The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management has objected to the proposed Wilmington Harbor project, concluding that a federal study of the plan is too scant on details and that, as presented, deepening and widening the channel would have “significant adverse impacts to coastal resources.”

The Army Corps of Engineers’ review lacks an evaluation of PFAS in the sediment in the lower Cape Fear River, fails to adequately assess cumulative flooding impacts or thoroughly detail areas where dredged material would be placed, and does not sufficiently account for potential effects on fisheries habitat, freshwater wetlands, shorelines, or state, historic and other properties along the river, the division concluded.

The draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, the Corps released last September also falls short in analyzing the project’s economic benefits and evaluating “potential economic losses associated with environmental degradation,” Division of Coastal Management Director Tancred Miller wrote to the Corps’ Wilmington District in a 15-page letter dated Feb. 24.

A Corps spokesman, in a statement Wednesday, called the state’s objection “disappointing” and highlighted what the Corps describes as offering “numerous opportunities” to engage with the public and work with state and federal agencies.

The Corps “felt we had been working hand in hand with all our State and Federal partners and resource agencies since we began coordination regarding this project nearly 3.5 years ago,” Jed Cayton, a public affairs specialist with Wilmington District, said in an email. “Given all the integration and engagement throughout this process, the objection provided at this late stage in the process is disconcerting.”

The Corps and North Carolina State Ports Authority are reviewing the division’s letter “to determine how we will proceed,” Cayton said. “Since we are very early in this review, we cannot yet give a specific date for completion.”

The Corps may pause the project and work with the state to try and resolve the state’s concerns or initiate a formal dispute resolution process.

The division’s objection comes a little more than a month after the division granted the Corps’ request to pause its review of whether the proposed project was consistent with state coastal management program laws, regulations and policies.

Miller wrote that, during that pause, the division “detailed its concerns along with possible paths forward to address the information deficiencies.”

On Feb. 16, the Corps asked the division in an email to resume its review of the project, one that has been highly scrutinized for its potential effects to the environment, shorelines and historic and culturally significant areas along the shores of the lower Cape Fear River.

“Our objection was based on a combination of lack of sufficient information to determine the impacts from PFAS and flooding and anticipated significant adverse impacts to fisheries resources, wildlife habitat and cultural and historic resources,” Miller told the Coastal Resources Commission during its meeting Wednesday in Atlantic Beach.

In his letter, Miller wrote that the lack of information regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances was “of particular concern.”

“The DEIS does not evaluate the potential for contaminant resuspension during dredging and the resulting fate and transport of these chemicals into nearby water bodies and land areas,” the letter states. “This is of particular concern since extensive scientific research has documented the presence and persistence of PFAS over the past decade within the [Cape Fear River Basin], including a growing body of research indicating significant negative ecological implications of PFAS in fish, birds, and reptiles.”

The proposal calls for extending the entrance of the federal navigation channel farther offshore, deepening the channel by 5 feet and widening portions of it from the mouth of the Cape Fear River more than 25 miles to the Wilmington port.

The ports authority says the project is needed to accommodate larger ships, which will attract more import and export business to the port, ease shipping congestion on the East Coast and keep the state’s ports competitive.

But opponents of the proposed project argue it will accelerate erosion and exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, disperse PFAS in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches, is not economically justified, and threatens historic and cultural resources along the river.

One such historic site is Orton, a privately owned property that spans some 14,000 acres off the lower Cape Fear River’s western bank in Brunswick County and that includes a former plantation.

Orton owner Louis Bacon has spent millions restoring an expansive rice field system and earthen dike that enslaved Africans built more than two centuries ago to protect the rice fields from the river.

In a statement to Coastal Review on Wednesday, Bacon said the Division of Coastal Management’s objection to the proposed harbor project, “is proof that facts and persistence matter.”

“My concern has always been simple: this project, as proposed, puts undue and unacceptable risk on important historical and ecological sites,” Bacon stated. “The corps has not provided the analysis or safeguards the law requires. At Orton, dredging so close to a 250-year-old earthen dike creates a very real risk of catastrophic failure according to two separate expert firms – collapsing and flooding 350 acres of freshwater rice fields and exceptional wetlands with Atlantic saltwater, thereby eradicating the legacy of enslaved African Americans who built these systems over centuries, a monument to their efforts that I have spent years restoring.

“My objection is rooted in the fact that the project cannot be considered ‘consistent’ with North Carolina’s coastal protections if it causes this much damage,” he continued. “Large infrastructure decisions must be grounded in rigorous scientific evaluations, transparent disclosure, and enforceable protections, because these valuable resources cannot be rebuilt once lost.”

Several towns in Brunswick and New Hanover counties have adopted resolutions urging state and federal agencies to protect a series of islands within the lower Cape Fear River that support 30% of the state’s coastal shorebird population. Those towns have also asked for the creation of a comprehensive, long-term, and fully funded environmental and adaptive management plan to cover costs related to monitoring and mitigation to prevent and repair environmental harm.

Last month, the Wilmington City Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for state and federal decision makers to further review the proposed project.

In his letter, Miller noted that an overwhelming majority of the written comments the division received last year regarding the proposed project opposed it. And everyone who spoke at a public hearing the division hosted in downtown Wilmington last November opposed the project.

Kerri Allen, coastal management program director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, was one of the 72 people who expressed their concerns about the proposed project at that meeting.

“I’m encouraged to see DCM thoughtfully consider the many strong public comments submitted on this project,” Allen said in an email on Wednesday. “The level of engagement from coastal residents, local leaders, and partners shows how much people care, and it matters when that input is reflected in decisions. Our public trust waters belong to everyone, and transparent review like this helps lead to better, more resilient outcomes for our coast.”

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Ramona McGee echoed similar sentiments in a release Wednesday.

“This decision is welcome news for the people of Wilmington and beyond who cherish the lower Cape Fear River and its surrounding natural areas,” McGee stated. “This $1.3 billion project would put at risk the communities and wildlife that call this region home by exacerbating flooding, destroying habitat, and damaging wetlands. The Lower Cape Fear is already threatened by sea-level rise and industrial pollution – we shouldn’t be further damaging this special place with an unnecessary and costly project.”

The Army Corps of Engineers wants more time to mull over concerns that have been brought up on the proposed project to deepen and widen portions of the Wilmington Harbor channel.

The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management announced late Tuesday afternoon it had granted the Corps’ request, indefinitely pausing the division’s review of whether the proposed project is consistent with state coastal management program laws, regulations and policies.

“The decision to pause allows time for the Corps to review and consider issues raised by DCM and the public before DCM completes its review,” according to a release. “A timeline has not been established for when the pause may be lifted.”

The pause follows a series of deadline extensions that have been made in recent weeks on the proposed project, one that is being highly scrutinized for its potential effects to the environment, shorelines and treasure of historic and culturally significant areas along the shores of the lower Cape Fear River.

The N.C. State Ports Authority says the project designed to accommodate larger ships would attract more import and export business to the port, ease shipping congestion on the East Coast, and keep the state’s ports competitive. The proposal calls for deepening the harbor channel by 5 feet and widening portions of it from the mouth of the Cape Fear River to the Wilmington port.

In late December, the division announced that the Corps’ Wilmington District was giving the division more time to complete its review of the federal determination, pushing its deadline from Jan. 5 to Jan. 19.

The Corps requested the pause on Jan. 16, just days after state fisheries and wildlife resources officials sent the division memorandums saying those agencies continue to have concerns about impacts to fish and wildlife resources within the proposed project area.

A Corps spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by deadline for this report.

In its Jan. 14 memorandum to the Division of Coastal Management, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries reiterated its concerns about the proposed project’s effects on habitat essential to fish in the river, wetlands connected to the river, and the overall water quality in the river.

Deepening and widening the harbor as planned “will have significant adverse impacts to fisheries resources due to the permanent loss of state-designated nursery and anadromous fish spawning areas along the Cape Fear River estuary and its tributaries,” the memorandum states.

“There is also potential for significant adverse impacts to wetlands, (submerged aquatic vegetation), shellfish resources, and water column habitat due to insufficient mitigation plans and uncertain impacts associated with the proposed actions that are not adequately discussed,” in the federal letter report and draft environmental impact statement of the Wilmington Harbor 403 navigation project released in September. The figure 403 refers to the relevant section of the Water Resources Development Act.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission officials raised similar worries, stating in a Jan. 15 memorandum to DCM that while it had been involved throughout the project’s development process, “our agency still has concerns regarding impacts the proposal will have on wildlife resources in the project area.”

“These comments include concerns regarding the proposal’s direct impacts to wildlife habitats, whether impacts to these habitats have been adequately assessed, inadequacies of mitigation proposals, the need to consult appropriate agencies prior to moving forward with the proposal, and the subsequent impacts to wildlife and their habitats (particularly nesting waterbirds and shorelines) from larger and increased vessel use.”

A number of towns in Brunswick and New Hanover counties have adopted resolutions urging state and federal agencies to protect a series of islands within the lower Cape Fear River that support 30% of the state’s coastal shorebird population.

Those towns are also calling for the creation of a comprehensive, long-term, and fully funded environmental and adaptive management plan to cover costs related to monitoring and mitigation to prevent and repair environmental harm.

A Corps official earlier this month confirmed to Coastal Review that the agency was implementing a programmatic agreement with the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, the General Services Administration, the state Ports Authority, “and possibly the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation” to review historic and culturally significant areas along the river that may be impacted by the proposed project.

The agreement must be signed before the agency finalizes project plans, which would occur after the Corps releases its final environmental impact statement.

The final environmental impact statement is expected to be released sometime this summer, according to a tentative timeline released by the Corps. It is unclear how the Corps’ request of the state to pause its review may affect that projected timeline.

Once the review process resumes, DCM must decide whether to concur with or object the Corps’ determination.

“If DCM objects, it can offer alternatives or conditions that, if agreed to by the Corps, would allow the project to proceed,” according to the division.

Construction on the proposed project would begin no earlier than 2030 and take about six years to complete, a schedule Corps officials have said is optimistic.

WILMINGTON — Deepening the Wilmington Harbor would disperse PFAS now mingling in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches, accelerate erosion, exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, and is not economically justified, area residents said during a state-hosted public hearing.

Many who spoke at the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s hearing in downtown Wilmington Monday night argued that the federal draft environmental statement released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this fall fails to fully examine potential impacts associated with the proposed project.

The draft study examines different alternatives for the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s aim to accommodate larger container ships at the Wilmington port.

The preferred alternative selected in the study calls for deepening the harbor from 42 to 47 feet, widening the channel in multiple areas, and extending the ocean entrance to the river. These changes would accommodate vessels that can carry 14,000 20-by-8-foot shipping containers, ports officials say.

But several of the nearly 20 people who spoke argued that the proposed project would not benefit the local economy, and its environmental harms would drastically overwhelm any associated economic benefits. About 70 people attended the hearing.

“This project is a poor economic decision given the massive cost compared to the miniscule benefits,” said Jessica Hardee, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The cost of deepening the harbor and the channel is projected to be over $1 billion. However, the only noted benefit of this project are cost savings to international shipping companies who use the port, not North Carolina or local communities. This project provides little benefit to the Wilmington area and North Carolinians while also threatening significant damage to the coastal region.”

One striking absence from the study is how churning up and moving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the sediment of the lower Cape Fear River might affect the environment, animals that rely on that environment, and human health, some speakers said.

“Even though we all know that there’s PFAS in the sediment of the river, the Corps says we can’t consider that because it’s not a regulated chemical,” said Wilmington resident and geologist Roger Shew.

But PFAS, or similar chemical compounds of which there are more than 14,000 used to make a host of consumer goods from food containers to stain-resistant clothing and carpet, will be regulated by the time the channel would be deepened in the early to mid-2030s, he said.

“And since 15 million of the 35 million cubic yards of dredge material will be used as beneficial placement in marshes on our area beaches, we should know the content of that sediment and potential impacts with sediment placement,” Shew said. “A core function of an (environmental impact statement) is consideration of potential harm. Therefore, they should and must include PFAS in the study.”

A study published late last month found concentrations of 56 PFAS in blood samples obtained from 119 Wilmington residents between 2010 and 2016.

Two chemical compounds – TFA and PFMOAA – were the dominant PFAS in the samples, “despite their likely short half-lives in the human body,” according to the study.

TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid, and PFMOAA, or perfluoro-2-methoxyacetic acid, are ultrashort-chain PFAS, which are the smallest type of PFAS and hardest to remove from drinking water sources.

The blood samples examined in the study were obtained before the public was made aware in 2017 that an upstream industrial facility had been discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands, since the 1980s.

“While current TFA and PFMOAA levels have likely decreased substantially from those in the historical blood serum samples evaluated here as a result of mandated discharge controls at the upstream fluorochemical manufacturer, this study, along with other recent studies, highlights the importance ultrashort-chain PFAS can play in determining the overall human PFAS burden,” the study states.

Wilmington resident Kaiti Sheehan said the fact that PFAS is not considered in the draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, “is a slap in the face to residents who are paying for a $42 million granulated active-carbon filtration system and still facing the health consequences that have come from 40 years of contamination from our upstream bad actor.”

“I do genuinely hope that you will look and you will see how much the community has come out tonight in recognition that this is bad for Wilmington and this is bad for North Carolina,” she said.

Others raised concerns about how deepening the harbor to allow for larger ships to travel the 28 miles upriver to the port would increase erosion on the string of bird islands that pepper the lower Cape Fear River and the riverbanks themselves.

The Cape Fear River supports almost 30% of the state’s nesting American oystercatchers.

Audubon North Carolina’s Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist, said she and her staff are on the Cape Fear River two to three days a week between March and August and at least once during each of the other months of the year.

“We have seen progressively the impacts of the larger and larger classes of ships coming up the river,” she said. “We saw larger, more severe wakes. The DEIS does not take this into account. The Corps, in its beneficial use plan, talks about maybe putting sediment on 2 miles of the shoreline.”

Birds nest on high-tide lines, Addison said. Waves created by a large ship’s wake push water “like a tsunami” over nests and sweep nests away.

“There is no model in the DEIS that accounts for this,” Addison said. “There is no data collection in the DEIS that accounts for this. In fact, there’s no new data collection in the DEIS. They’re relying on data that was already collected. They told us in the stakeholder meeting, flat out, that they’re not going to collected new data so impacts to the migratory birds in the DEIS are not taken into account.”

Officials with the Division of Coastal Management, which is under the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, announced Monday night that the public comment period on the draft study has been extended from Dec. 5 to Dec. 20.

Written comments may be mailed to Federal Consistency Coordinator, 400 Commerce Ave., Morehead City, NC  28557, or emailed to Federalconsistencycomments@deq.nc.gov with “Federal Consistency: USACE Wilmington Harbor 403 Navigation Project” in the subject line.

More information on the proposed project is on the Corps’ website.

Precariously perched as a narrow strand protruding into the stormy Atlantic Ocean, Ocracoke Island and its vulnerable highway have been a longtime headache for coastal scientists and road engineers.

Worsening erosion, flooding and storm damage exacerbated by climate change have heightened the urgency for the year-round community: What can be done to save their beloved island?

Researchers met with islanders Sept. 10 at the Ocracoke Community Center to present a study that modeled what the island’s future may hold under different scenarios, from the status quo to new efforts at beach nourishment and bridging.

The bottom line is that the very road itself, along with ongoing attempts to block the ocean’s advance with dunes and stabilize the roadbed with sandbags, has instead resulted in the narrow, low landscape that is currently so under threat by natural forces.

“The heart of the challenge is that the storm events we need to protect roads and buildings from would actually otherwise provide a lifeline for barrier islands in the face of rising sea levels,” Laura Moore, professor and associate chair of research with University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said in an interview before the meeting. “It’s an extremely difficult reality, but unfortunately, the more successful we are in preventing storm impacts, the more quickly we’re managing the barrier islands out from under us.”

Accessible only by ferries, private boats and small planes, Ocracoke Island, most of which is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, depends on a single, highly vulnerable highway stretching about 13 miles from the ferry dock on the north end of the island to the village.

The road, N.C. Highway 12,  has been protected by oceanside sandbags for years along one section about 5 miles from the northern ferry terminal known as the South Dock because of the link to Hatteras Island. But not only are the sand barriers unable to withstand the overwash during storms — the road was impassible and closed for several days after Hurricane Erin in August — the stacking lanes by the ferry dock have also suffered severe erosion.

“It’s very threatened,” Moore told Coastal Review. “I mean, we spend so much time thinking about the road, and yet (potential loss) at that terminal is a storm away, maybe two.”

The multiyear study, led by the UNC Chapel Hill researchers as part of a team that also included scientists from N.C. State University, Duke University and East Carolina University, as well as representatives from the N.C. Department of Transportation, the National Park Service, Hyde County and Tideland Electric Member Corp., is intended to provide information based on scientific modeling, and does not make recommendations or propose solutions.

“What we were charged with was to consider how different management strategies might influence the future landscape,” Moore said. “So, we have looked at different management strategies under different sea level rise scenarios, and we are able to say something about how the different strategies will likely influence Island width and island elevation and the persistence of the island in the future.”

In other words, as Moore explained, the study did not set out to design and test strategies; it instead modeled, which is essentially, “if you do ‘X’, this is what is likely to happen.”

“We’re really looking at relative differences between the management strategies in terms of their effects on the island,” she said.

Moore said that researchers studied current coastal conditions and processes and worked off data and prior research provided in the N.C. 12 Task Force report and NCDOT feasibility studies for guidance as the team developed the strategies to be reviewed: the status quo, i.e., dune road and/or sandbag rebuilding and maintenance; beach nourishment, i.e., widen or nourish the eroding shoreline with sand pumped from stored dredged material or offshore deposits; or road alternatives, i.e., relocate the ferry dock(s), which would eliminate the need to maintain hot spots on N.C. 12,  or build a bridge or causeway to Hatteras Island.

What the modeling revealed is that under the status quo, the island would continue to narrow until, within years or decades, it would become impossible to maintain the transportation corridor. With use of beach nourishment, there would be short-term improvement for 10 to 20 years. But elevating or bridging the road would help to rebuild the landscape.

It’s the first time that the coastal scientists have been able to customize a barrier island model that includes all these processes for a particular location, Moore said, as well as conduct hindcast to calibrate that model.

“Not only are we supporting the local community and the stakeholders … we’re also supporting the scientific community and barrier island communities more broadly because what we’re learning also advances the science so that we can do even better next time,” she said.” It’s really been a beautiful next step to both be coproducing the science in a way that contributes to the local conversation and also contributes to the scientific advancements so that other communities throughout the world on barrier islands can also learn from one another.”

The Ocracoke erosion and road problem has been the target of much study by several iterations of an N.C. Task Force, a multiagency panel of coastal scientists and engineers and government officials that focused on seven vulnerable areas — the “hot spots” — all but one on Hatteras Island. The most recent group was established by the Dare County Board of Commissioners in 2021, with a report released in 2023.

Back in 1972, renowned University of Virginia coastal scientist Robert Dolan, who died in 2016 at age 87, warned in a study published in the journal Science about the consequences of development on the Outer Banks.

“Barrier dune development has been encouraged by man along the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stabilize the barrier islands,” according to the study abstract. “This modification of a delicately balanced natural system is leading to severe adjustments in both geological and ecological processes.”

Dolan, who was credited with being the first scientist to determine that the Outer Banks, rather than being anchored to coral reefs, was instead a 30-foot-deep shifting “ribbon of sand,” later elaborated, saying that the islands’ dune system “may be detrimental to the long-range stability of the barriers and may become more difficult and costly to manage than the original natural system.”

While other coastal scientists have built on Dolan’s research, including Moore, it is undeniable that the complex tension between natural forces and humanity’s need to control them where they live is becoming more difficult in places like Ocracoke.

“And so, the only reason the barrier islands exist in the first place is because of these processes that move sand from the front to the island interior,” Moore said. “That’s what formed these islands, right? And so now that things are changing more rapidly, we’re just really getting pinched in a way that we haven’t seen before.”

In simple terms, barrier islands are built higher and broader by overwash and wind carrying sand over the land. Where the ocean is battering away at the shoreline, the swath of land from the ocean to the sound side collects the sand, unless it’s blocked.

“We are understandably wanting to protect road and roads and infrastructure,” she said. “It makes perfect sense from that perspective, to build a dune to protect the road.”

As sea levels are getting higher, and storms intensify, the battering is more powerful. “And if we don’t allow the island elevation to build up, it will eventually become fragmented and drown in these areas,” Moore said. “So we’re kind of fighting a losing battle, unfortunately.”

Sea levels have been rising ever since the islands formed, she added. But it’s now rising much faster. Between the year 2000 and 2050, seas have been expected to rise 12 inches, a rate Moore called “very significant.”

“It’s so unfortunate, but if we can’t quickly slow the rate of sea level rise, we’re definitely going to have to find different ways to live at the coast,” she said. “In the case of barrier islands, if we want them to persist, we need to find a way to allow them to shift underneath us or accept that we may lose the ability to live on them at all.”

