groups have all weighed in over the years.

In February, Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama asking for relief from federal agencies' intervention.

Public comments will be accepted until Aug. 9. A record of decision is expected at the end of this year.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com