Still, with adjustments, there is hope, Moore said. Citing the 2.4-mile Rodanthe “jug handle” Bridge” and, farther north, the 2,350-foot-long Richard Etheridge Bridge as examples, she said sand will rebuild the island and the shoreline when the natural processes are allowed to happen.

The main goal of the research is to provide the scientific models of several scenarios so the community can work with partners in planning their island’s future.

“It’s really an opportunity to be an incredible example and posterchild leading the way for coastal communities broadly, because they are at the forefront,” Moore said.

Naturally, islanders can see that conditions are changing, and something has to be done, said Randal Mathews, chair of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners and an Ocracoke resident. For the time being, he said, the consensus seems to be to do beach nourishment.

“Well, it’s going to buy some time, because there’s no long-term plan, and there’s no real good short-term plan.”

What could be a reasonable solution, he said, is to “harden” the area with a jetty by the South Dock Ferry Terminal.

What the island folks don’t want to do is move the ferry terminal toward the Pony Pens in the middle of the island, as has been proposed in the recent past.

“They did a survey, and it was 90% of the people don’t want to move south and don’t want to lose access from Hatteras, because they know, like after Dorian, that’s what it was like here, logistically,” he said. “We were dying.”

Mathews said he is truly grateful for Moore’s and her research team’s work, and islanders are listening. But meanwhile, Ocracoke can’t withstand repeated hits to its economy, and the ferry system and road access are major concerns. And he knows that they need political support and funding.

“You know, in the big picture, there’s a lot of moving parts that we have to address, we have to come up with these short-term solutions,” he said. “And we’ve got to  go to Raleigh, and we’ve got to go begging, you know, and that that’s how it works.”

Marvin Nelson routinely takes the state commuter ferry across the Neuse River with whatever scrap metal he’s gathered up to cash in at the recycling center closest to his Arapahoe home.

The 72-year-old hops the Cherry Branch-Minnesott ferry, a roughly 15-minute ride one-way, once or twice a day to get to Foss Recycling in Havelock.

For Nelson, scrapping is a source of income, wages he says will take a hit if he can no longer take the ferry for free.

That’s a prospect he faces after the North Carolina Senate last week approved its proposed $66 million budget, one that includes tacking on tolls for all North Carolina Department of Transportation ferry routes and raising rates at those where tolls already exist.

“That has got people around here all shook up,” Nelson said.

And it has drawn the immediate rebuke of local government officials representing the areas in which these ferries are operated.

“We here consider (the ferry) incorporated into the taxes that we have already paid every single year,” said Pamlico County Commissioner Ken Heath. “That’s the way it’s been since the early ’70s is that our tax money has gone to support all the highways in North Carolina, including our highway that stretches across the river, which is exactly what the ferry is. It’s our highway. We see that as a shared cost across the state.”

But some lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Vickie Sawyer of Mooresville, argue that the revenue the additional tolls would generate is needed to bolster state transportation department funds.

“In an era when we are fighting for every dollar we can for all types of transportation, collecting revenue from tourists using our ferries is a logical step,” Sawyer, co-chair of the Senate appropriations committee for transportation, told the Raleigh News & Observer last week.

And while well over half of Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry riders are tourists, locals depend on ferry service to access things like medical specialists and other services not available on Ocracoke, island resident Randal Mathews said.

The Hyde County commissioner was riding the Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry, returning from a dental appointment, when he was reached by telephone last Wednesday.

“It’s typical of what people of Ocracoke have to do,” he said. “We have to travel. I ride (this ferry) all the time. We can’t pay $40 round-trip for every trip to Hatteras.”

In a text he sent Coastal Review the day following the telephone interview, Mathews reiterated that ferry tolls “will create hardship for all residents.”

“I’m afraid the vendor that removes our solid waste will not serve us after a toll is added,” he said. “Any politician who supports tolling to Ocracoke is making a terrible mistake and is certainly not interested in economic development in eastern North Carolina.”

Under the Senate proposal, vehicles less than 20 feet long would be charged $20. The toll for larger vehicles would be $40 and passengers would be charged $1.

NCDOT would charge vehicles that provide commercial goods and services an annual fee of $150, which would cover priority boarding. Commuters would be charged the same $150 annual fee for a commuter boarding pass. “Only one annual pass per vehicle shall be issued per year,” the budget states.

That would apply to all four car ferries that are currently free, including the Cherry Branch-Minnesott and Aurora-Bayview ferries, whose users are largely commuters — workers at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and employees of the Nutrien phosphate mine in Aurora.

“We have one ferry that goes from Pamlico to Craven (counties) and it’s used by a lot of people who work at Cherry Point, which is obviously a major employer of our county and so, without question, we are not in favor of tolls on the ferry,” Craven County Commissioner Chair Denny Bucher said. “Our DOT highways, the people don’t pay to ride on the highways, except for one spot in the Raleigh area, but they don’t pay to drive on highways and I don’t think they should have to pay to cross a river that happens to be between them and their employment.”

Vehicles 20 feet and under would be charged $5 to ride the Cherry Branch-Minnesott ferry. The price would double for vehicles greater than 20 feet.

The toll for the Aurora-Bayview ferry across the Pamlico River would be slightly less, with vehicles 20 feet or less paying $3, and those over 20 feet paying $6. Passenger riders would be charged $1.

Riders of the now-free-of-charge Currituck-Knotts Island ferry across the Currituck Sound would be charged $3 for vehicles 20 feet or shorter and double that for longer vehicles. Passengers would be a $1 toll.

Fees would double for riders of the Ocracoke Express, the passenger-only ferry, to $15 per person, and for riders of the Cedar Island-Ocracoke and Swan Quarter-Ocracoke ferries across the Pamlico Sound to $30 for vehicles 20 feet and under and $60 for those over 20 feet. Passengers would be charged $2.

Those who pay a vehicle toll would not be required to pay separate passenger tolls for occupants of that vehicle.

The Senate also proposes increasing tolls on the ferry that runs between Fort Fisher and Southport across the Cape Fear River to $10 for vehicles 20 or less, $20 for longer vehicles, and $2 for passengers.

History repeating

Heath said that, though he was led to believe the issue of ferry tolls would not be forthcoming this year, he is not surprised.

Tolling all ferry systems has been an on-again, off-again discussion stretching back to 2011. Since then, including the latest round of ferry toll talks in 2023, local outcry has halted further implementation of toll fees.

“Our population is nowhere near that of Goldsboro-west, and those areas can attract industry due to the large population,” Heath said. “We’re very sparse here so you’re penalizing us and what little bit of economic positives come out of the ferry. There’s a slight attraction for people to come ride, but it’s minor. For our area, tolls will kill that. It’s a negative for us all the way around. Everybody is pulling together and digging in to fight this till it’s taken off.”

Rep. Keith Kidwell, the Republican representing District 79, which includes Pamlico, Hyde, Beaufort and Dare counties, said in an email that he will fight ferry tolls.

“I will again work against ferry tolls,” he said. “Unless of course they want to toll all bridges that cross water in NC.”

Rep. John Torbett, a Republican from Gaston County, also spoke in opposition of the proposed tolls.

“Dear Eastern and all NC friends. Once again the Senate Transportation leaders intend to toll all ferries,” he recently posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “This will cost North Carolinians who have to use the ferries to go to school, work, doctor, pretty much anywhere. The revenue/tax/user fee is not enough to cover much of anything, and it is not worth it for North Carolinians. Standard revenue sources are enough to cover cost.”

Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico and also a representative of Carteret, Chowan, Dare, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Washington counties, co-sponsored the budget bill. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, voted against the budget. He did not respond to a request for comment.

“An important link’

A 2020 analysis by North Carolina State University’s Institute for Transportation Research and Education found that North Carolina’s ferry system facilitates more than $735 million in gross business sales and generates more than $32 million in tax revenue.

The ferry system also provides to passengers vehicle cost savings of $18.1 million, $13.9 million in travel time benefits, and $8.3 million in safety benefits, according to the report.

“Furthermore, based on responses collected by the research team, the N.C. Ferry system is an important link connecting residents to work, medical, school, shopping and other destinations on the coast. Ultimately, the N.C. Ferry System is a source of job creation, local revenue and tax creation that benefits the coast and the state. It provides economic and quality-of-life benefits for its ferry passengers accessing communities along the state’s extensive coastline.”

Ferry tolls would “take a lot out of my profit,” Nelson said. Driving his old pickup truck on the all-road alternative route would cost him more gas and time.

“Good gracious in the morning, it would take me half-an-hour to go around to Havelock,” he said.

DUCK — Fifty years after the need for a bridge between mainland Currituck County and its barrier island beaches was first identified, and 30 years after a draft planning document for the proposed mid-Currituck bridge was first released, a recent public meeting revealed that the same issues are still being vigorously debated, costs have skyrocketed, and funding is still lacking.

Even with the green light in 2019 to finally begin the permitting process, the project continues to face considerable hurdles, including stark disagreement in the communities the bridge would connect.

Attendees at a recent hearing in Duck told state officials the bridge was needed to relieve the bumper-to-bumper traffic that clogs the only thoroughfare to the Currituck Outer Banks.

“Residents are literally trapped in their homes,” a woman from Southern Shores, a northern Dare County town, told state officials during the March 18 hearing held by the state Division of Coastal Management. “This is not just an annoyance. This is a safety risk. Getting people evacuated would be virtually impossible.”

The bridge project has received wide support from Dare and Currituck counties and most Dare towns.

But those who live in Currituck County communities on either side of the bridge — Corolla and Carova at the beach and Aydlett on the mainland — lamented the impacts of even more traffic on their neighborhoods’ infrastructure, environment and quality of life.

“Yes, we have a traffic problem,” commented Corolla resident Barbara Marzetti, a co-founder of the citizens group No Mid-Currituck Bridge, or NoMC, during the Duck meeting.

The bridge would make the situation worse, she added. If the bridge is built, the people will come. And then more people will come.

“It’ll bring more development,” Marzetti said. “Right now, we have an environmental disaster with the water and septic issues.”

Marzetti, who is also president of the Corolla Civic Association, said North Carolina’s northernmost barrier island communities can’t take “dumping all those people here.”

“We’re already overtaxed in terms of infrastructure here,” she told Coastal Review in a later interview. “There will be day trippers up the gazoo.”

Another public hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for 5-7 p.m. April 16 at the Currituck Extension Center, 120 Community Way in Barco, on the mainland side.

Although folks on the mainland are also worried about increased traffic, the Currituck Outer Banks is a more fragile environment that is home to a national wildlife refuge and wild mustangs. Even though the northern Outer Banks are less exposed than the southern communities on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, the area is still vulnerable to intense tropical weather and coastal storms.

According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the proposed bridge is needed to provide an additional hurricane evacuation route to meet the state standards of 18 hours to evacuate an area. Once built, the bridge would offer a 40-mile shortcut to travelers, saving as much as two hours one-way during peak tourism months.

In 2022, the Currituck County Department of Travel and Tourism estimated that 500,000 travelers visited the county during the 10-week peak summer travel season each year. It would be a good bet that nearly all are heading to the Outer Banks, where they’ll end up on N.C. Highway 12 — also called Duck Road along this stretch — and likely stuck in gridlock.

NCDOT data shows the average summer weekend traffic in 2017 on two-lane N.C. 12 in Southern Shores was 22,236 vehicles. More recent DOT traffic counts were not readily available.

The proposed project includes a 4.66-mile-long bridge across Currituck Sound and a 1.5-mile-long bridge across Maple Swamp on the mainland side in Aydlett, about 25 miles south of the Virginia state line. On the Outer Banks side, the bridge would tie-in at Corolla, a popular upscale resort community renowned for its shopping, big houses, wide beaches and charming historic village. Just to its north, 11 miles of unpaved sand roads wind through the tiny community of Carova, where the wild mustangs famously roam free.

Currituck County records show 57 applications in Carova for new single-family dwellings since January 2015.

Although Currituck County Planning Director Bill Newns said he didn’t have the exact percentage of buildout in the completely off-road beach community, there were originally thousands of large lots, but there had been no new real subdivisions.

“Pretty much, it’s all been platted out … some of that stuff goes back to the ’90s, ’80s, and before then,  that were already platted out,” he told Coastal Review.

“Typically, all those roads are private,” Newns said, “The county doesn’t have control of them.”

Longtime Carova resident Jay Laughmiller, who owns a water-treatment business and is also the volunteer fire chief, said he has seen firsthand the wear and tear on the community from the thousands of summer visitors. He fears that the “already controlled chaos” would be exacerbated by the bridge.

“It would not be good for the area,” he told Coastal Review. “Yes, it would grow the economy, because it would bring more people here. But the infrastructure itself can’t handle too much more.”

In the last decade or so, Currituck County has successfully marketed tourism by featuring captivating photographs of the horses frolicking on Carova’s wide-open beaches. Consequently, wild horse tours are one of the most popular attractions for visitors. Tourists and property owners are also allowed to drive on beach corridors and the unpaved roads, which has inevitably created conflicts and hazards for both horses and people.

With Carova’s beaches becoming parking lots every summer, the county in recent years instituted a permit system to control the beach traffic.

Impacts from the crowds are seen not just in rutted roads or damaged dunes; the volume and intensity of such growth is overwhelming the environmental balance.

Unlike neighboring Corolla, Carova has no stores, restaurants, public water, visitor facilities or wastewater systems. But it does have numerous single-family homes, most small and modest but with a few of 20 or more bedrooms.

Laughmiller said that septic systems and water from private wells, both subject to state regulations, are increasingly being compromised. Local rules allow placement of wells on a site to be determined after, rather than before, the house and septic, he said. Although septic must be at least 50 feet from the well, he said, leaving the well selection last can limit the quality of the well water.

“There’s no aquifers  there — it’s all groundwater,” Laughmiller said.

Sometimes the water is too salty or has high levels of arsenic, iron, tannin or other unwanted stuff, or is stinky from sulfides, Laughmiller said.  But current regulations, he said, look only at certain levels of bacteria before permitting a well.

Climate change effects such as rain deluges and drought, as well as increased impermeable surface coverage resulting from development, make it harder to cope with the challenges. Already, floodwater has to be pumped off the roads after big storms. Without improvements, Laughmiller said, problems with septic intrusions into well water “is only going to worsen.”

Currituck Sound is also vulnerable to climate impacts.

Julie Youngman, attorney for the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center, speaking at the Duck hearing, said the proposed bridge location crosses environmentally sensitive areas.

“I tell you, the ends of the bridge are going to be under water because of sea level rise before they find the money to pay for it,” she said.

The law center has represented the No Mid-Currituck Bridge group in an unsuccessful federal lawsuit challenging the bridge construction. The court ruled last year that the NCDOT had followed the law in issuing its 2019 record of decision, but the legal group is keeping its eye on the project during the permitting process.

In 2012, the project was estimated to cost $660 million, and somehow went down to $489 million in 2018, then to as low as $440 million, until soaring up to its current estimate of $1 billion.

Private-public partnerships, managed by the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, part of the state Department of Transportation that manages toll roads, have been on, then off, then on again, with unconfirmed speculation that a proposed toll would be about $50 round trip.

Youngman, who noted that her family had long vacationed on the northern Outer Banks, said that there are other less expensive and less environmentally damaging alternatives that NCDOT has not pursued, including construction of a flyway at the intersection of the U.S. Highway 158 Bypass and N.C. 12 in Southern Shores.

Logen Hodges, director of marketing and communications at the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, said the latest finance plan had not been finalized, but it is likely to include federal and state funds and toll-backed debt.

After applying for a competitive $425 million federal grant to fund some bridge costs, the agency was informed last October that it was not chosen for the award.

“The team is still evaluating all potential funding sources to deliver the project,” he responded in an email. “The toll revenue projections will be updated over the course of the next year with updated traffic and revenue forecasts. That analysis would also inform potential toll rates. Actual toll rates would not be set until much closer to the project opening.”

Comparative analysis is ongoing to evaluate whether to deliver the project as a “a traditional toll project,” or as a public-private-partnership toll project, he said.

The Albemarle Rural Planning Organization in August 2024 gave its approval to the Turnpike Authority and NCDOT to continue development of a potential private-public partnership, which was initially authorized only from 2009 to 2014.

In addition to a Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, permit, various other permits are required, including from the state Division of Water Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard.

“We will be in a better position to provide an updated project schedule after all environmental permits are received,” Hodges wrote. He added that all right of way parcels have not yet been purchased.

Newns, Currituck’s planning director, said the county has not yet done a detailed plan to address the projected boom in growth if the bridge is actually built. And after hearing talk about it since the 1980s, he wasn’t going to speculate on the chances of construction.

“I don’t have an idea, because every time you think you’re a little closer to it, it takes a step back,” Newns said. “So yeah, I couldn’t honestly answer that question.”

Sandy Cross, senior planner for Duck, recently brought Coastal Review with her as she walked along the edge of Currituck Sound, where a project to make the Dare County town more resilient was completed in May.

Cross excitedly pointed out signs of continuing progress at the site.

“See this little grass right here? This is a black needle rush or Juncus roemerianus,” she said, growing more excited as the stroll continued another 10 to 15 yards farther along the shoreline.

“Wait a minute. See this grass that looks kind of like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree?” she asked. “That’s called Spartina cynosuroides, which is a coastal wetland species. We did not plant that.”

The project funded with local, state and federal money also elevated a portion of N.C. Highway 12 to reduce flooding, and it restored native marsh to protect the shoreline and improve natural habitat.

In October, the American Planning Association recognized the project, honoring the town with its Marvin Collins Planning Award in Sustainability and Resilience.

The award-winning projects and programs were selected for their “high quality, originality, and innovation, as well as a degree of transferability,” according to the association. “They are also impactful, in that they address a known community need and position the community for a stronger, more equitable future.”

Most vulnerable infrastructure

N.C. 12 is the only road that connects Duck to the rest of Dare County to the south and Corolla village in Currituck County to the north. At the north end of Duck’s business district, the highway was prone to flooding. When the wind was strong enough for long enough, revetment rocks that were placed alongside the road were lifted from their bed and strewn across the highway.

“For anyone that’s been in Duck any length of time, they know that a good southwest wind will inundate the roadway,” Cross said.

Town officials knew well that the quarter-mile stretch of the road was at risk. A 2019 Western Carolina University vulnerability assessment, “indicated that this section of roadway was the most vulnerable infrastructure we had in the in the town,” Cross said.

The project cost a little more than $4.3 million, which was mostly paid for with grants, although the town did contribute $398,500 of its own. Construction began in October 2023 and took six months to complete.

Sills were installed to protect a new living shoreline. Marsh grasses were planted after the invasive phragmites reeds that had taken over the nearshore were removed. The small riprap rocks were replaced by Class III Armor Stone, revetment stones that weight more than a ton each and should withstand even the strongest winds and waves.

The roadbed was raised 2.5 feet and a new sidewalk was built, all with resilience features.

“They put in strips,” Cross said of the design, “intended as a small stormwater mechanism. They’re probably about 2 feet deep, and at the base there’s some filter cloth, and then there’s a rock bed, and then there’s bio-retention soil.” 

There is also a wild grass planted between the road and the sidewalk— liriope.

In the past the town had used little bluestem between the highway and sidewalk, but Cross really wanted to find a grass that would work better as a barrier.

“They (little bluestem) get really tall, and they get really floppy when they get wet,” she said.

Liriope is a flowering grass that Cross said, “is probably the only plant that can survive the soot and the very small space in which it has to survive.”

Duck has created a series of vision documents beginning in 2009 with its “2022 Vision” that describes the town as “a pedestrian first community that is safe and easy to navigate by walking and cycling.”

That same document stressed environmental stewardship with an emphasis on living shorelines for protection on the sound side of the village.

Phase 4 of the sidewalk project was to be at the north end of the business district, and plans called for a living shoreline to create additional defense from soundside flooding.

Standing at the south end of the project area, Cross explained how the project went from an ambitious but relatively limited shoreline plan to an award-winning project, a process kickstarted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We were going put in a sidewalk, and we were going to put in a living shoreline. That was all scheduled to begin in 2019,” she said. “Then FEMA came out with their Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities grant program and there was a huge pot of money for resilience projects.”

With possibility of funding for raising the road in conjunction with the living shoreline and sidewalk project, the town paused to “apply for this BRIC grant to raise the road and then really make it a resilience project,” Cross recalled.

The state, Cross said, said the project was a good candidate for funding but advised the town to hold off on the sidewalk and living shoreline components.

“You need to encompass it all in order to really fare well in the scoring of the grant,” she said. “So we started the grant process with BRIC in 2020. Fast-forward to 2024, when we actually saw the money for the grant.”

The roughly $1.9 million appeared to be enough to raise the roadbed and replace the riprap.

“Then COVID happened,” Cross said. “Everything you thought was going to cost one thing ended up costing double that. We were able to apply to the Department of Emergency Management with the state for some additional funding. We ended up getting an additional $1.5 million and change to offset some of the increase in cost of the project.”

There were other grants as well, including the $398,500 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the living shoreline, $148,000 from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau for the sidewalk, and an additional $20,000 grant from the Community Conservation Assistance Program administered through the soil and water districts by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Division of Soil and Water Conservation.

Ricky Wiatt, senior landscape architect with environmental and government consulting firm VHB, which has long worked with the town, wrote on the company’s blog that the project, “was not merely a one-and-done solution but rather a dynamic and layered approach designed to adapt and thrive in the face of ongoing challenges. By embracing the principles of resiliency and incorporating diverse strategies, the Town of Duck is not only safeguarding its infrastructure but also fostering a more sustainable and vibrant community for generations to come.”

For Cross, however, although construction has been completed, there is still work to be done.

“We do expect this to be a case study. That’s one of the things I am continually telling people, and one of the reasons why I want to get some monitoring program together,” she said. “This is all fine and dandy, but if we don’t have a way to track it when it’s done, then what have we done it for?”

Bald Head Island ferry passengers may likely see a change to the ferry schedule later this year, but not one that would bump hourly departures to every 90 minutes.

Groups representing ferry passengers have reached a settlement with Bald Head Island Transportation Inc. to operate on a hybrid schedule, one where ferries would continue 30-minute runs between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., shift to a 45-minute schedule at midday, and then resume half-hour departures at 6 p.m.

Additional runs would be made on weekends between Memorial Day through Labor Day, peak tourism season on the North Carolina coast.

Related: Bald Head Island ferry users say change would cut capacity

The proposal was submitted to the North Carolina Utilities Commission earlier this month with a request that the commission expedite a decision on the revised schedule. The contractor ferry schedule will not change. A system would be put in place to identify when contractor-class ticketholders are eligible to ride a passenger ferry.

If approved, the schedule would become effective Nov. 1.

The settlement, announced Sept. 13, temporarily cools months of pushback on the private transportation company’s initial revised schedule, which company President Chad Paul said would help improve on-time performance.

Paul explained in a presentation to Village of Bald Head Island Council earlier this year that increased demand for passenger ferry and tram service had resulted in ferry run delays.

In its Feb. 19 application to the utilities commission, the transportation company said its annual ridership between the mainland terminal at Deep Point Marina in Southport to the island has jumped from 570,000 in 2010 to 700,000 by 2019.

Last year, a record 782,000 passengers took the ferry. More than 3 million pounds of baggage were loaded by hand aboard ferries each year since 2021 and, last year, more than 4,500 larger items including bicycles, kayaks, canoes and “large luggage items” were transported, according to the application.

But several people who spoke during a hearing the utilities commission hosted last month in Bolivia argued that shifting to a 90-minute schedule would disrupt ferry runs that coincide with start and end times of the only school on the island, increase commute times for workers going to and from the island, and force businesses on the island to shrink their hours of operation.

The village, Bald Head Island Club, Bald Head Association and Bald Head Academy intervened in the transportation company’s application to the utilities commission.

“While each generally agreed that the proposed schedule would improve on time performance by allowing the ferry more time to onload passengers and luggage, traverse the river, and offload passengers and luggage, each also wanted to understand the impacts of reduced ferry capacity due to fewer ferry runs,” a Sept. 13 village release states.

Those groups, referred to as “intervenors,” acknowledge recent changes, including an electronic ticketing system and luggage limits, have improved on-time performance and reduced the numbers of passengers getting bumped to the next available ferry when a ferry is full, according to the release.

The intervenors and transportation company have agreed to set a one-year trial period in which ferries would operate on the hybrid schedule.

After that year is up, the company “has committed to making additional changes” if there are significant capacity issues caused as a result of the revised schedule, the release states.

Under the agreement, the transportation company will axe its current midday lunch break and establish a reservation system for island employees and contractors who ride the ferry reserved for contractors, the goal of which would be to implement by Jan. 31, 2025. The company and intervenors will also hold biannual reviews of the revised schedule.

Bald Head Island Transportation has agreed to track data on the hybrid schedule, file quarterly reports containing specifics from that data to the utilities commission, and hold public meetings reporting that data.

In his testimony to the utilities commission on the settlement, village Mayor Pro Tem Scott Gardner stated that the intervenors “remain concerned” that the hybrid schedule “may not adequately satisfy demand during certain periods of high use” between April 1 through to the week of Memorial Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend through to Labor Day weekend, and the week after Labor Day weekend through Oct. 31.

The transportation company, with input from the intervenors, will consider whether to ask the utilities commission to approve any additional changes to the schedule as needed, according to information filed with the commission.

The settlement agreement also asks the utilities commission to cancel an expert witness hearing originally scheduled for early November in Raleigh.

BOLIVIA – A request to bump Bald Head Island ferry hourly departures to every 90 minutes got a verbal thumbs down from nearly everyone who spoke at a state-hosted public hearing Tuesday night.

The schedule change proposed by the private company, Bald Head Island Transportation Inc., would disrupt ferry runs that coincide with start and end times of the only school on the island, increase commute times for workers going to and from the island, and force businesses on the island to shrink their hours of operation, opponents of the change argued.

A handful of those who spoke at Tuesday’s hearing the North Carolina Utilities Commission held in Brunswick County Courthouse Courtroom 2 said they did, however, favor a hybrid schedule that has been floated around, but not submitted to the commission for consideration.

Elizabeth Stephen, a 30-year Bald Head property owner and 8-year full-time resident, said she was 100% in favor of the hybrid schedule, one that purportedly would begin and end departures to and from the island on the current 30-minute schedule and shift to a 45-minute schedule midday.

Stephen was among roughly 30 people scattered throughout the courtroom where utilities Commissioner Karen Kemerait, who headed the hearing, sat at the front of the room in the seat typically reserved for a judge.

Those who signed up to speak at the hearing were sworn in before taking a seat in the courtroom witness box, where they were allowed to give no more than a 3-minute-long statement and answer questions of commission members and attorneys representing various groups that have intervened in the application review process.

Bald Head resident Jesse Hermann, one of nearly a dozen people to speak at the hearing, said the proposed schedule change would be, simply put, a reduction in capacity.

“The ferries are going to get more crowded as you reduce the schedule,” he said.

The impact to people who frequently travel on and off the island would be akin to shutting down a heavily used commuter thoroughfare to every other hour of the day, a move that would substantially increase the amount of time a person commutes, Hermann argued.

He suggested the ferry service might be able to turn to making procedural changes, including finding more efficient ways to load and unload passengers and their luggage, and add more trams to shuttle passengers and their luggage to and from the ferry landing on the island.

Island property owner Trisha Johnson hopped a flight from her hometown of Athens, Georgia, to speak at the hearing, where she said the proposed “schedule change” is, in her estimation, a capacity reduction.

“The capacity of the ferry is not sufficient and reducing it is not going to solve the problem,” she said.

Nicola Cutler, a teacher at Bald Head Island Academy, a private K-8 school that first opened its doors in 2022, said the proposed schedule was unrealistic because the ferry run times would not align with the start or end of the school day.

“This schedule does not fit into our school schedule whatsoever,” she said.

“Numerous” students ride the ferry to get to and from school, Cutler said, adding that about 20% of those students have parents who work on the island.

The academy, Bald Head Island Academy Foundation Inc., Village of Bald Head Island, Bald Head Island Clu,b and Bald Head Association all intervened in the transportation company’s Feb. 19 application to the utilities commission.

A 90-minute passenger ferry schedule would not provide “enough capacity to meet the island’s current and growing needs,” Village Mayor Peter Quinn wrote in an announcement last week about the public hearing.

In a presentation to the village council earlier this year, Bald Head Island Transportation President Chad Paul said increased demand for passenger ferry and tram service has caused a lapse in on-time performance.

“The issue for the schedule is not just the ferries, it’s the trams,” he said at that February meeting. “We’ve got 350 more homes built since 2010.”

That was the first full year of ferry operations from the mainland terminal at Deep Point Marina in Southport to the island, when annual round-trip ridership was 570,000, according to the company’s application.

That number jumped to 700,000 in 2019. Last year, a record 782,000 passengers took the ferry.

More than 3 million pounds of baggage has been loaded and unloaded by hand aboard ferries each year since 2021 and, last year, more than 4,500 larger items that do not fit in dollies, including bicycles, kayaks, canoes and “large luggage items” were transported, according to the application.

About 85% of ticket buyers since June 2023 have purchased electronic tickets either online or through the transportation company’s mobile app, Paul told council members earlier this year.

While that has helped passengers see which ferries are already sold out and which ones are available for booking, it has not curtailed a “capacity issue” that caught the company off guard, he said.

“It kind of eased up on us and kind of hit us all at once,” when the company started selling passes to some of the larger employers on the island, Paul said.

Employers do not ask their employees to step aside and leave spots open for residents and guests on an otherwise fully ferry, he said. That means that either the customer or an employee gets bumped to the next available ferry.

Paul said there has been a 22% decrease in the number of passengers getting bumped to the next available ferry since the electronic ticketing system began.

“I would think, too that the 45-minute schedule would have even fewer bumped boats,” he said in February.

According to the company’s application, the contractor ferry, which is reserved for contractors who work on the island and may be utilized by employees as well, would continue to depart from the mainland terminal at 5:30 a.m. and from the island at 6 a.m. Monday – Friday during the summer and winter months.

In summers, the first passenger ferry would leave the mainland at 6 a.m. Monday-Friday instead of the current time of 7 a.m. and depart the island at 6:45 a.m. on weekdays. The first passenger ferry from the mainland would depart weekends at 6 a.m. and from the island at 6:30 a.m.

The last passenger ferry would leave the mainland each night at 10:30 p.m. and the island at 11 p.m.

In winters, the last passenger ferry would leave the mainland at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The last ferry to leave the island would be at 9:45 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bald Head Island Conservancy Executive Director Chris Shank said the proposed schedule change would easily result in two weeks’ worth of lost worktime in a calendar year for his staff, lengthen their commute times and, in turn, likely increase staff turnover.

“The ferry’s already late,” he said. “A larger ferry would be nice. Having increase capacity during commuting times would be enormous.”

Southport resident Lindsey Urso said the ferry system she uses five times a week to get to the island to work “is an absolute disgrace.”

“What we are seeing recently with our ferry system is a complete failure on all fronts,” she continued. “We have delays that stretch hours and hours on end. These aren’t minor inconveniences. They are disruptions that affect people’s lives. Right now, the system is failing us.”

Island resident Robert Drumheller was the only person who spoke in favor of the proposed schedule change, saying the 5-nautical-mile trip between terminals, the time needed to move passengers and their luggage on and off the ferries and then transport them by tram to homes throughout the island essentially makes it impossible to run under the current schedule.

“I think we need to give this a try,” he said.

If after a year or so the schedule does not prove itself, the transportation company could revisit the matter, Drumheller said.

An expert witness hearing on the schedule change application is set for Nov. 5 in the utilities commission hearing room 2115, Dobbs Building, 430 North Salisbury St., Raleigh. The full schedule may be found online.

Published jointly with Island Free Press

MANTEO — If there is a hurricane on the Outer Banks that renders Hatteras Island’s only highway impassable, the emergency channel between the island at Rodanthe to the Dare County mainland at Stumpy Point currently would not be accessible for ferries to provide supplies or evacuations.

“This needs to be very clear to our county commissioners,” said Ernie Foster, a Dare County Waterways Commission member, during the panel’s meeting Monday evening. “Emergency operations right now do not exist and (it’s) hurricane season.”

Foster, a Hatteras charter boat captain, made a motion to inform the Dare County Board of Commissioners that the emergency channel is not an option until a shoaled area in the Rodanthe Harbor basin is cleared. The commission approved the motion.

“There is no planned project right now with the Corps for Rodanthe,” said Catherine Peele, interim assistant director of marine asset management planning and development manager with the North Carolina Ferry Division, who spoke remotely to the commission.

The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintenance of federal channels in the county’s inlets and waterways.

The Ferry Division is concerned that the shallow, shoaled area in the Rodanthe basin makes it too dangerous for ferry travel, creating risk of expensive damage to the vessels and danger to the operators and passengers. Although the remainder of the federal channel in the emergency route is navigable, that bad spot creates a controlling depth that renders the route inaccessible.

In a later interview, Peele said the Ferry Division and the county are working together “to see how we can overcome the challenge” of the Corps not being able to dredge in Rodanthe.

Meanwhile, she added, the division continues to do test runs with ferries at least twice a year in the state-owned Stumpy Point approach channel and basin and, so far, have been able to get in every year.

“So, we have been monitoring conditions,” she said. “We’re OK. We did a contract project in the basin a few years ago.”

Still, Peele added, the state is looking proactively at all its options to see if a project needs to be contracted, or if the division needs to schedule to do the project itself later this year. The division is also talking with the Corps and the county about the amount of available capacity for dredged material disposal in Stumpy Point.

A recent survey found that a relatively small area in the Rodanthe basin has only about 5 feet of water, Todd Horton, chief of the Corps’ waterways management section, speaking remotely, told the commissioners. Ferries require at least 5.5 feet of water.

A similar problem developed in 2018, when removal of shoaling was stymied because there was not adequate space available to dispose of the dredged material in Rodanthe. Dare County, which is responsible for maintaining dredged material disposal sites in the county, subsequently made repairs that addressed the capacity issue.

Fortunately, there has been no need in recent years for the backup evacuation route, but the channel is doing no one any good if some spots are too shallow for ferries to use when it is needed, said commission chairman Steve “Creature” Coulter.

“It’s a federal channel going into Rodanthe that we use for emergency operations,” he said, noting that the county does not have the authority to maintain it.

As another example of overlapping jurisdictional issues on the Outer Banks, clear passage through the emergency channel depends on the federal, state and county governments doing their respective parts, whether dredging the channel, building and repairing disposal areas, providing funds or doing channel surveys.

The state is responsible for the basin and an estimated 1,200-foot-long approach channel in Stumpy Point Harbor, and the federal government is responsible for the rest of the channel in Stumpy Point and all of the channel and the basin on the Rodanthe side. The county provides disposal sites for the dredged material, and a share of nonfederal funds to the Corps for projects.

An emergency transportation route was created in 2009 by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which oversees the Ferry Division, to bypass washed-out N.C. Highway 12 in Mirlo Beach at Rodanthe’s north end. Ferry terminals were created in Rodanthe in 2001 and in Stumpy Point in 2002, and both were upgraded in 2013.

Emergency ferry service was implemented after Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as well as in 2013 when the aged Bonner Bridge was closed for safety reasons. Before the service was available, islanders were cut off from the world for weeks in November 2000 after a storm-tossed barge struck and severely damaged the bridge. And after Hurricane Isabel in 2003 destroyed part of N.C. 12 south of Frisco, ferries brought supplies to the island from Stumpy Point to Hatteras village.

Horton said that the Corps has $316,000 in nonfederal funds transferred by the county remaining from 2019, but he did not elaborate on when or if a project could be done in Rodanthe.

Joen Petersen, the Corps’ chief of floating plants, said in a later interview that the recent survey showed that 602 cubic yards would have to be removed from the shoaled area just outside the channel basin in Rodanthe to bring the channel to project depth of 6 feet.

Petersen said that the remainder of the channel on the Rodanthe side is sufficiently deep. Although he confirmed that there is no scheduled work at this time at the shoaled area in Rodanthe, he said that the Corps is in the process of planning a dredge project in the federal channel in Stumpy Point.

Information was not immediately available from the Corps, the state or the county to clarify when the Rodanthe channel was last dredged. But in general, the emergency channel has been dredged on an “as-needed” basis, Barton Grover, the Waterways Commission administrator, said in a later interview.  And in last year’s survey, it showed a 6-foot depth, which the Corps said did not require attention.

Considering that the most recent survey showed only 5 feet in Rodanthe — a foot shallower than the federally authorized depth of 6 feet — the Corps may change its assessment about doing a project, Grover said, adding that discussions are still in early stages.

While the agencies and the county continue to work toward a solution, the reality for the time being is that, with warnings of a potentially bad hurricane season swirling in the background, the just-in-case fallback for a transportation option on and off Hatteras Island is not going to be available.

The ferry service would still do its best to provide a workaround, Peele said.

“If there was an emergency,” she said, “we would do a test run from Hatteras to Stumpy Point to see if that’s a viable option for an emergency route.”

WILMINGTON – The dates may have changed, but the host of concerns raised over the past few years have not as the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s plan to deepen and widen Wilmington Harbor is cast back into the public spotlight.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Wilmington District hosted Thursday its first public meeting since publishing a notice of intent that the agency is preparing an environmental study of the ports authority’s proposal to make room for larger container ships to get to and from the Wilmington port.

The Corps’ notice kickstarts the process in which the public can provide comments, be they questions, suggestions or concerns, on the proposed project.

“We wanted to get this feedback before we invested a lot in our analysis,” said Bret Walters, Wilmington District Planning and Environmental Branch chief. “This is the opportunity to weigh-in very early in the process.”

Walters was among several Army Corps officials on hand at the meeting last week in Sunset Park Elementary School in Wilmington to answer questions and discuss the project with members of the public.

The Corps hosted a series of virtual meetings the first week of this month, each day focusing on specific topics ranging from how material dredged from the channel might be used to how the project might affect cultural resources along the river.

Five years have passed since the ports authority announced its proposal to deepen the harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet, widen the channel in multiple areas, and extend the ocean entrance to the Cape Fear River.

The ports authority maintains that the changes are needed to keep the Wilmington port, which is more than 25 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean, competitive with other East Coast ports by making room for larger container ships coming from Asia.

The changes would accommodate large vessels that can carry 14,000, 20-by-8-foot shipping containers that have been traveling through the Panama Canal since its expansion in 2016.

A plethora of concerns have been discussed about the proposed project over the past few years.

Environmental experts and advocates argue that deepening the channel could exacerbate saltwater intrusion through to the Northeast Cape Fear River and adjoining creeks, eradicate fish habitat, harm cultural resources, and disproportionately affect minority communities along the river.

During the virtual meetings held earlier this month, members of the public again posed those concerns to Army Corps officials, offering a new line of questioning about how disturbing the sediment in a river contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, could further affect its quality.

Carolina Beach resident Anne Terry called the proposed project “very frightening.”

“The fish habitat would be ruined,” she said. “There’ll be erosion. Economically it just isn’t going to make any sense. And, it’s never going to be deep enough. I just don’t run into anybody that thinks this makes sense.”

But the ports authority predicts more cargo will be shipped to the Wilmington port, regardless of the size of the vessels transporting that cargo.

“That cargo is going to come here anyway,” Walter said in one of the virtual meetings hosted at the beginning of June.

That means, if the channel is not deepened, there will be a rise in the frequency of ships traveling to and from the port.

In 2019, then-Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James rejected the ports authority’s initial draft study, saying it needed significant revisions before he would pass along his recommendation to Congress for approval.

James approved an updated study the following year, and the proposed project was later conditionally authorized by Congress.

If the Corps’ recommends the conditionally authorized plan to dredge to 47 feet, then that plan will not have to go back to Congress for approval.

Other alternatives to be studied include either no action, which means the current depth and width of the channel would not be changed, or dredging to a depth of 46 feet.

If the Corps recommends an alternative aside from the conditionally authorized plan, then that recommendation will have to go to Congress for approval.

It would be several years before dredging would begin after — or if — the Corps recommends the project.

The public has through July 22 to submit comments to the Corps, which has provided a list of considerations people consider in their comments, including suggestions related to the evaluation of impacts to resources, concerns for themselves and their communities, resources that should be evaluated in the draft environmental impact statement, potential project opportunities, suggestions to alternatives being evaluated in the study, data, studies or reports that would support the analysis in the study, and any information missing in the study.

Once a draft environmental impact statement is released, the Corps will open a 45-day public comment period on that study. The public review and comment period is expected to open in late 2025.

A final environmental impact statement is projected to be released fall 2026.

Public comments may be submitted via any one of the following ways:

• Online.
• Email WilmingtonHarbor403@usace.army.mil.
• Mail to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington Harbor 403, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC  28403.

With a sizable cargo ship docked Wednesday at the N.C. Port at Wilmington on the Cape Fear River in the background, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced the launch of a federal program to improve air quality at U.S. ports.

Regan was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and North Carolina State Ports Authority Board of Directors Chair Susan Rabon at the morning press conference to announce the $3 billion Clean Ports program.

“Ports like this one right here in Wilmington are essential for commerce and are vital to our nation’s economic growth and supply chain infrastructure,” Regan said, adding that at the same time, many people residing near and around the nation’s ports are exposed to unhealthy air.

“So today, we’re proving once again,” Regan continued, that environmental protection and economic prosperity can go hand in hand. “And that’s why I’m excited to announce that EPA is launching our $3 billion Clean Ports Program.”

The funding through the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022, “will advance environmental justice by reducing diesel pollution from U.S. ports in surrounding communities, while creating good-paying jobs,” according to the EPA.

Regan said the money will go to purchase zero-emissions port equipment and infrastructure upgrades, while supporting both climate and air pollution-reduction strategies at all U.S. Ports.

“This program will lay the groundwork for transformational change by encouraging a transition to zero-emissions operations and reducing diesel pollution in and around our poor communities,” he said.

Regan said the EPA is releasing two notices of funding opportunities. The first pot of money includes $2.8 billion to facilitate the transition to zero-emissions equipment and infrastructure to reduce emissions nationwide. The second is close to $150 million for climate and air quality planning activities at ports to help build capacity for the ongoing transition to zero-emission port operations.

The announcement is more than just an investment in the economy, Regan said, “it’s an investment in President Biden’s pledge and commitment to environmental justice.”

Through the president’s investments “we are ensuring that those who live near ports can finally breath cleaner, healthier air. We are reimagining clean technology, and revolutionizing our nation’s port infrastructure, while addressing climate and environmental justice concerns.”

Before Regan spoke, Rabon of the ports authority board said the facility in Wilmington, the deep-water port in Morehead City and the inland operation in Charlotte, combined to support more than 88,000 direct and indirect jobs, and the work at the authority contributes $660 million annually to local and state tax revenues.

“Businesses need access to the global markets where their products are sold, and where their resources are found,” she said. “The authority provides that access making North Carolina ports are a key factor in our state’s phenomenal economic growth.”

Rabon added that while the ports authority is focused on growing business, “we’re committed to doing so in an environmentally conscious manner that preserves this area we are fortunate enough to call home.”

Gov. Cooper, during his remarks, described the Biden administration’s infrastructure policies as “generational.”

“We’ve been waiting for them for decades and now they’re finally here,” he said of the federal funding for roads, bridges, airports, rail and public transportation, high-speed internet, clean water systems and clean energy jobs. “And of course, our ports, will improve our state for decades and generations to come.”

The funding announced Wednesday means a cleaner work environment for those working at ports, will help make the communities around the ports cleaner and “will help us further our goals of environmental justice,” Cooper said.

Regan said after the announcement that the administration wants to get the money out as quickly as possible. “I feel very strongly that one $3 billion is a lot of money. There’s enough to go around. We’re going to see strong applications all across the country.”

EPA officials said the Clean Ports Program will help advance the Justice40 Initiative, which has a goal for “40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”

The agency said it has strived to ensure that near-port community engagement and equity considerations are program priorities. That focus has included evaluating applications on the extent and quality of community engagement efforts.

The nearly $2.8 billion Zero-Emission Technology Deployment Competition will directly fund zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure to reduce mobile source emissions at U.S. ports, according to the EPA.

Eligible uses of the funding include human-operated and maintained zero-emission cargo handling equipment, harbor craft and other vessels, electric charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure, and a number of other technology investments. Applications are to be evaluated under multiple tiers in order to ensure that funds are distributed across ports of different sizes and types, and to ensure funding for ports serving Tribal communities, officials said.

The approximately $150 million Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition will fund climate and air quality planning activities at U.S. ports, including emissions inventories, strategy analysis, community engagement, and resiliency measure identification.

“Together, these opportunities will advance next-generation, clean technologies that will more safely and efficiently drive the movement of goods and passengers at our nation’s ports, a critical part of America’s supply chain infrastructure while reducing pollution and advancing environmental justice,” the EPA said in its announcement.

According to the Sierra Club, research has shown that diesel pollution contains more than 40 cancer-causing substances, including benzene and formaldehyde. The group cited links to asthma, heart disease and premature death. 

“We continue to see vast clean transportation benefits moving out of the Inflation Reduction Act. Ports are a lesser talked about topic within the transportation sector – cleaning them up is crucial work,” Katherine García, director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement. “This EPA program builds on the Department of Transportation’s ports program with necessary zero-emission investments that will bring significant health and air quality benefits.”

WILMINGTON — North Carolina’s largest river basin faces more than its fair share of threats, advocates say.

The Cape Fear River watershed is the most industrialized in the state. Swine and poultry factory farms, paper and wood pellet mills, chemical plants, yet-to-be cleaned coal ash ponds, countless small dams and several large dams, feed and textile mills, explosive commercial and residential development, and climate change endanger this river basin of about 9,000 square miles and home to about 2 million people.

Environmentalists and river advocates are taking aim at what they consider to be the latest threat to the lower Cape Fear River — the proposed deepening and widening of the Wilmington Harbor.

Attendees at Cape Fear River Watch’s second annual State of the River forum Thursday were urged to consider the potential impacts to the river’s habitat, the species that rely on that habitat and the communities and cultural resources that line the river’s banks.

The N.C. State Ports Authority’s plan to make room for larger container ships to travel 26 miles from the river’s mouth at the Atlantic Ocean to the Wilmington port would likely change the water, sand and riverside communities, said Hannah Nelson, an associate attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office.

“Now is really the perfect time to start thinking through the tough questions on this project,” Nelson said to an audience of dozens gathered at the forum held in Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station building in downtown Wilmington.

The ports authority announced four years ago a proposal to deepen the harbor from 42 feet to 47 feet, widen it in areas by 100 feet up to 300 feet, and extend the ocean entrance to the river from 44 feet to 77 feet.

Those new depths and widths would allow the Wilmington port to remain competitive with other East Coast ports by making room for larger container ships coming from Asia, according to the state ports authority.

The changes would accommodate large vessels that can carry 14,000, 20-by-8-foot shipping containers that have been traveling through the Panama Canal since its expansion in 2016.

Related: Open house on Wilmington Harbor project set for June 13

But making room for larger ships could exacerbate saltwater intrusion, a phenomenon already occurring with sea level rise, through to the Northeast Cape Fear River, Sturgeon Creek and Town Creek, Nelson said.

“We expect to see this increased salinity throughout the river system,” she said.

Increased salinity is worrisome, Nelson said, because saltwater encroachment will force species to either migrate or altogether cease to exist in the river, kill off freshwater plants and habitat and destroy wetlands, which are nature’s storm buffers.

The proposed project is also expected to change the river’s tidal range and increase the mean high water level throughout the channel because the project would reduce the speed at which the water flows, she said.

Millions of cubic yards of sand will have to be removed, destroying nearly 1,000 acres of soft-bottom habitat and converting that habitat into deepwater habitat. Many of those acres make up primary nursing area for juvenile fish, Nelson said.

“If we dig all of that up, it can no longer be suitable for those young fish,” she said.

Sea turtles, including endangered loggerheads, rest and forage on the floor of the harbor. Bigger ships could increase erosion rates on the river banks, threatening recreational use of the river, shorebird habitat, communities, including environmental justice communities, and cultural resources.

There’s also concern that the sand that would be moved during construction of the proposed project could be laden with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are human-made chemicals that have contaminated the river, the raw drinking water source for tens of thousands of people in the region, for decades.

Other possible impacts to communities on both sides of the harbor are increased vehicle traffic transporting containers, noise and land development.

“We’ve seen this play out in our neighboring states,” Nelson said.

Land in both Georgia and South Carolina on either side of the Savannah Harbor has experience a building boom of industrial warehouses since that harbor’s expansion project wrapped last year.

Nelson said that between 2019 and 2022, 77 warehouses of various sizes were built in the area around the expansion.

“These are just a couple of the environmental impacts that could happen with this project,” she said. “We don’t have to continue down the path of deepening and deepening and deepening because that’s what we’ve already done.”

The project received authorization under the Water Resources Development Act in late 2020.

Nonfederal-sponsored projects, such as those led by states or state agencies like the ports authority, have to get federal authorization before moving forward. In order to receive federal funds, projects must undergo an environmental assessment known as the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA process, which is headed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps is partnering with the ports authority to develop the Wilmington Harbor Clean Water Action Section 403 letter report and environmental impact statement, or EIS, which are estimated to cost $8.5 million and be completed in four years.

The public will have an opportunity to speak with Corps representatives submit comments at an open house next week hosted by the Corps’ Wilmington District. Public comments will be accepted through June 30.

The open house is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. June 13 in the Union Station building, 502 N. Front St.

For more information about the project and to submit comments visit https://wilmington-harbor-usace-saw.hub.arcgis.com/

Reprinted from Island Free Press

With crisis conditions in Hatteras Inlet becalmed for the time being, members of the Dare County Waterways Commission are keeping a keen eye on the horizon to forestall planning kinks while turning its attention elsewhere to long-discussed projects in Avon Harbor and the Stumpy Point emergency ferry harbor.

During a low-key commission meeting Monday in Manteo, Commission Chair Steve “Creature” Coulter took note of the good work done in the spring by Dare County’s new hopper dredge Miss Katie in the inlet’s troublesome Connector Channel, leaving the only immediate concern being buoy placement.

“The Miss Katie has the (channel) as good as its been in five or six years,” Coulter told Jordan Hennessy, EJE Dredging Service vice president. On the Sloop Channel side, Coulter added, “it’s creeping up on us a little bit, but everywhere else, it’s beautiful.”

EJE is the owner of the dredge and is operating in Hatteras and Oregon inlets under an agreement with the county.

Coulter asked Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer John Ahlen, commanding officer of aids to navigation, if buoys 13 and 14 in the Hatteras Inlet gorge could be moved away from an encroaching shoal with its new 14-foot vessel before the start of the Hatteras Village Offshore Open this week. Also, the Big Rock tournament based in Morehead City starts on June 9, when the larger boats will be transiting the inlet.

“That is our main goal for the next two weeks,” Ahlen responded, speaking remotely via video.

Meanwhile, Dare County plans to submit permit applications soon for authorization for the Miss Katie to dredge the entire recently realigned federal channel as well as the nonfederal bar in Hatteras Inlet, Dare County Grants and Waterways Administrator Barton Grover told the panel. The review is expected to take about five months, he added.

Grover said that the county-based dredge is expected to replace work in the inlet that had been done by the Army Corps of Engineers under a memorandum of agreement, or MOA, with the state and county. The county also plans to determine new spots to dump dredge material closer to where the dredge is working.

“We’re essentially copying what the Corps does,” he said. “The main thing we’re doing is changing the disposal areas.”

In an almost comical illustration of bureaucratic rigidity, Grover detailed the required steps for about $155,000 to be returned to the county coffers. As he explained, that was Dare’s cost share of unused funds that had been transferred to the Corps for additional work in the Connector Channel. But after the Hatteras Channel realignment was approved in December, that channel effectively became part of the authorized federal channel, meaning it no longer would be maintained under the prior MOA.

In order for the total $217,000 to be returned, the process would have to be done in reverse, step-by-step; that is, the Corps transfers the money to the state, then the state transfers Dare’s share back to the county. At the same time, the county is planning to seek a different long-term MOA that would expand flexibility with the partners.

In another update, Grover reported that vibracore samples taken at heavily-shoaled Avon Harbor had been collected last week to be examined for heavy metals and petroleum, with results due by Friday. If the results are good, he said, the Corps is expected to start work clearing the harbor, basin and channel this winter, likely early 2024. Since there is no room for a bermed containment area, the project will be “bucket and barge,” with about 20,000 cubic yards of material removed, and transferred by truck to the Canadian Hole in Buxton.

Dare County is paying the $160,000 tab for trucking and core samples, Grover said, but the Corps’ cost for dredging is not yet available. The state Department of Transportation is handling the permitting and providing technical assistance, as well as taking the lead on beach placement of the sand. Since the bucket and barge work is slower than pipeline dredging, the project is expected to take at least a couple of months and will be more expensive, Grover estimated.

Over at Stumpy Point, where the emergency ferry channel from Rodanthe ends, work has begun on the initial design and engineering phase for enlarging the berm where about 200,000 cubic yards of dredged sand is expected to be deposited.

“We have to elevate the berm to handle the dredge material,” Grover explained in a later interview.

Although the Corps is slated to do the dredging project in the federal portion of the channel, for which it has been allocated $1.6 million, he said, the county is responsible for providing a disposal site — but the site near the state’s emergency ferry dock is currently at capacity. The original estimate for the berm expansion engineering and construction is $835,000, he said, with the state covering 75% of the cost, and county responsible for the remainder.

The emergency channel has been used several times after storms and road and bridge closures to ferry residents, tourists and workers off Hatteras Island.

Back to Hatteras Inlet, Cat Peele, planning and development manager with NCDOT Ferry Division, told commissioners that the division is seeking to modify its permit to allow use of a hopper dredge for the north end of Sloop Channel, which is part of the ferry channel —-along with nearby Barney Slough — that has been plagued with shoaling on and off in the last year. Also, Peele said the division is looking at modifying the permitted area for their channel to make it straighter, a potential improvement that has been identified by the Coast Guard.

Todd Horton, chief of the waterways management section at the Corps’ Wilmington district, speaking remotely, had earlier informed the panel that the Corps’ $1.5 million Rollinson Channel project funds used for the ferry channel maintenance are gone for fiscal year 2023, which ends on Sept. 30.

With Sloop Channel needing additional attention, Hyde County on May 1 submitted an application to the state for shallow draft navigational funds to dredge the north end. As a Tier 1 county, Hyde qualifies for a 0% match for funding from the state shallow draft fund for ferry channel projects. Typically, the funds would be available in 30 days.

Horton said the Corps still plans to do the Rollinson pipeline dredge project this fall or winter, between the Oct. 1 to March 31 window. Placement of dredge material will be at Cora June Island or on a National Park Service beach parallel to Pole Road in Hatteras village, or on Ocracoke Island, whichever site is closest. The project will also include dredging the entrance between the breakwaters at Hatteras Harbor Marina.

But there was concern from several members of the Waterways Commission that the breakwater area would be dangerously shoaled by winter. At the suggestion of Peele, the panel agreed to request that Dare County declare an emergency in order to have the Dredge Murden stop by earlier in Hatteras on its way down to New Jersey for a scheduled project.

By next month’s meeting in Buxton, the Waterways Commission may see two new faces.

Ahlen, with the Coast Guard, is heading to the West Coast, and he said he hopes to be able to introduce his replacement in person before he leaves. Also, member Kermit Skinner has submitted his resignation. John Berquist, a Kitty Hawk resident who runs an outboard business, threw his hat in the ring, and the commission voted unanimously to recommend his appointment.

“I used to run a restaurant in Southern Shores,” he told commissioners, referring to the Pizza Stop that he owned for eight years. “I sold it to fish.

“I know y’all are from Hatteras, but there’s nobody here from up the beach.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

BEAUFORT — Now that Cedar Street no longer serves as the main road through town, as it had been for decades before a U.S. 70 realignment project around town was completed in 2019, work can begin on the bumps, cracks, holes and the resulting complaints from motorists.  

Two projects aimed at mitigating stormwater runoff along Cedar Street are to take place this year, with one that began Monday, before the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which maintains the road, resurfaces it, officials said. The projects feature pervious pavement and bioretention. These are nature-based stormwater strategies designed to maintain or mimic a site’s natural hydrology with capacity to collect, soak in and filter stormwater runoff.

Beaufort was selected in late 2022 for a $195,500 grant through the Water Resources Development Grant program for the Cedar Street pervious parking project. The project is expected to cost around $391,000. The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which advocates for water quality improvements and publishes Coastal Review, has pledged $75,000 and the town is responsible for $120,500.

This plan is to install 16,600 square feet of pervious pavement in the parking lanes of Cedar Street between Orange and Marsh streets, about five blocks. The pervious pavement, which allows water to seep through rather than puddle on the surface, is anticipated to capture 6.4 acres of stormwater runoff from adjacent properties and streets. This should reduce the amount of polluted water making it the impaired Town Creek watershed, according to the town.

“Your ongoing efforts to improve the condition of water resources in your jurisdiction are to be commended,” said Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers Jr. in a Nov. 2, 2022, letter to town staff and officials.

Town officials announced Friday that NCDOT was planning to begin work Monday, Jan. 9, to remove existing curb, asphalt and sidewalk at several intersections along Cedar Street starting at the intersection of Cedar and Orange streets working toward the intersection of Cedar and Marsh streets.

The NCDOT project for Cedar Street is to build 14 bioswales at the corners of four street intersections with the underdrains connected to the stormwater main that was replaced early last year. 

Bioswales, in this case, are vegetated low-lying areas or troughs, like a rain garden, where a gutter or storm drain would usually be installed. The pervious pavement will be installed between these bioswales. 

Town perspective

Beaufort Town Engineer Greg Meshaw explained that with the U.S. 70 bypass and the fixed-span Gallants Channel bridge that opened in 2018 and replaced the half-century-old, two-lane drawbridge connecting Beaufort and Radio Island, Cedar Street was no longer the major thoroughfare and longstanding water infrastructure problems below the street – the reason for the years of bumpy pavement — could be addressed.

“Accordingly, NCDOT desires to turn the street over to the Town. Before doing so, the Department will renew the street pavement,” Meshaw said in the email response to Coastal Review. “Given this plan, the Town completed a project to replace and rehabilitate the water and sewer mains beneath the street. NCDOT also replaced the existing stormwater line beneath the street, which was found to be failing at several locations.”

He added that NCDOT plans to begin its Cedar Street paving project in June.  

“The project to essentially reconstruct Cedar Street presented the perfect opportunity for inclusion of a project to construct pervious pavement,” Meshaw said. 

Because the parking lanes are to be constructed with pervious pavement between the bioswales, the pavement should help reduce the runoff and increase the efficiency of bioswales at filtering pollutants, particularly during smaller storm events. 

“The two projects are viewed as a step toward the Town’s goal of watershed restoration,” he said in the email.

The town’s watershed restoration plan approved by the state in 2017 points to stormwater runoff as the primary pollutant source for Town Creek.

“The town is grateful to NCDOT for allowing the pervious pavement project to be incorporated into the overall work given that the street is still under their jurisdiction,” he added.

NCDOT’s use of nature-based strategies

Ryan M. Mullins, retrofits program manager for the highway stormwater program in the NCDOT Hydraulics Unit, told Coastal Review that the Cedar Street project presented a unique opportunity to take advantage of the road no longer being a part of the U.S. 70 route corridor because of the bypass. NCDOT plans to turn Cedar Street over to Beaufort for future maintenance.  

“The NCDOT Hydraulics Unit was able to work with the Town of Beaufort and local NCDOT forces to explore adding stormwater practices, which previously did not exist, as part of this opportunity. This stormwater project allows NCDOT to contribute toward beautification and revitalization of Cedar Street, while also providing stormwater treatment of roadway runoff that eventually drains to Town Creek,” he said. 

Construction on the bioretention bump-outs, or bioswales, is slated to begin this month and is anticipated to wrap up by the spring in order to avoid the tourist season, Mullins added.

NCDOT decided to use nature-based strategies rather than conventional repaving because the agency “strives to identify context-sensitive solutions for its transportation infrastructure,” he explained. “Given the historic nature of Beaufort and the natural beauty of the area, we felt it was important to incorporate nature-based stormwater solutions to compliment the character of the community.”

Cedar Street does present challenges for incorporating stormwater best management practices, or BMPs, which include controlling flooding, reducing erosion and improving water quality. 

For example, the road is in an urban setting with numerous homes and businesses on both sides. There is limited NCDOT right-of-way, and thus no areas for more traditional stormwater BMPs, and numerous overhead utilities and underground utilities to contend with, as well, Mullins said.

“Traditional stormwater practices are not always appropriate or feasible, especially in the urban setting. By making use of more nature-based strategies and practices that work well in the urban environment, we are able to incorporate stormwater treatment into the urban setting, providing the benefits to the local community through the aesthetics and stormwater treatment that these types of practices bring,” he said.

As part of NCDOT’s statewide National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System stormwater permit programs, the agency is charged with protecting water quality and reducing pollutant loading, Mullins added.

“One of the ways we do this is through our Stormwater Retrofit Program, where we locate, design and construct stormwater controls to mitigate and treat stormwater runoff before it enters the states waterways,” he said. “I believe that this project will set an example of what we can accomplish with strong local partnerships to incorporate stormwater practices within a slow speed local road environment, that not only treat stormwater runoff, but also enhance the aesthetics of these areas.”

The Coastal Federation’s role

Bree Charron, coastal engineer with the Coastal Federation, said the project came about as “a classic case of having the right people in the room at the right time.”

During one of the town’s stormwater committee meetings five or six years ago, the Coastal Federation coordinated with the NCDOT Hydraulics Unit retrofit staff on a presentation, and updating Cedar Street came up.

“It appeared to be the perfect opportunity for a retrofit project since they would be doing a lot of road work before handing the street over to the town. So, the NCDOT retrofit team worked to plan and design the bioswale bump-outs,” Charron said. 

Last year, NCDOT switched engineering firms for this project to Raleigh-based McAdams Co. The engineers pitched the idea of pervious pavement in the parking areas between the bioswales.

Charron said Meshaw, the town engineer, asked for her help to find additional funding to make sure the project happened.

“The North Carolina Water Resources Development Grant seemed like the perfect fit, so we went for it. The federation is contributing $75,000 from our state appropriation to restore water quality in the Newport River to aid the town’s match. This was an unexpected expenditure for the town, but the timing and overall benefits of the project led them to commit the other portion of the match,” she said.

The Newport River in Carteret County runs 12 miles southeast through the town of Newport flowing ultimately into Bogue Sound between Morehead City and Beaufort, according to the Coastal Federation.

The nonprofit committed the $75,000 because “we have been involved in making this Cedar Street project happen since the very beginning and wanted to see it reach its full potential,” Charron explained. “It just happened to line up perfectly with our funding to implement water quality projects in the Newport River watershed.”

She added that the organization is currently working with stakeholders from Beaufort, Morehead City, Newport and Carteret County to develop a Newport River Estuary Restoration Plan. 

“Cedar Street is one of the main sources of direct discharge of stormwater into Town Creek and then the river. This project will reduce the volume of stormwater reaching the creek and help filter out pollutants,” she said.

This is one of several water quality projects in which the Coastal Federation has partnered with Beaufort.

“We helped them develop a watershed restoration plan back in 2017 and have been working to install projects that meet the goals of that plan since then,” she said.

“Other installed projects include the pervious parking on Orange Street, the Topsail Park rain gardens, and the retrofit of the Wildlife Resources Commission boat ramp on Lennoxville to name a few. This project adds to Beaufort’s growing list of stormwater retrofits and implementation projects that show their dedication to clean water quality in their receiving waters.”

Coastal Federation Deputy Director Lauren Kolodij told Coastal Review that moving away from conventional repaving, which is standard practice, to using nature-based strategies like permeable paving and infiltration was an idea that she presented to NCDOT, and officials there were receptive.  

“We are trying to get local governments, DOT and everyone to look at opportunities to not just approach capital improvement projects the same old way — pull up pavement, fix problem and then repave — but instead look for opportunities to make a project better and more effective at reducing stormwater with nature-based strategies identified in the nature-based strategies action plan we developed in 2021,” Kolodij said.

The more than 200 glossy-paged Croatan Regional Bicycle and Trails Plan sits among a stack of other bike and trail plans on a shelf in Becca Eversole’s office.

The plan is one Eversole, director of the Down East Rural Planning Organization, describes as ambitious, filled with page after page of suggestions for creating a continuous bike path through the Croatan National Forest that connects to local paths in Carteret, Craven, Jones, Onslow and Pamlico counties.

The plan calls for everything from multiuse trails to dedicated bicycle paths to creating bike-accessible roads by widening shoulders.

“It was very well done. It’s a very technically dense plan. It has a lot of good information on potential bike and pedestrian improvements,” Eversole said.

What’s good on paper has well, for the most part, stayed on paper. Nearly 10 years have passed since the plan was published in 2014.

“That is unfortunately the reality of the situation,” Eversole said.

The state Department of Transportation tends to fund bicycle and pedestrian projects that are associated with roadway projects, so funding for projects proposed in those like the Croatan regional plan are largely covered by local governments, where the vocal support tends to outweigh financial backing. There’s also the matter of political will.

“I would say in general when it comes to our local governments, they certainly support improving bike and pedestrian access in theory, but sometimes the money’s not there. Sometimes other priorities take precedent over improving bike and pedestrian facilities,” Eversole said.

Much of the Croatan Regional Bicycle and Trails Plan’s proposals fall within the boundaries of Carteret County, where there is a strong advocacy group for improving the bicycle network.

Alex McCrary, is a board member of Coastal Bike Impact, a group that aims to expand the number of safe bicycle routes for transportation, recreation and sport in Carteret and surrounding counties.

McCrary said in an email responding to questions that the group does not believe the status of the Croatan Regional Bicycle and Trails Plan “necessarily reflects a lack of priority, political will, or funding issues.”

There are other elements of bicycle and pedestrian plans that are being implemented in the county, he said.

“Realizing a regional bicycle and pedestrian plan is a complex process where certain parts of a plan may be feasible and implemented, but other parts may face constraints such as inadequate rights of way, the need to relocated utilities, or competing needs with other stakeholders,” he said. “The important thing is that the creation of plan is a critical step in the process of actually building out a true multi-modal transportation system.”

The regional plan was created as a result of the East Coast Greenway, a biking and pedestrian route that stretches 3,000 miles from Maine to Florida, connecting 15 states and 450 cities.

“The good thing about the plan is that a lot of what was proposed in it overlaps the East Coast Greenway,” Eversole said.

Because of that, implementing portions of the regional plan may be more cost-effective, she said.

For example, the East Coast Greenway is routed along Arendell Street, Morehead City’s main drag and part of U.S. 70. Planners are looking at creating a route closer to Bogue Sound, a move that would get cyclists away from the busy thoroughfare and onto a more scenic trail.

“This is an improvement that we can make that could be more cost-effective,” Eversole said.

The Carteret County Board of Commissioners earlier this year chartered a bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee to help plan.

“There is no doubt that the creation of a safe, viable bicycle and pedestrian transportation network would provide important recreational, health, and economic benefits to Carteret County,” McCrary said. “Bicycle and pedestrian facilities provide a high quality of life for residents, an opportunity for improving overall population health outcomes, and a big draw for the tourism industry that the county depends on. As projected growth begins to impact the area, bicycle and pedestrian facilities will play an important role in mitigating the congestion associated with that growth.”

The Down East Rural Planning Organization is one of 18 rural planning organizations in North Carolina. These organizations were created to help more effectively spread transportation dollars to rural areas and engage residents of rural areas in the transportation planning process.

The Eastern Carolina Council is the lead planning agency for the Down East organization, which was created in 2002.

The Croatan regional plan includes proposals for trail corridors through the Croatan National Forest and include a preferred route and alignment with the state’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which stretches more than 1,100 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks.

Proposed projects include expansion and improvements along N.C. 24, U.S. 17 and U.S. 70 as well as N.C. 58 in Carteret and Jones counties, N.C. 101 in Craven and Carteret counties, N.C. 12 in Carteret County and N.C. 306 in Pamlico and Craven counties.

Eversole is currently working on proposals with local partners to further study routes in Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties. She’s been going to local municipalities to talk about what locals would like in terms of cycling and walking trails.

“At least half of the conversation we have in these meetings is bike and pedestrian projects,” she said. “Those are the projects I want to hear about and those are the projects often I don’t. I feel like it’s been very beneficial for me and our organization.”

She said public meetings will be hosted in Carteret County throughout 2023 for the development of the county’s new comprehensive transportation plan. Residents interested in participating in those meetings may check out eccog.org for more information and online surveys, which will be posted sometime in the spring.

HATTERAS — As it turns out, long-sought flexibility in maintenance of essential Hatteras Inlet navigation channels didn’t take an act of Congress. It boiled down to a much simpler concept: go-with-the-flow realignment.

But with the finalized expanded authorization to dredge Rollinson Channel, it may seem like a Christmas miracle for islanders now relieved of navigating a labyrinth of regulatory hurdles to address shoaled channels.

For Steve “Creature” Coulter, a Hatteras charter boat captain and chair of the Dare County Waterways Commission, the new realignment, which he said Dec. 2 was a “done deal,” is delayed validation of his initial assessment.

In 2013, as Coulter recalled in a recent interview with Coastal Review, when the waterway’s “short route” between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands was deemed too dangerously shoaled to dredge, he called the office of the late 3^rd District Rep. Walter Jones and suggested, essentially, that the law allowed channel dredging to follow best water.

But at the time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency charged with maintenance of Rollinson Channel, said that an act of Congress would be required to change the channel’s authorized metes and bounds.

“If we could do just what we wanted to do, I’d have had it done nine years ago,” Coulter said, recounting what he half-jokingly told Josh Bowlen, who had served as Jones’ legislative director, and later, chief of staff.

After Jones’ death in 2019, Bowlen has served as legislative assistant for Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who will retire in January.

Although it’s not clear when the Corps adopted its different stance, its authority to follow the deepest natural water, or best water, in the Rollinson Channel Navigation Project was explained in the environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, that was signed Nov. 30 by Robert M. Burnham, acting district commander for Corps’ Wilmington District.

The realignment of a portion of the project’s Hatteras to Hatteras Inlet Channel that follows deep water, the document said, was “due to the changes in shoaling patterns” caused by the dynamic inlet conditions.

“The project’s authorization does not specify the precise location of the Hatteras to Hatteras Inlet Channel, and therefore the location may be altered if found to be justified,” the document said, citing a regulation that allowed modifications.

The channel was originally authorized in 1962 under the River and Harbor Acts and included a 100-foot-wide, 12-foot-deep fixed channel extending through Rollinson Channel from Hatteras Harbor to Pamlico Sound, and a 100-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep channel from Rollinson Channel to the Hatteras Inlet gorge, with part of the channel being fixed and part following best water.

Somehow, what Coulter and other mariners considered common sense broke through to the surface.

“Having a channel that follows natural deep water to the extent practicable,” according to the environmental assessment, “given the natural dynamic nature of sediment movement, will allow for a safer, more reliable channel, reduced dredging effort, and an associated reduction in maintenance dredging costs, as well as having the least impact to the environment.”

Of the three actions proposed, the preferred alternative that was approved chose to abandon the “historic direct route” to the inlet gorge and to reroute the channel to follow best water along what is known as the “horseshoe route.”

“This is the only way for (the Corps) to economically maintain access to the gorge at Hatteras Inlet and will allow transportation of passengers, goods, and services to continue from the mainland, as well as allowing safe access to open ocean waters,” according to the document.

Not only will the dredging be able to be more flexible and timelier, the realignment also frees up use of federal funds for work within the project.

Work in the horseshoe will be allowed between Oct. 1 and March 31. Also, Sloop Channel North and Hatteras Connector Channel can now be maintained any time of the year.

Decades before the short route became impassable and impossible to dredge, the inlet was stable and rarely had navigational difficulties. After 1993, when the inlet was 0.35 miles wide, the southwest end of Hatteras Island began eroding, likely spurred by the effects that year of the “Storm of the Century” and Hurricane Emily.

As detailed in the environmental assessment, sand from the eroding land over the years, as well as what drifted through the widening opening to the ocean, resulted in more shoaling. By 2019, about 315 acres from the tip of Hatteras was gone, and the inlet had widened to 1.7 miles. At the same time, about 130 miles of shoreline was lost from the eastern end of Ocracoke Island. Today, the inlet is over 2 miles wide.

As navigation through Hatteras Inlet became more difficult, and the ferry route between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands switched to the longer horseshoe route, the commercial and charter fishing fleet, recreational boaters and fishers and the Coast Guard, also had to adapt their routes to reach Ocracoke and the ocean, depending on shoaling.

It soon became evident that dredging would be needed beyond the authorized Rollinson project the Corps had been maintaining. Problems developed in a confusing number of channels, or portions of them, some with evolving names. The South Ferry Channel — for a time a “no-man’s land” that no one had permission to maintain — became too shoaled to dredge and was replaced by the nearby Connector Channel.

But the piecemeal of jurisdictions, funding pots and government administrators — local, state, federal — involved in addressing problematic areas often resulted in time-consuming permit applications and costly delays.

Agreements had to be made among the county, the state and the Corps for certain work to be done, also not a quick process. Often, certain dredges were needed for certain conditions, but they weren’t available. Sometimes dredges were called away for a more pressing need, or broke down mid-project. A shared funding pot would be depleted by a more urgent project, such as the ferry route, leaving little or nothing for another needy channel. More than once, dredging projects would be undone by storms not long after they were completed.

For the last five or so years, members of the Waterways Commission were often left frustrated by numerous twists of fate and bureaucratic complications. Confronted repeatedly by the Corps inability to clear bits of shoaled channel outside the rigid authorized Rollinson parameters, the commissioners’ running theme through the years was the need for flexibility.

With the new flexibility, a Corps dredge on its way elsewhere would be able to do a little clean up where needed in Hatteras Inlet.

“If there’s money in the budget for Rollinson Channel, they can just stop by and do the work,” Coulter said.

Finally, in a big way, the realignment, while not a panacea, fills in gaps and removes one of the more persistent blockades to addressing the unpredictable nature of shoaling, while offering responsive dredging that can save time and money.

That means the Connector Channel, Crossover Channel, Sloop Channel, Hatteras Ferry Connecting Channel and Barney Slough, all of which may have had different names or versions that were maintained in different ways, will now be part of the expanded Rollinson project, explained Dare County Grants and Waterways Administrator Barton Grover.

It also puts Hatteras Inlet on par with Oregon Inlet in funding projects. For instance, the Corps just did $400,000 worth of work in the last three months in Oregon Inlet, and it cost Dare County “not one cent,” he said.

“In a nutshell, it’s a positive,” Grover said about the Hatteras realignment. “We now have access to federal dollars for the entire inlet.”

Also, there will be an additional area provided to dispose of dredged material, an important requirement for every dredge project.

Last year, he said, Dare dedicated $250,000 for Hatteras Inlet dredging, with a 75% match in state dollars, paid out of the state Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund.

Dare also budgeted $800,000 for its new hopper dredge, the Miss Katie, which will often be used to supplement Corps work. In addition, the Corps received $1.43 million for Rollinson Channel from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and $580,000 remained as of mid-November.

Since so much of the dredging situation has changed, Grover said, it will take time to gauge the impact on the maintenance and emergency work and the budgets. The reality, he added, is that even though the Corps now has the authority to dredge much more of Hatteras Inlet, it doesn’t mean it will have the funding or the available equipment.

If push comes to shove, he said, the county and state may have to supplement the cost of projects.

“I believe we’ll have a better sense in September of what it costs to maintain the ferry channel,” Grover said. “It’s a brand-new thing, not only with the federal channel, but also with us having Miss Katie.”

Reprinted from Island Free Press

Underwater power lines crossing Hatteras Inlet’s Connector Channel have created another delay in finalizing the realignment of the Hatteras ferry channel, also known as the Rollinson Channel.

Shortly before Oct. 24, when the Army Corps of Engineers was expected to sign off on the draft environmental assessment, or EA, the agency decided that it needed more information about the cables, Coley Cordeiro, civil works project manager at the Corps’ Wilmington district, told the Dare County Waterways Commission.

“We were pretty close to signing on the dotted line, and then this cable issue came up,” she said, calling into the meeting held Nov. 14 at the Dare County Administration Building in Manteo.

But she assured the panel that it shouldn’t be much longer before the issue is resolved.

“We’re working that into the environmental assessment,” she said, “and we should have that buttoned up by the end of November.”

The inlet channels are currently under state and federal jurisdictions, with only a portion of them authorized for federal funding or dredging, including the Hatteras Ferry Channel.

Commissioners have been frustrated for years by having to obtain different permits and funds to address shoaling, an inefficient and costly process. Once the realignment is in place, it would expand federal authorization for dredging in the inlet and allow more flexible and responsive maintenance and emergency dredging year-round.

Initially, the Hatteras Ferry Channel Realignment Draft Environmental Assessment, released in October 2021, was expected to be approved by April, but finalization has been stymied by additional review requirements to include the Connector, or Connecting, Channel in the EA and to determine impacts on submerged aquatic vegetation, among other reasons.

Commission Chairman Steve “Creature” Coulter seemed baffled at the recently stalled progress.

“That cable’s been there for a long time,” he noted. “It’s just kind of strange that it’s causing this delay at the end.”

Army Corps of Engineers Navigation Branch Chief Jeremy Smith, also speaking remotely, explained that the depth of the cables needed to be confirmed. There are three lines, but only one of them, which stretches to Ocracoke, is energized. The other two lines are abandoned or disconnected. There would be a 100-foot buffer on either side of the lines for dredging.

“It’s all about the safety for the crew, and safely getting power to the island,” he said. “We’re not going to risk either one of those.”

According to Ken Willson, Dare County dredge projects consultant with Coastal Planning & Engineering of North Carolina, there are GPS coordinates for the cable locations, but the depth of the live line needs to be verified.

“We have been talking to the power company,” he said. “They speak very confidently that the (line) has not changed since it was put in, that is, between 8 to 12 feet deep.”

Willson added that more discussion is expected about the inactive lines.

Commissioner Ernie Foster asked Willson if there was any way to remove the abandoned cables.

“I’m sure it can be done,” he responded. “It’s just a matter of who will pay for it.”

In addition to the glitch with the realignment, there will also be a wait for expected dredging in the Connector Channel.

The Corps’ dredge Merritt had been planned to work earlier this fall in the channel, but it ended up being diverted to work in Carolina Beach and then Oregon Inlet, where it broke a rudder, explained Barton Grover, Dare County grants and waterways administrator.

Grover said in a later interview that once the Merritt is repaired at Manns Harbor and able to finish its work in Oregon Inlet, the hope is that it will be able to go to Hatteras sometime in mid-December.

Then, if the Oregon Inlet Task Force gives its approval, he said, the Dare County dredge Miss Katie will be able to leave Oregon Inlet and do additional cleanup in the Connector Channel behind the Merritt.

The county has received a one-time permit modification to dredge in Hatteras Inlet for seven days while waiting for the alignment to go through, he added.

“We were covering our bases,” Grover said. “Now with all the delays, I’m glad we did.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

A privately owned ferry system in Brunswick County that each year shuttles more than 350,000 passengers, 90% of which are not residents, between Southport and Bald Head Island is changing hands but will remain privately owned.

Lee Roberts, managing partner of SharpVue Capital, LLC, the Raleigh-based investment company that plans to buy the Bald Head Island Ferry and associated assets, said he anticipates a smooth transition. SharpVue is buying the ferry system from Bald Head Island Limited, LLC., owned by the family of the late George P. Mitchell, who died in 2013 at the age of 94 in Galveston, Texas.

“I hope that we’ll be able to make some operational improvements over time, but I expect for all of the stakeholders, the homeowners, the visitors, the contractors, and the employees, they shouldn’t notice much change,” Roberts told Coastal Review Thursday. He stressed that the ferry has been “privately owned and publicly regulated in the past, it is now and it will be in the future. It’ll continue to be privately owned and publicly regulated.”

Limited announced May 31 plans to sell to SharpVue the ferry system and other assets. The $67.7 million transaction includes $56 million for the ferry and tram system, which is regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, as well as the nonregulated tug and freight barge operation, and Deep Point Parking facility in Southport. The state Utilities Commission must approve the transfer of ownership. 

Mitchell pioneered the hydraulic fracturing technique, or fracking, and was a real estate developer. The Mitchell family purchased in 1983 the Bald head Island’s unsold land, dedicating 200 acres of maritime forest as a preserve, and chose to depend on ferry access and golf carts as the primary modes of transportation.

“The George P. Mitchell family established and grew these infrastructure operations and assets to aid the Island’s development and this agreement transitions them to a reputable and experienced owner and operator with deep ties to North Carolina,” said Limited CEO Chad Paul in a statement regarding the sale to SharpVue. “Our team is committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition, for the benefit of islanders, employees, and the greater community.”

Roberts said that SharpVue was delighted to be able to acquire the assets from the estate. 

“Obviously the status quo isn’t really an option. Mr. Mitchell passed away in 2013. You can’t have assets administered indefinitely by the estate of someone who is no longer with us,” he said.

With the sale of the ferry that transports thousands of employees, contractors, visitors and vacationers daily to Bald Head Island, passengers may be wondering if fares will increase. Roberts said the company plan to keep fares unchanged for at least a year.

Round-trip tickets will continue to cost $23 for adults and $12 for ages 3-12 for general passengers. 

In 2021, according to the quarterly report submitted in February to the commission, the ferry served 376,399 total passengers. Of those, 142,850 were general passengers and 6,700 were younger than 12 and admitted at a reduced cost or free. “No frills” day visitors came to 9,915. There were also 31,898 contractor and 118,652 employee riders, 851 annual passes and 2,839 one-way tickets.

Roberts said the current management team and almost all the employees are staying in place, including the CEO and chief operating officer of the transportation company. 

However, the sale has been a contentious issue for some time.

For the past five years, the state-appointed Bald Head Island Transportation Authority has been working with Limited to purchase the regulated ferry and tram system with the intention of the system becoming public. 

Formed in 2017, with support of the village at the time, the authority is made up of residents of the village, Southport, Brunswick County and a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation. 

Had the authority purchased the ferry and tram as planned, it would have transitioned from being a privately owned transportation system to a publicly owned. The authority would have established rates, fees, charges, routes and schedules for transportation services.  

The authority’s purchase was to be funded with proceeds from revenue bonds, which would be paid “solely from the revenues of the Ferry Transportation System generated through passenger ferry ticket sales, barge and parking charges and other fees. Neither the State of North Carolina nor any local government other than the BHITA has any obligation to make payments on the revenue bonds,” according to the authority.

In December 2020, the authority voted to approve an asset purchase agreement with Limited to acquire the ferry and barge systems and assets for a total $47.75 million. The authority requested the Local Government Commission approve around $56 million in revenue bonds. 

Later that month, State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell asked the owners Limited to gift the entire system to the Village of Bald Head Island or the Bald Head Island Transportation Authority.

Village officials took issue with the “purchase price, transparency, governance, lack of responsiveness to Island concerns,” and other issues raised by various stakeholders, according to the village website, after the authority announced the asset purchase agreement. Village officials announced plans to take steps to independently purchase the system and assets March 19, 2021.

Limited officials provided a letter March 26, 2021, stating that they had no intention of negotiating with the village. 

Voters in the village approved a $54 million bond referendum in November 2021, and “the Village put forward our own proposal to acquire and operate the transportation system,” according to the June 1 response to the sale. The village assumed it would pay same purchase price as the authority of $47.75 million to Limited.

Meanwhile, the sale was tied up in the Local Government Commission for more than year because some members thought the appraisal value was too high.

The authority was denied a spot on the December 2021 agenda at the behest of State Auditor Beth Wood. She wrote in a letter to Folwell, chair of the Local Government Commission, that unanswered questions remained regarding the two appraisals of the ferry system’s assets.

“Until the applications to sell bonds to purchase the assets of Bald Head Island Transportation System is supported by a valuation/appraisal that accurately and reliably sets the value of the assets, no application should be allowed on the Commission agenda at any time,” Wood wrote. 

In a letter, Folwell honored Wood’s request. He explained that one of the many reasons Wood cited was that members of the commission “are bound by law to consider the applications and assessed value of the property subject to taxation and that the amount of borrowing is adequate and not excessive.”

At the end of May, the sale to SharpVue was announced. This came as no surprise to Susan Rabon, chair of the Bald Head Island Transportation Authority. She recently told Coastal Review that Limited had been transparent about their need to close the Mitchell estate. 

“This was no secret,” Rabon said. “The people involved had been telling both sides for a long time, ‘We’ve got to get this done one way or another because we need to close the Mitchell estate.’” She added that Limited had been patient with the process for the authority to secure the ferry and tram system.

This leaves the authority to work out the next steps.

During the June 15 authority board of trustees meeting, Rabon said the authority had been approached by SharpVue to discuss whether there might be a role for the authority in operating the system once SharpVue owns it.

“We told them we would be interested in hearing more and having those discussions, once we knew that the authority had sufficient funding to continue to operate for at least another quarter,” Rabon explained in a follow-up interview. “Bald Head Island Limited has expressed its willingness to provide additional funding to the authority to allow it to have those discussions with Sharpvue because it continues to believe that the best outcome for the users of the ferry system is to have a regional governmental authority as the operator of the system.”

Roberts told Coastal Review that the company would be remiss to not have a dialogue both with the transportation authority and with the village as important stakeholders. 

As for the transition of the ferry system and assets to SharpVue, the next step is closing the deal.

Roberts explained that the paperwork will be broken up into two parts: the nonregulated assets and the state-regulated ferry and tram system. 

Closing on everything but the ferry and tram should take place in the next 60 to 90 days. Closing on the ferry and tram will take place after approval by the Utilities Commission. Roberts said he intends to file that paperwork as soon as possible. 

Bald Head Island Ferry is one of eight ferry boat companies regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission and the transfer of ownership is subject to commission approval.

Lucy Edmondson, interim chief counsel for the Utilities Commission, explained in an email response to Coastal Review that the Bald Head Island Ferry is a public utility under North Carolina law and its rates and service are regulated by the state Utilities Commission. 

“While the application for approval of the transfer has not been filed yet. When it is filed, the Public Staff, which is the consumer advocate for ratepayers, will investigate the application for transfer and file testimony that will provide the results of its investigation and make a recommendation as to whether it is in the public interest for the ferry to be transferred,” she said.

HATTERAS  — In a bit of serendipity, the North Carolina Ferry Division celebrated its 75^th anniversary Monday morning by christening its modern new vessel, the Ocracoke Express, the first and only passenger ferry in the system. 

“It’s been a long time coming,” North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Eric Boyette said to a small gathering under the shaded terminal in front of the sleek Carolina blue and white ferry waiting at the dock. “But look at what we have. Look at this scene.”

Behind him, the blue-green water in Hatteras Inlet, the passage between Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, lapped gently against pilings, belying its recent five-day fury from a strong coastal low. But the morning’s bright sun and pleasant temperature added to the upbeat mashup of old and new milestones.

While giving a shoutout to the original ferry builder and operator Toby Tillett of Wanchese, who, along with his father, began ferrying cars across Oregon Inlet in the 1920s, Boyette couldn’t resist good-humored teasing of current N.C. Ferry Division director Harold Thomas of Newport.

“Harold might have been the first captain of that vessel,” he joked.

After remarks from Boyette, who was joined at the event by N.C. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary of Multimodal Transportation Julia White and Board of Transportation member for Division 1 Allen Moran, Hyde County Manager Kris Noble, wielding the requisite bottle of champagne, christened the Ocracoke Express with a hearty slam. 

The group was then invited to tour the shiny new vessel, which is captained by Marshall Foster, a native of Hatteras village who has worked for the division since 2012, and Anthony Gavetti, who, like Thomas, hails from Carteret County. The captains will be piloting the vessel all summer in split shifts of seven, 12-hour days. They agreed that operating the passenger ferry is considerably different than running the bigger vehicle ferries.

“It’s night and day,” Gavetti said while waiting in the pilot house before a quick jaunt for the media. “It’s just a completely different system.”

For instance, the Hatteras-class ferry engine is 1,200 horsepower and lumbers along at about 9 knots an hour, while the passenger ferry is 3,200 horsepower and can zip through the water at about 25 knots. The more agile catamaran-style vessel is highly maneuverable.  

“It’s new to us,” Gavetti said. “Of course, it’s fun.”

Equipped with 96 seats in its air-conditioned interior, the new ferry has 26 additional seats on its top deck, which is mostly open. The boat includes two wheelchair tie downs, 16 bicycle racks and a concession area for passengers to enjoy snacks and drinks during the trip between Hatteras and Ocracoke villages, which takes about 70 minutes each way.

Despite the considerable difference in speed from the vehicle ferries, the lighter passenger ferry travels directly to the village, whereas the vehicle ferry brings occupants to a dock on the north end of the island, 13 miles from the village. Although the passenger ferry requires tickets, which cost $5 each way, they can be reserved in advance, unlike the free Hatteras-Ocracoke vehicle ferries, which are first come, first served and can result in long waits during the busy season.

The impetus for the passenger ferry service was the need to address those long lines. Last year, a total of 16,594 people opted to hop on the passenger ferry, most of whom left their vehicle behind in the expanded parking lot by the Hatteras ferry dock.

When passengers are dropped off at the Silver Lake harbor dock in Ocracoke village, they can board a free tram to the village’s shops and attractions. There are also bicycles and golf carts available to rent in the village, or people can bring their own bicycles on the ferry for a $1 fee. The Ocracoke Express, which began ferrying passengers Tuesday, is scheduled for three trips a day from each side through Sept. 5.

Construction challenges

Not been smooth sailing for the passenger ferry, originally planned for launch in spring 2018, as set out in the $4.4 million contract with U.S. Workboats in Hubert in Onslow County.

Delays were blamed on difficulties with finding workers, among other problems, resulting in legal actions, including a $1,000-per-day fine against the contractors starting in August 2018. 

Ferry Division spokesman Tim Hass said the state paid $3.6 million of the $4.4 million total cost, but stopped paying April 22. Hass said further details about the fine were not immediately available.

“All the lawsuits (between NCDOT and U.S. Workboats) have been settled in our favor,” Hass said on Monday. 

US Watercraft, the commercial boatbuilding division of Waterline Systems, took over and finished construction of the aluminum ferry at the same waterfront facility in Hubert “after the original builder closed its doors,” according to a May 11 article published on the website Workboat. 

After building new infrastructure for the passenger ferry on both Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, the state had decided in 2019 to lease a similar passenger ferry from a private company until issues with the state vessel could be resolved and it could be completed.

Tillett’s ferry

Perhaps the spirit of innovation, adaptation and perseverance that it took to get the Ocracoke Express to launch day is rooted in the origins of the ferry system. That’s when Toby Tillett took over a tug-and-barge service in Oregon Inlet that could carry two cars at a time. Not long after, he decided to build a 45-foot-long ferry that could transport two vehicles, and he later expanded to a larger ferry that could carry more vehicles, according to an Outer Banks History Center video.

Considering that Oregon Inlet is one of the orneriest waterways on the East Coast, Tillett proved to be a remarkably skilled captain. In 25 years of running his ferries back and forth across the inlet notorious for its shifting shoals and powerful currents, Tillett not only never lost a vehicle, he was only ever out of service for a total of 15 days, the History Center reported.

Officially, Tillett sold his business to the state in 1951, but North Carolina had been subsidizing the tolls for his customers for years.

Tillett died in a tractor accident seven years after the sale, according to an obituary in the Coastland Times published Nov. 21, 1958.

“At one time or another,” the write-up said, “he had ferried just about every person living on Hatteras Island.”

Before the state purchased the Oregon Inlet service, it had established its first fully owned ferry run from the Dare County mainland at Manns Harbor to Roanoke Island in 1947.

Today, under the umbrella of the NCDOT, the Ferry Division, which operates the second-largest ferry system in the country, has seven routes, 21 ferries and 400 employees, according to the agency’s website. The system also includes a full-service shipyard, a dredge, tugs, barges, and other support vessels.

On average, the ferries annually transport more than 1.1 million vehicles and 2.5 million passengers, crossing the Currituck and Pamlico sounds and the Cape Fear, Neuse and Pamlico rivers. By far, the busiest route is the free Hatteras-Ocracoke service.

In addition to the new passenger ferry, the division also maintains an emergency route between Stumpy Point on the mainland and Rodanthe on Hatteras Island for when storm damage makes N.C. 12, the island’s only highway, impassible.

As part of the state’s transportation infrastructure, the ferry system has more than pulled its weight, Boyette told attendees at the event. In Cherry Point and Aurora, it brings people to their jobs every day. In Knott’s Island, it transports children to their schools. But the ferries are also big helpers after storms and other disasters, he said, transporting emergency workers and food, vehicles and fuel.

And the secretary credited the staff, “the heart of our system,” for its role over its 75 years of existence in helping communities and keeping things running despite challenges.

“This ferry system does a lot,” Boyette said. “It’s been a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system.”

The Coastal Resources Commission has given the state Department of Transportation approval to build a turnaround area for traffic where the existing part of N.C. 12 will come to a dead end after the Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge opens to vehicles, and to protect the turnaround from erosion, it is allowing construction of an unusual sandbag wall.

During its meeting Thursday in Beaufort, the commission granted the department a variance from state coastal management rules that prohibit the construction as planned.

The Rodanthe bridge, which is expected to open to traffic next month, bypasses the vulnerable section of N.C. 12 often called the “S-curves” or the “Rodanthe hot spot.”

Once the handle-shaped span is complete — it extends over the Pamlico Sound from the southern end of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and ties back into the existing highway at Rodanthe — NCDOT plans to relocate the N.C. 12 designation to the bridge and remove the existing roadway and the temporary sandbags that now run parallel to the highway through the refuge.

Last fall, NCDOT applied to modify the Coastal Area Management Area major permit for the project. The permit had only authorized NCDOT to build a paved driveway south of the refuge on existing N.C. 12, but not a turnaround area. The Division of Coastal Management denied NCDOT’s application because the proposed work is inconsistent with the commission’s oceanfront setback and sandbag rules. NCDOT then applied for the variance.

“Due to its location, DOT believes the Turnaround Site would be exposed to similar erosion, overwash, or other severe weather and tidal events typically experienced in the Rodanthe Hot Spot without protection from the proposed temporary sandbag structure on the north end of the Turnaround Site, running perpendicular to the existing sandbags running along existing NC 12,” according to the variance request. 

NCDOT Communications Officer Tim Hass with Division 1, which includes the Outer Banks, described for Coastal Review Friday the process ahead, now that the department has the approval it had sought.

“After the Rodanthe jug-handle bridge opens to traffic, the turnaround will be installed on old N.C. 12 to allow traffic to reverse direction where the road will dead end just south of the boundary of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. NCDOT will remove approximately 1.8 miles of pavement from the refuge in the area bypassed by the jug-handle bridge. NCDOT will install sandbags and a dune to protect the turnaround,” Hass explained.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Assistant General Counsel Christine A. Goebel explained to the commission Thursday that beach erosion, dune loss and damage to N.C. 12 have been particularly severe in the Rodanthe S-curves hot spot. The hot spot, which includes the southern end of the refuge, is characterized by low-lying land that transitions from sound shoreline and marsh to a flat beach and the ocean all within a few hundred feet.

“The Rodanthe hot spot is susceptible to shoreline erosion, overwash, coastal flooding, the loss of beach and dunes and sand cover. These circumstances can undermine the integrity of the road, making travel by the general public unsafe and forcing NCDOT to close the road,” she said.

Goebel also refreshed the commission on the work leading up to the request. In 2002, NCDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, along with other state and federal agencies, expanded the scope of an environmental study that originally started out as the “NC 12 Replacement of Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.” The expanded study looked at N.C. 12 from the southern end of Bodie Island across the Oregon Inlet and through the refuge to Rodanthe, or about 14 miles, including the S-curves.

In December 2010, FHWA announced plans for the N.C. 12 replacement of Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, and approved construction of the first phase of the project.

Goebel said that the Division of Coastal Management on Sept. 19, 2012, issued a Coastal Area Management Act major permit authorizing NCDOT to build the Bonner Bridge replacement. That work was completed in February 2019, when the 2.8-mile Marc Basnight Bridge, which spans Oregon Inlet, opened to traffic.

When the permit was issued in 2012, the final design was not complete for the next phases of the project. As a result, the CAMA major permit has been modified numerous times since to authorize subsequent phases of the project and related changes.

NCDOT was able to award a contract for design and construction of the jug-handle bridge in 2016, when the document recording proposed N.C. 12 improvements was issued. The document includes plans to remove 1.8 miles of N.C. 12 in the refuge and maintain the existing secondary state road for the turnaround. NCDOT also said it would transfer 19.27 acres of existing N.C. 12 easement back to the refuge to be restored to a natural state.

In September, NCDOT filed a request to modify the CAMA permit to build the paved turnaround and install the temporary sandbag structures on existing N.C. 12 south of the refuge boundary to protect the turnaround, Goebel said.

NCDOT proposed installing about 1,400 square feet of new asphalt on the landward side of the existing roadway to provide a safe turnaround for traffic within NCDOT’s existing right of way. NCDOT also proposed installing a temporary sandbag structure across the removed roadway bed, perpendicular to the shoreline, to protect the turnaround from erosion damage.

The temporary sandbags are white, trapezoidal-shaped and made of woven polypropylene and are to be placed in two adjoining rows perpendicular to the shoreline at the end of where existing N.C. 12 will end. One bag will be 50 feet long, 6 feet wide and 4 feet high and placed next to the turnaround. And next to it, a 50-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall sandbag will be placed, she said. Goebel reminded the commission that this type of alternative sandbag structure is like those for which the commission granted a variance in 2020 for use in Ocracoke, but that that sandbag wall was never built.

NCDOT’s permit modification request was denied by the division in a letter dated Oct. 25 because the proposed project didn’t meet the minimum 60-foot oceanfront setback and because the proposed sandbag structure would be perpendicular to the shore rather than parallel and white instead of tan, as required by commission rules. Further, the proposed size doesn’t meet allowed specifications.

NCDOT Special Deputy Attorney General Colin Justice said the existing CAMA permit included a paved driveway at the north end but did not include an area for travelers to safely turn around.

The project is expected to disturb about 6,000 square feet of land.

The narrow part of the island has some of the highest erosion rates on the North Carolina coast, Justice said, adding that the beach is flat and susceptible to overwash on both the ocean and sound sides. This resulted in numerous closures of the area in recent years.

PEA ISLAND — Sometime soon, possibly before spring, the 2.4-mile “jug handle” bridge bypassing the troubled S-curves just north of Rodanthe will open to traffic, and after it does, folks will still be able to access the national wildlife refuge here.

The bridge, with a projected 100-year lifespan, is seen as the only practical solution to maintaining the transportation corridor connecting Ocracoke and Hatteras Island with the northern Outer Banks. It was also the result of a legal settlement in 2015 that had halted the entire Bonner Bridge replacement project because of conservationists’ concerns about protecting the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

N.C. 12, the thin ribbon of highway that is the lifeline between the southern Outer Banks and the Marc C. Basnight Bridge over Oregon Inlet and Nags Head, is protected by a line of sand dunes. Where the road passes through the refuge, coastal storms regularly breach the dunes and create an impassable barrier. It typically takes two to three days before North Carolina Department of Transportation crews can reopen the road.

The S-curves are the most active area of Pea Island.

Looking Back: Elected Officials Praise Bridge Deal

Tim Hass, communications officer for NCDOT’s Divisions 1 and 2 and the Ferry Division, told Coastal Review the bridge should open for traffic in the next two to three months.

“The target at this point is late February or early March, but that is heavily dependent on weather and equipment,” he said.

When the bridge does open, about 2 miles of roadway extending north from Rodanthe through Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is to be removed, along with the sandbags that were put in place in an effort to slow the Atlantic Ocean’s encroachment.

“Pavement and sandbag removal on the S-curves will begin after (the bridge opens), and will likely take three to six months to complete,” Hass said.

Once the road is removed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuge, plans to maintain continued public access to the area.

“What we’ve got planned with NCDOT, where DOT is staging their equipment at the north end of the Rodanthe bridge on the ocean side, after they remove their equipment, that’ll be paved, and we’ll have a parking lot there. The public will be able to park there and have access to south end of the beach,” Pea Island and Alligator National Wildlife Refuge Manager Scott Lanier said.

“The paving of the north end parking lot will likely begin in January,” Hass said.

Other than the parking lot, there are no plans for trails or development. But the site is to remain open to the public except during shorebird or sea turtle nesting activity.

“The only time that I could envision a portion of that being closed would be during bird nesting season if we had tern nesting or something like that. And that would be just like we do on the rest of the beach,” Lanier said.

Removing the road and sandbags is an important part of restoring the natural resilience of the habitat. New Inlet, about 2.5 miles north of the planned parking lot, may be a model for what will happen as natural cycles return to the S-curves.

In August 2011, Hurricane Irene breached the dunes at the New Inlet area of Pea Island. That inlet has subsequently filled in and the Capt. Richard Etheridge Bridge is located where the breach once existed. As Lanier explained, he expects that after the sandbags and road are removed, the habitat will rebound.

“We anticipate that, just like up at the Etheridge Bridge, that becoming great habitat for nesting sea turtles and colonial nesting waterbirds,” he said. “When that bridge went over that spot and that little inlet filled in after Irene — it is heavily used by those species. So we anticipate something similar there as far as habitat creation goes. That little portion of the refuge part of the island will be able to function more naturally.”

Lanier said that it’s never their intention to keep people off that refuge.

“Our visitors are an important part of what we do, but that access just may be different in the future,” he added. “In order for someone to have appreciation of that resource, they have got to be able to experience that resource. So, by no means are we looking to keep people off for refuge.”

North Carolina’s ferry system has a fleet of 21 vehicle ferries, making it either tied with Washington as the largest state system in the country or the second largest — it really depends the measuring stick — and researchers are now looking at how to more sustainably power those vessels’ near-constant runs.

“(Washington is) the largest state-operated ferries because of the amount of people they move. We actually have the same number of vessels,” said Catherine Peele, the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division planning and development manager.

All of North Carolina’s ferries have one thing in common: Their engines are powered by diesel fuel. While that isn’t going to change right away, the Ferry Division and the Coastal Studies Institute on Roanoke Island have studies underway that may lead to changes in how the state ferries are powered.

“The current administration and the IMO, the International Maritime Organization, are really focused on decarbonization of maritime transportation. Ferries, I think, are going to be a start in that direction,” George Bonner, director of Renewable Ocean Energy at the institute, recently told Coastal Review.

The project is part of the federal Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project, or ETIPP, Bonner added, explaining that the work he is doing with ferries and how they can be powered may at some point be applicable for isolated island communities like Ocracoke.

“For Ocracoke, what we’re helping with is how could the grid support electrification of ferries,” he said. “Our goal is to install a microgrid,”

In addition to the ETIPP research, the Ferry Division has its own project. As Peele explained, the ferry routes that Bonner is studying are long-haul routes, but many of the ferry crossings in the state are much shorter. The Knotts Island and Cherry Branch ferries are examples and are smaller vessels that use less energy.

“We have Western Carolina (University) doing our research project for us. It’s all about electrification of our short-haul route,” Peele said.

The electrification of ferry fleets has already begun. Not in the United States but internationally, especially in Europe.

“There’s a lot going on in Europe with electric ferries,” Bonner said.

For Bonner, electrifying ferries represents more than a way to recharge a battery using solar, wind, wave power or some yet-undiscovered source of alternative energy. The current research could pave the way for more reliable delivery of new energy sources.

“I’m excited about it because it opens up an opportunity. Maybe marine energy could play a part in supporting the shoreside energy needs,” he said.

An immediate priority is determining how that energy can be created, stored and ultimately transferred to the vessels. The work so far has yet to find a single, perfect solution.

“We’ve talked to several operators already,” Peele said, noting the British Columbia ferries and the Niagara Falls sightseeing boat, Maid of the Mist, that run on electric power. “People are moving toward electric, and we’re learning that one size doesn’t fit all. It depends on your boat, what you’re carrying, how many people or cars you’re carrying, how long that trip is.”

Yet some concepts are beginning to take shape. A form of stored hydrogen energy may be part of the solution, but for now, batteries appear to be the most likely way forward. What is still being explored is the best way to keep batteries charged, which is where the “one size doesn’t fit all” research is focused.

“What would be required on the grid side?” Bonner asked. “What kind of storage, would you need to have more capacity for the Ocracoke and Hatteras ferries?”

Unanswered questions also include how to generate that energy, Bonner noted.

“I don’t think you’re going to solve it with how much solar can you put in or how much wind can you put in. You’ve got to have other solutions,” he said.

That’s where sources such as tidal energy, wave energy and other forms of stored energy could come into play.

The propulsion systems that the Department of Transportation and Bonner at the institute are considering are electric motors and energy storage. Questions include the best ways to recharge the battery, or whether the battery should be recharged onboard the vessel or replaced between trips.

“You could have battery systems that you roll on and roll off. You have a concept where you have batteries, and you have a universal size for that ferry and that’s your power. It’s a quick operation. You can switch out these large batteries and roll a new one on. The advantage to that is you don’t have to worry about transferring the power from the shoreside to the vessel,” Bonner said.

It is still too early to estimate costs to convert to an all-electric fleet, or how that might be accomplished. Will it be gradual as boats age out and new ones are brought in? Will existing ferries be converted? There is also no clear idea on what the infrastructure will cost to support the conversion or what additional training or personnel will be needed.

But there is encouraging data available on the maintenance costs, something that Peele was quick to point out.

“In Europe, the motor vessel Ampere is world’s first all-electric (car) ferry in Norway. And they experienced an 80% reduction in operations and maintenance costs and a 95% reduction in emissions, compared to a diesel-powered vessel,” she said.

Updated 3:30 p.m. to include comment from Gov. Roy Cooper.

Prospects for major federal infrastructure legislation that would send billions to North Carolina for resiliency, transportation, ports and clean water projects improved dramatically this week with the announcement of a new framework agreement calling for $1.2 trillion in spending over the next eight years.

The final draft of the legislation has yet to be introduced, but a procedural vote in the Senate Wednesday evening drew 17 Republican supporters, seven more than needed to overcome a filibuster, including North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr. All 50 Senate Democrats voted for the measure.

Tillis joined a bipartisan group of 20 senators hailing the agreement.

“We appreciate our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and the administration, working with us to get this done and we look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support among our Senate colleagues for this historic legislation,” the statement read in part.

If it were to become law — a big if, but far more likely today than Tuesday — the legislation would be the largest public infrastructure investment since the creation of the Interstate Highway System in the mid-1950s.

“I support the bipartisan infrastructure package advanced by the Senate as it will help North Carolina emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever,” Gov Roy Cooper said Friday in a response provided by staff. “Funding for roads, bridges, public transit, rail, high speed internet access and more will help our communities recover and become more resilient to natural disasters.” 

How the funds would be prioritized and distributed and any appropriations for specific projects or initiatives are to be spelled out in the days ahead as the Senate debates amendments on the bill, but a spending breakdown in a fact sheet distributed by the White House after the deal was announced offers a first look at the initial $579 billion in spending.

It includes the largest federal burst of resiliency funding with $47 billion designated for both infrastructure and projects in natural and working lands. 

The largest portion of the framework is $312 billion for transportation with $109 billion for roads, bridges and other major projects, $49 billion for public transit, $66 billion for passenger and freight rail upgrades, $25 billion for airports, and $16 billion for ports and waterways, which includes $2.5 billion designated for ferry systems.

The prospect of a major boost in federal funding comes as high growth and aging infrastructure is driving discussions about how to increase transportation spending. A recent state report calls for an increase of $20 billion in transportation investments over the next decade.

Broadband infrastructure aimed at rural and underserved communities would receive $65 billion in funding. Water infrastructure, including a plan to eliminate the use of lead pipes in all public water systems, is budgeted at $55 billion.

Another $71 billion would be used to upgrade the nation’s power grid. Accelerated Superfund site cleanup and other environmental remediation would be funded at $21 billion.

Although at this point the exact impact in North Carolina is hard to discern, the size of the framework agreement portends an unprecedented surge of funds should the bill become law. And it could be just the start.

Democrats intend to link the legislation with a larger $3.5 trillion bill aimed at housing, schools, caregiving assistance and research innovations. That legislation would move through the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority to pass.

It also includes large-scale investments in green energy and climate resiliency, including flood mitigation and solutions focused on the use of natural and working lands, areas that dovetail with state efforts proposed in this year’s North Carolina General Assembly session.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that resiliency is a key part of the plan.

“Americans will strengthen our infrastructure, like our levees, in the face of extreme weather like superstorms, wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and heat waves,” Biden said in a statement.

The White House fact sheet also touts the framework agreement as “the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history” 

It notes that road and bridge improvements will be focused on “climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.”

In interviews following the announcement of the Senate framework, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said climate mitigation and resiliency will be an important part of the overall transportation strategy and part of the requirements for any projects seeking funding. 

Forward progress

U.S. Senate leaders intend to move forward on both the infrastructure deal and the reconciliation package in the coming weeks. The legislation would then move to the House.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would only take up the bills in tandem.

U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat who represents the state’s 4th district that includes the Triangle, chairs a key House appropriations subcommittee, called the Senate infrastructure deal an important step forward in investing in communities in North Carolina.

“While narrower than I would prefer, this compromise plan includes vital investments in roads, bridges, ports, and water infrastructure that would benefit all North Carolinians,” Price said Thursday. “I’m pleased to see it also includes plans to mitigate future natural disasters, like hurricanes and threats from rising sea levels, by funding climate resilience for infrastructure construction and upgrades.”

Price, who chairs the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, stressed that the larger reconciliation plan remains necessary as well.

“While this package represents progress, we cannot lose sight of America’s pressing need for a broader package that makes simultaneous investments in affordable housing, climate resiliency, and our care infrastructure,” he said.

The White House fact sheet on the Senate framework includes the following funding levels:

*New spending + baseline (over 5 years) = $973B

*New spending + baseline (over 8 years) = $1,209B

As sea levels continue to rise, the most imperiled spot on North Carolina’s vulnerable Outer Banks is likely on Ocracoke Island, where an erosion hot spot threatening its sole highway is past due for a long-term transportation solution, including potentially bypassing the north end of the island.

“I’d say on N.C. 12, this is probably the top priority, if not very close to the top priority,” Paul Williams, North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 1 environmental officer, told members of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission during its April 28 meeting, which was held virtually.

“Just seeing what the precarious situation is,” he continued, “you’ve got ferry access to this island that needs to be maintained, and Hatteras access is essential.”

But N.C. 12, the two-lane highway perched mere inches above sea level, squeezed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound and stretching nearly 65 miles on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands alone, has numerous issues and needs an overall long-term plan, Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, said during his opening comments at the April 19 meeting.

“And that’s not in the mix right now,” he said. “We’re reactive.”

Woodard said he had initiated the formation of the N.C. 12 Task Force as a collaborative body to develop a long-term plan with resilient solutions to address current and future challenges “related to storms, erosion and sea level rise.”

And we’re going to try to identify funding strategies and a timeline for implementing this,” he said.

Members will represent task force partners Dare County, Hyde County, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and the North Carolina Department of Transportation, and a stakeholders group will include members of the public and from other interests such as nonprofit and community organizations. It is to meet monthly.

“There’ll be all kinds of folks involved,” the chairman said. “We need to touch base with every single entity that this would impact.”

Williams, who was named as a member of the N.C. 12 Task Force, said that part of the essential work for the panel will be updating previous feasibility studies that were completed by the former Outer Banks Task Force. That panel, which met on and off from the early 1990s until it was eventually replaced by the Bonner Bridge replacement merger team, included representatives of numerous agencies as well as coastal scientists.

Its work led to studies of the six erosion hot spots identified in 1991 on N.C. 12, including the one on the north end of Ocracoke. Over the years, projects were done to address some of the most vulnerable spots, including road relocation and beach nourishment. But Williams said that much of the data from those studies will have to be updated.

A big hurdle for NCDOT right now is funding, and Williams said he is hopeful that the new task force will be helpful in finding sources of money for projects such as the long-term solution for Ocracoke. The transportation department will keep repairing the dunes, putting in more sandbags and fixing the road as long as it can, he said, but it can’t go on indefinitely.

“These sandbags are temporary,” he said. “We don’t intend to leave them there in perpetuity.”

At the same time, erosion has created severe problems at South Dock ferry basin, where the Ocracoke-Hatteras ferries come in on Ocracoke Island’s north end.

In his presentation to the Coastal Resources Commission Wednesday, Williams described how the same area on N.C. 12,  about 5 miles south of the ferry terminal, had been battered by storm after storm for three years in a row, often undoing sandbag installation and rebuilt dunes and sometimes roadbed repairs that had recently been completed.

According to NCDOT records for Ocracoke, the last repair project, including 6,350 linear feet of sandbags, that was completed in February cost about $1.7 million. The total costs for N.C. 12 storm-related recovery on Ocracoke from 2010 to 2021 is $15,142,646.

“And it’s only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens and South Dock is cut off from the rest of Ocracoke Island,” he said. “Everybody’s aware of the necessity of having that connection to Hatteras Island for Ocracoke.”

An addendum completed last April to a 2016 NCDOT feasibility study of long-term solutions to the erosion on the north end of Ocracoke added two alternatives — Options A and B of Alternative 7 — that would bypass the north end of the island and construct a new ferry terminal about mid-island near where the National Park Service Pony Pens are located. Differences between the options include a bridge to the terminal and a location in deeper water.

According to the addendum, the new terminal location would add about 15 to 45 minutes to the current one-hour ferry ride between Hatteras and Ocracoke, depending on the vessel used. As a result, the number of ferry trips per day, per vessel would be reduced. The difference could be made up with additional ferries and staff.

Vehicles would have a shorter ride to the village, but only off-road vehicles would have access to the north end of the island because the paved road would be removed and used as an extended area for the ponies.

Costs for new terminal options range between $57.2 million and $87.2 million, not including costs for additional vessels, staff and fuel.

Williams said that the project is currently being scored by rankings in the State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP. If it scores well, the project would be scheduled in the program, and the process of securing engineering and permitting could begin.

“Because of COVID(-19), there’s a lot of delays in getting projects scored right now,” he said. “There’s still budget constraints with DOT, so I don’t know what the outcome of that scoring will be, or what the chances are of this project getting funded anytime soon.”

With the state’s new focus on resiliency, Williams said he is optimistic that the N.C. 12 Task Force will be able to find some funding pot.

“Everybody seems to be very enthusiastic about looking at solutions for N.C. 12 on a long-term basis, really focusing in on resiliency as a reason for funding some these potentially really expensive projects,” he said. “Under the current STIP formula, it’s going to be really hard to fund really big projects with N.C. 12.”

But even if a giant pot of money for the project magically appeared tomorrow, there is still a lot to be worked out about engineering and design decisions.

For instance, the National Park Service, which owns most of the island except private property in the village, would consider whether it would be beneficial for the Silver Lake ferry traffic to also use the new terminal.

But that is just a potential option, said Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac.

“We do support the most sustainable solution for solving the South Dock crisis,” he said in an interview, saying that a single terminal situated in deep water is among numerous ideas, but not one that anyone feels strongly about.

“We think it’s worth further exploration,” Hallac added.

Hallac emphasized that he wants to work with the community and is open to hearing all ideas. But the increasing rate of erosion on the north end of the island doesn’t provide the luxury of time.

“Some may say that terminal may be a terminal to nowhere soon,” Hallac said.

Justin LeBlanc, chairman of the Ocracoke Waterways Commission, said that the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry operation is critical to the island’s tourism-based economy. Eighty percent of the ferry traffic to Ocracoke comes from Hatteras, he said, and that route represents half of the traffic in the entire state ferry system.

“The Hatteras Inlet ferry route is facing numerous challenges,” he said. “I don’t know if (the new terminal) is the right answer or not. I do know that the village of Ocracoke has not been as engaged in that conversation as it needs to.”

In general, the community needs to hash out the best option, agreed Randal Mathews, the Hyde County Board of Commissioners member from Ocracoke, and to have their ideas and concerns taken seriously.

At least one villager thinks that if the ferry terminal was moved and the road taken up from the north end, “that’s the end of Ocracoke,” Mathews said. Whether or not that viewpoint is shared by others is not clear, he said, but at this point in the process, there’s no consensus on the island about the best approach.

As someone who fishes, kite boards and surfs, Mathews says he understands the complexity of the island’s environment, and appreciates the need to protect it.

“I just have a hard time accepting that we’re going to let part of Ocracoke go back to nature,” he said. “Somebody is apparently pushing this. It’s not anybody on Ocracoke.”

There are still a lot of questions to be asked and answered about beach nourishment, bridging, dredging, submerged vegetation, and other options and issues, said Mathews, a long-time resident who is married to a native islander.

“I think we’ll work well with all these agencies,” he said about public input into the proposed plan. “But don’t give us lip service. Don’t even ask that want my input and then go ahead and make your own decision.”

OCRACOKE ISLAND — If the ferries can’t run to and from this southernmost Outer Banks island, the community is isolated, and its tourism economy crashes.

It’s a threat that has become all too real.

The reduced schedule was extended Monday through April 12, as an Army Corps of Engineers dredge continues work to clear the channel.

Meanwhile, a worsening hot spot along N.C. 12 on the north end of the island has been damaged and repaired so often it is nearly unsalvageable. But if the next storm destroys that section of the island’s only highway, it will leave vehicle traffic on the island with no access for many months from Hatteras, the busiest of the state’s eight ferry routes.

To coastal residents who view ferries as their version of bridges or mass transit, operation of the vessels is critical to their economic survival and passage to the rest of the state. But the final report from the NC First Commission, an ad hoc panel established in March 2019 to advise the state’s transportation secretary in the formation of a sustainable long-range investment strategy, offers little comfort for those worried about the condition of the ferry system — nor the ability of the fiscally starved North Carolina Department of Transportation, which oversees the Ferry Division, to address it.

According to the report, “North Carolina is facing a trifecta of transportation investment crises: determining the appropriate investment amount, identifying and securing viable revenue options to meet short-term infrastructure needs, and creating a long-term, sustainable investment strategy to replace an eroding 20th century revenue model.”

Overall, NCDOT’s increasingly severe budget stress came to a crisis point just before the pandemic and has since then only been aggravated by revenue losses due to COVID-19-related shutdowns and drastically decreased travel. Findings in the NC First final report in January warned of a future of rising construction costs, eroding motor fuels tax base and increasing risk of diminished federal revenue.

The annual budget for NCDOT is currently $5.1 billion. More than 75% of the department’s funding comes from what NC First characterizes as outmoded and depleted sources: the Motor Fuels Tax, the Highway Use Tax and Division of Motor Vehicles fees. Some also comes from federal fuels taxes.

Several different funding methods the report looked at could include implementing new user fees, increasing highway use and other taxes and fees, and eliminating certain exemptions.

Another big contribution to NCDOT’s budget woes has been a precipitous number of annual declared and nondeclared disasters. In 2009, the number of disasters statewide totaled 33, but in 2019 there were 296. There were 161 disasters in 2014, 200 in 2017 and 171 in 2018. Prior to 2013, disaster recovery costs averaged about $50 million annually, which matched what the agency had budgeted. But costs have since skyrocketed to an average of $165 million a year. In 2019, disaster costs jumped to $296 million.

But, as the report detailed, many of the disasters did not qualify for federal emergency disaster funds. As it is, the state has not been able to keep up with even routine maintenance of the vast amount of roadway for which it is responsible.

“North Carolina is the ninth most populous state and it maintains the second highest state-owned highway mileage in the nation,” the report found, “yet it invests far less than nearly any other state, ranking 44th for per-mile investment in state-maintained roads. The following analyses of multiple metrics from eight peer states reveal that North Carolina comparatively underfunds transportation in state-maintained roads.”

Considering the negative ramifications of a deteriorated transportation system, the report recommended that the state increase funding for NCDOT by a minimum of $2 billion a year, or $20 billion over the next decade.

Although “NCDOT leadership is working through the biennium budget process,” according to a recent email from Jamie Kritzer, a department spokesman, it is not yet clear how much of the transportation needs will be addressed by June 30, when the North Carolina General Assembly finalizes the state spending plan.

“The budget will reflect DOT’s most important priority,” he wrote, “which is maintaining a safe transportation network for the traveling public.”

Kritzer added that the Ferry Division continues to seek “opportunities to enhance service through improved business practices and more efficient processes,” including vessel upkeep.

In the Ferry Division alone, according to the NC First report, unmet needs include 63 maintenance, capital construction and IT projects. Projects range from rehabilitating, replacing or adding vessels to expanding and/or improving ferry terminals.

In fiscal 2020, the division spent $57.1 million to operate seven year-round routes and one seasonal route, as well as storm-related emergency evacuations and deliveries. Ferry toll revenue is used to pay for new vessels.

“The Ferry Division plans on vessel replacements based on vessel age and frequency of maintenance being incurred,” the agency said in a recent email, responding to an inquiry from Coastal Review. “On average, replacement projects cost $18 million for Sound Class and $14 million for River Class and Hatteras Class vessels. There are nine vessels that, based on current conditions, have been identified to have rehabilitation projects performed that would extend the life by 15 years. On average, the approximate cost for a rehabilitation project is $10 million.”

Plans to replace two 31-year-old river-class ferries, the Chicamacomico and the Kinnakeet, are underway, according to the email. The Silver Lake, a 52-year-old sound-class vessel, is budgeted to be replaced in 2024. The Croatoan, which is 17 years old, the Cedar Island, which is 26 years old, and the Carteret, which is 32 years old, have been identified for rehabilitation within the next few years.

Tolling the currently free-to-ride Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route or other tolling changes would have to be recommended from a coastal regional planning group and is “not on the department’s agenda at this time,” the division email said.

Despite numerous obstacles to ferry ridership in 2020, including COVID-19 restrictions and a temporary closing due to a ramp project at Southport, there were still 480,581 vehicles that rode the ferries statewide. Of those, 185,565 used the Ocracoke route.

In 2016, NCDOT, working closely with the National Park Service and Hyde County, did a study of the Ocracoke hot spot, which extends about 5 miles south from the ferry terminal on the north side of the island, confusingly known as South Dock, from where the Hatteras Inlet ferry operates.

Severe erosion and storm damage has affected not only the hot spot — one of six identified in 1991 on N.C. 12, the only highway on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands — but also the channel the ferries use as they enter the terminal from Pamlico Sound.

Ocean and sound surge during storms, especially tropical storms and hurricanes, has repeatedly destroyed the dunes along N.C. 12 at the hot spot and sometimes the pavement, resulting in prolonged closures and expensive repairs.

Solutions proposed in the 2016 study included beach nourishment, bridging and road elevation and/or widening, but DOT never moved forward with the plan.

A study addendum with a seventh alternative was released in April 2020 that proposed relocation of the Hatteras Inlet terminal to north of Ocracoke Village. Although the alternative was identified in the 2016 feasibility study, it did not provide any specific information on locations, impacts or designs. The new study provides detailed descriptions and findings.

The proposed new ferry terminal defined in the addendum would be located 6 miles north of the village and one mile south of the Pony Pens where the National Park Service keeps Ocracoke ponies in a large, fenced area on the west side of the road. Under the proposal, if the old terminal is decommissioned, all N.C. 12 pavement and structures between the new and old terminals would be removed. Officials with Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which except for the village, owns most of the land on the island, have also expressed interest in expanding the pony area if the pavement is removed.

No action has been taken on the proposal, Kritzer said in the email.

“Currently, the N.C. Department of Transportation does not have an identified project or funding at this location,” he said. “A project of this nature will have to compete and be funded through the State Transportation Improvement Program (STI).”

The North Carolina Ports Authority’s proposed project to deepen and widen the Wilmington harbor was authorized under a federal omnibus bill signed into law last month.

Now the Army Corps of Engineers’ must receive appropriations to study the project’s impacts, complete an environmental impact statement of the project, and fulfill the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, process.

Emily Winget, a public affairs specialist with the Corps’ Wilmington District, said in an email that the agency does not yet have a time frame for when a draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, will be available for review.

“First, we need to receive a budget for and receive appropriations for an investigation,” Winget said. “After, we must complete the required feasibility report and integrated NEPA documents for Congress. Then we must budget for and receive appropriations for design, engineering, and construction. This project must meet NEPA requirements. Although quite a bit of work has been done to support the NEPA process, we’re still in early stages of developing the draft EIS. A schedule will be developed following receipt of appropriations.”

Various environmental groups, a Brunswick County Beach town and the Brunswick County Branch of the NAACP have raised concerns about whether the proposed project will be fully vetted through the NEPA process.

The project was the first in the United States to be funneled through former President Trump’s amended Section 203 of the Water Resources Development Act, which allows ports to kick off projects more expeditiously by paying for their own feasibility and environmental studies, rather than waiting for federal funding.

Nonfederal-sponsored projects, such as those led by states or state agencies like the ports authority, have to get federal authorization before moving forward and, in order to receive federal funds, projects must complete the NEPA process, which is headed by the Corps of Engineers.

NEPA includes soliciting public comments.

Up to this point, critics of the plan argue that the public has had little opportunity to engage in a conversation with ports officials about the proposed project.

“The port has continued to be totally secretive and not forthcoming with anything,” said Bill Cary, an attorney representing the Village of Bald Head Island. “Every time this has come up and I’ve talked to the Corps they have been pretty adamant that a full, vigorous NEPA review will happen and it will be fuller than the last time because of the way that the project is described.”

Within the past 15 years, more than $47 million has been spent on a multitude of erosion mitigation projects on Bald Head Island’s shores where, village officials maintain, sand loss has been exacerbated since 2000 when the Cape Fear River’s navigation channel was deepened, widened and realigned closer to the island’s west and south beaches.

The Brunswick County Branch of the NAACP has raised concerns about the proposed project’s potential affects to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, environmental justice communities, as well as the overall environment of the Cape Fear River and adjoining waterways.

How larger vessels traveling more than 20 miles up the Cape Fear River to the Wilmington port and back may affect shoreline erosion has to be assessed and reviewed under NEPA, Cary said.

“NEPA includes an assessment of the purpose and need and looking at all the direct impacts,” he said. “I think there’s some real questions about the purpose and need. The ships that they can attract are already coming. They increased the turning basin and now those ships are coming.”

The ports’ draft feasibility study calls for deepening the main shipping channel through the Cape Fear River from 42 feet to 47 feet and the ocean entrance to the river from 44 feet to 47 feet and widening the channel in multiple areas.

Those new depths and widths would allow the Wilmington port to remain competitive with other East Coast ports by making room for larger container ships coming to the East Coast from Asia, according to the state ports authority.

The changes would accommodate vessels that can carry 14,000 20-by-8-foot shipping containers, which can be transported through the Panama Canal since its expansion in 2016.

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James in 2019 kicked back the ports authority’s initial draft study, saying it needed significant revisions before he would pass along his recommendation to Congress for approval.

James later approved an updated study.

In a Jan. 5 news release, the Corps’ Wilmington District noted it will have to receive funding “to address modifications or conditions the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) considers appropriate and prepare a final assessment that addresses concerns, recommendations, and conditions identified in the Secretary’s prior review assessment.”

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done on the part of the ports authority to get this project where it needs to be if it goes forward,” said Ramona McGee, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office.

The law center, on behalf of Audubon North Carolina, Cape Fear River Watch, Defenders of Wildlife, North Carolina Coastal Federation and North Carolina Wildlife Federation, submitted letters to the Corps in October and November last year raising concerns about the federal agency’s request of the state to eliminate the environmental window for hopper dredging channels at the ports.

The state Division of Coastal Management recently approved the Corps’ request, removing the hopper dredge environmental window for the next three years.

Attorneys argue in those letters that the Corps’ draft environmental assessment examining the potential impacts of dredging within the environmental window, Dec. 1-April 15, does not address additional impacts of working in a wider, deeper channel proposed in the port project.

Dredging in the new, proposed footprint will be addressed in a future study, Winget said.

“The focus of the Deep Draft EA is maintenance of the currently authorized outer portions of Wilmington Harbor and Morehead City Harbor,” she said in an email. “The (Wilmington Harbor Navigation Improvement Project) will involve new work dredging and those impacts will be addressed in the WHNIP EIS.”

The Wilmington harbor project received authorization under the Water Resources Development Act, which was included in a massive, $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package signed Trump signed into law Dec. 27, 2020.

The omnibus spending bill also included the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which appropriates $53 million to Wilmington District’s operations and maintenance projects. Those projects include maintenance dredging of several deep and shallow draft navigation harbors and channels as well as funding for flood risk management, hydropower operations, environmental stewardship, and recreation at the John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir in Virginia and North Carolina.

After being out of service for nearly two years, the Parker’s cable ferry that crosses the Meherrin River in Hertford County went back to work Tuesday.

The only other cable ferries in the state are the San Souci Ferry that crosses the Cashie River in Bertie County and the Elwell Ferry that crosses the Cape Fear River in Bladen County. The cable ferries carry no more than two vehicles and are guided across the river by cables connected to both shores.

Parker’s Ferry service was suspended in November 2018 for a major overhaul of the vessel, which included a new engine, propulsion system and hydraulics, as well as a complete refurbishment of the vessel’s hull, said North Carolina Department of Transportation officials Tuesday.

“We’re very pleased to be returning the Parker’s Ferry to service for the people of Hertford County. We’re confident that this recent overhaul will keep this important and historic transportation option in operation for many years to come,” Tim Hass, communications officer for NCDOT, told Coastal Review Online.

NCDOT contracted with Hunt’s Enterprises of Ahoskie to operate the ferry.

The overhaul of the vessel was completed earlier this year, but the Parker’s Ferry’s return to the river was delayed due to budget issues related to COVID-19.

Hertford County commissioners in April passed a resolution requesting funding for ferry operations from the state for the continued operation of Parker’s Ferry transportation services. The resolution states that NCDOT would on June 13 cancel the ferry operations contract, prompting commissioners to respond that the funds lost will have “a particular adverse effect on the economy beyond that of COVID-19.”

The department has operated the ferry since the 1930s, though versions of the ferry have been used to travel across the Meherrin River since the early 1900s.

The Sans Souci Ferry returned to service Aug. 22, which was suspended in June due to COVID 19-related budget issues.

“We are extremely pleased to be returning the Sans Souci ferry to service,” said NCDOT Division One Engineer Sterling Baker in the release. “We know it’s very important to the people of Bertie County, both as a form of transportation and a part of local history.”

The Sans Souci Ferry connects Woodard Road and San Souci Road over the Cashie River in rural Bertie County. Like Parker’s Ferry, NCDOT has operated the ferry since the 1930s. Similar versions of this ferry have been transporting passengers across the Cashie River since the 1800s, according to NCDOT.

Both San Souci and Parker’s ferries were built in the 1970s. The last refurbishments were 12 to 15 years ago.

The Sans Souci Ferry underwent a yearlong overhaul from October 2017 to November 2018 to allow for a complete overhaul and rebuilt the gear house and other accessories on the boat. The total cost of the overhaul was $100,000.

“Sans Souci and Parker’s ferries have become a bit of a tourist attraction in their areas. People actually drive out of their way to take a ride on them. Both Bertie and Hertford counties were fairly adamant about restoring service as soon as possible when they were out of service,” Hass said in an interview.

When asked if there are any plans to replace the two ferries with bridges, Hass explained that “Both the Sans Souci and Parker’s ferries are at the end of unpaved roads, so building a bridge would involve paving roads as well. The daily traffic counts on these roads would not justify the cost of building bridges.”

The Elwell Ferry that transports travelers across the Cape Fear River was suspended in early 2020 after the death of the contractor and has yet to resume service.

Andrew Barksdale, public relations officer for NCDOT, said that earlier this year, around January or February, NCDOT suspended service after the contractor died.

“Before we could advertise for a new bidder, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and that severely hurt our revenues as a department. By late March, we stopped entering into any new contracts or awarding any new projects that were not mission critical – or an emergency,” he said in an interview. “Thus, we have not yet resumed the Elwell Ferry service.”

Barksdale said the intention is to resume that service sometime in 2021. NCDOT has indicated that the closure will end on Dec. 31 on the traveler information website, but that’s just a placeholder. “We’ll update as soon as we have more information,” he said.

“As an aside, over the past few years, it was operational only about 50% of the time. This was mostly due to high river levels – we’ve had a lot of wet seasons and months over the past few years,” said Barksdale. The Elwell Ferry averaged 25 a day to 70 a day, depending on the time of year.

In 1905, brothers Walter Hayes Russ and John Roland Russ petitioned the Bladen County commissioners to be allowed to operate what’s now the Elwell Ferry, named for an early family in the area, according to the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Before the state took over operation of inland ferries in the 1930s, Elwell ferry was rowed or paddled across the river by the brothers, who were paid by Bladen County. Mules and wagons were the primary passengers until 1916 when motor-powered vehicles came to the county.

The state built larger flats and used cable to pull the vessel. Around 1939, the state installed a gas engine. Three years later, Walter Russ died in an explosion caused by the poorly ventilated fumes igniting in the bilge. Until 1952 the Elwell Ferry was the only river crossing between Wilmington and Elizabethtown, which are 65 miles apart. That year a bridge was built 12 miles from the ferry. Traffic slowed on the ferry but the vessel continues to carry about 60 vessels per day, according to the state.

The inland cable ferries are just one aspect of how COVID-19 budget issues have affected NCDOT.

NCDOT is expecting a $300 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ended June 30, and anticipates significant financial impacts in the next fiscal year, according to officials.

NCDOT depends on the Motor Fuels Tax, Highway Use Tax and DMV fees. However, traffic volumes decreased significantly while residents were staying home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This impacted revenue streams that pay for the transportation system.

In April, NCDOT notified local governments, stakeholders and the public that all but about 50 major projects planned to begin in the next 12 months were delayed because of budget issues. Additionally, the department in April said it was only allowing critical purchases, laying off temporary and embedded consultants, suspending or decreasing programs and services, and had instituted a hiring freeze.

Projects that are funded by Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE, bonds, BUILD NC state transportation bonds and federal grants will move forward.​  NCDOT has also published a list of projects that have schedule changes​.

In May, NCDOT announced that the department fell below the statutorily mandated cash floor of $293 million. The new cash floor was set at $267,322,500 in July under Session Law 2020-91​. According to state law, once the department falls below the cash floor, it can no longer enter into new contracts that spend money on transportation projects.

A coalition of 17 environmental groups, including four from North Carolina, is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of changes to federal rules sought by the Trump administration they charge will gut environmental review.

Attorneys for Clean Air Carolina, MountainTrue, the Haw River Assembly and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, along with groups from Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama, filed a motion Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville asking for a preliminary injunction to stop a major rule rewrite for the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

The coalition says the NEPA overhaul was rammed through without proper review under the Administrative Procedure Act and if allowed to take effect would erase major wetlands protections, ignore environmental justice concerns and eliminate consideration of cumulative impacts, including climate change.

Kym Hunter, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and a lead counsel in the case, said the rule is being rushed into place and is written in a way that could affect both new projects and those that are already under review under the old rule.

“The rule will go into effect on September 14, 2020 and in addition to applying to new projects can apply to projects already in process,” Hunter said Wednesday in an email response to Coastal Review. “In many cases the changes will mean that a project is no longer subject to NEPA so we won’t even know what is happening.”

The motion cites several projects in North Carolina that are either under NEPA review or are soon to likely to be, including a port expansion and railroad realignment in Wilmington, the Mid-Currituck Bridge, N.C. 12 work, Chatham Parkway in a sensitive area of Chatham County and the Catawba Crossing Project in Gaston County.

A draft of the new NEPA rule, which includes 66 pages of changes, was proposed Jan. 10 by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In the 60-day comment period that followed, it drew more than 1 million comments. On July 15, four months after the close of the comment period, the council issued a new rule that very closely the mirrored the original.

Administration officials, including the president, have pushed for the changes.

In a Jan. 10 announcement in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Trump cited the Marc Basnight Bridge as an example of projects that took too long to build.

“We’ll not stop until our nation’s gleaming new infrastructure has made America the envy of the world again,” Trump said. “It used to be the envy of the world, and now we’re like a third-world country.  It’s really sad.”

At the same ceremony, Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Mary Neumayr insisted that the new rule wouldn’t hurt environmental protections.

“The proposed rule would provide for a faster process while ensuring that agencies analyze and consider the environmental impacts of proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to address significant impacts,” she said. “Nothing in the proposal would eliminate the protections that Congress has enacted to safeguard our environment and the American people.”

The conservation groups challenging the rule say it will do exactly that and more, asserting that what is being billed as streamlining and “cutting red tape” in reality excuses agencies from considering long-term effects and cumulative effects, including those around climate change.

According to a brief in support of the injunction also filed Tuesday, “The elimination of the requirement to study indirect and cumulative effects will also lead to a host of other impacts being ignored, such as how multiple individually small impacts to wildlife habitat may force a species closer to the brink of extinction, how the cumulative combination of air pollution sources can exacerbate health problems in already-burdened low income communities, and how the indirect impacts of new development that results from the access created by a new highway may lead to air and water pollution, wetland degradation, increased traffic congestion, and more flooding.”

The challenge also warns that the new rule will lead to less public transparency and public input since the public relies on the NEPA process for information and updates on projects.

NEPA studies begin for rail project

Wilmington announced this week that the NEPA process had formally begun for a proposed route for a new freight line and crossing over the Cape Fear River near the state port. The plan is designed to eliminate the rail loop route through the city and improve rail service at the port.

Aubrey Parsley, director of the rail realignment project, said the Federal Railroad Administration, the lead agency for the project review, had yet to issue guidance on the new rule. Parsley said he did not expect it to change community outreach and review.

“The proposed rule changes have not affected our community outreach efforts yet. Public outreach has been a cornerstone of this project since the very beginning and it will continue to be. That said, we’re still learning about the proposed rule changes and are awaiting some further guidance from our lead agency, the FRA,” Parsley said, adding screening criteria for the project is still being developed.

Hunter said there will broad consequences of rushing the rule through.

“The rules apply to over one hundred federal agencies and implementation is going to be utter chaos,” she said. “Because we believe the rules will ultimately be declared illegal we think it is important the rules be enjoined before they start.”

Among the consequences is that the rule ultimately will lead to more delays and legal challenges.

“The Rule dislodges forty years of stable, established legal precedent,” according to the brief.

Copublished with Island Free Press

OCRACOKE ISLAND — If navigational channels are akin to highways to this southernmost Outer Banks island, then dredges are its version of snow plows in the mountains. Both may be subject to whims of wind and weather, but with constant bureaucratic and funding hurdles, an operator can’t just pull a dredge out the garage and start work.

Reduction in ferry service on Pamlico Sound between Ocracoke and Cedar Island and Swan Quarter had to be implemented last month because of “critical shoaling issues” in the ferry channel just outside Silver Lake Harbor, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division. After Hurricane Isaias in early August, shallow water in the Bigfoot Slough channel forced further reduction to a one-boat-at-a-time schedule.

The last survey in mid-July showed water depths in Bigfoot Slough as low as 8 feet. The conditions make it too dangerous for the system’s two largest sound-class vessels, the M/V Swan Quarter and the M/V Sea Level.

Even though the remedy would be to do relatively minor dredging, that is easier said than done. The shoaled area is within a federal channel, but it is outside the regular maintenance area. Plus, the ferries transiting the channel are state-owned and operated.

“We’re trying to get permission to dredge outside the fixed channel with the (Army Corps’ side cast dredge) the Merritt in the deep water,” Brent Johnson, county grants and waterways project manager, told the Dare County Waterways Commission during its remote meeting Monday.

But there are plans in the works that could eventually make it easier to get work done.

In an Aug. 5 press release, NCDOT said it “has urgently requested the Corps to perform emergency dredging operations in the area, calling the channel ‘an essential supply chain for commerce, tourism and goods for Ocracoke Island.’”

As members of the commission know all too well, the current shoaling problem is just the most recent example of ongoing issues with sand — too much or not enough — that have affected the Ocracoke ferry routes, which connect Dare, Hyde and Carteret counties.

Other navigational challenges have worsened in Hatteras Inlet. One particularly persistent issue centered on a lump of sand in the South Ferry Channel, between Ocracoke South Dock and the Inlet Gorge, which is used as a shortcut by recreational and charter fishing vessels to get to and from the ocean.

A quirk in jurisdictional authority had made it impossible for the Corps to use its funds to maintain that part of the channel, which had earlier been called the “connecting channel.” Although a subsequent agreement between Dare County, the state and the Corps now allows county- and state-funded projects, other issues with weather and missed deadlines have frustrated regular maintenance.

A long-delayed project in South Ferry Channel is now underway, with the Corps’ Merritt clearing the shoaled spot. Johnson said that a request had been made to the state to extend the permit until Aug. 24 because dredging had to be stalled until the storm passed.

The work had been expected to have been done earlier in the summer by the state dredge Manteo, but the machine had several problems that required repair.

Lance Winslow, NCDOT’s assistant director for marine assets, told commissioners Monday that the Manteo was still in the shop, and it was unclear when the vessel would be available.

“Right now, we don’t have any money,” he said, referring to the agency’s current budget shortages.

An historic Hyde County fishing village with about 900 year-round residents, Ocracoke is a popular resort community accessible only by boat, ferry or small aircraft.

The free ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke villages — the state’s busiest ferry route — transits Hatteras Inlet, which was relatively stable and problem-free until Hurricane Isabel ripped through the area in 2003. Since then, the spit at the tip of Hatteras Island that had buffered the inlet from the ocean has been eroding at an alarming rate, although the erosion started years before.

In 1993, the inlet between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands was a quarter-mile wide. Today, it is 2.3-miles wide, Johnson said. According to the Corps, between 2002 and 2016, the Hatteras spit has eroded about 7,200 feet.

As the land eroded, more sand made its way into the inlet. In recent years, the ferry route had to be changed to a longer U-shaped route to avoid persistent shallow shoals, doubling the time each way to an hourlong trip between the islands. The short channel is still being monitored, but conditions have yet to improve enough.

Yet, on the north end of Ocracoke Island, there has been severe erosion by the South Ferry Docks where the Hatteras ferries come and go. A sheet-pile bulkhead was recently installed to buffer the shoreline by the ferry basin. In contrast, the sand has piled up in Bigfoot Slough on the other side of the island where the ferries come and go to Swan Quarter and Cedar Island.

As the commission continues to grapple with whatever Mother Nature doles out, there have been encouraging steps to long-term solutions. Contractor Coastal Protection Engineering is working to develop a two-part dredge material management plan for waterways in the north and south ends of the county that would provide reliable disposal sites for dredged sand. Dredging projects will not be permitted unless there is an approved disposal area for the material. But Dare County has been running out of acceptable areas, especially around Hatteras Island sites.

Also, the Corps of Engineers has agreed to explore realignment of the authorized federal channel in Hatteras Inlet, a long-sought goal of the Waterways Commission.

Johnson said that it would involve changing the authorization language that restricts how “best water” or “best route” are defined in the federal channels. It would a way to sidestep the cumbersome and lengthy process of securing congressional legislation that is required to change authorization.

The wording would determine the flexibility of the alignment in the future, he said.

If the change were made, which could take about 18 months to complete,  it would affect the Barney Slough, South Ferry Channel and Sloop Channel.

What it won’t do is reopen the former less time-consuming Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route.

“I’d rather have the short route,” said commission chairman Steve “Creature” Coulter after the meeting. “But I want a route that’s maintainable.”

Ferry service employees had to work quickly after Hurricane Dorian to adapt in order to keep the response moving to a devastated Ocracoke Village, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials told a legislative panel last week.

The House Transportation Oversight Committee met Thursday to hear an update on the NCDOT Ferry Division’s hurricane response as part of an overall departmental review going into this year’s short session of the legislature.

Although damage was not as widespread as that from hurricanes Michael and Florence nearly two years ago, the financial hit to the ferry system from Hurricane Dorian was more than twice the $1.7 million cost of those storms combined.

As of Feb. 16, spending on Dorian preparation and recovery and repairs to damaged facilities had topped $4 million, according to the division’s latest estimates.

The bulk of the cost highlighted the role the division played in recovery for Ocracoke Island, where ferry service provides the only transportation link.

Immediately after the storm, ferry crews worked with the Coast Guard to test routes and reestablish service to the island. Limited service was restored Sept. 7, the day after Hurricane Dorian swamped the village, to move emergency supplies and personnel from the National Guard and Red Cross.

But Ferry Division Deputy Director Jed Dixon said that given the scope of the impact in the village and the extensive repairs needed to reopen N.C. 12, division officials decided to open a direct run between Hatteras and Silver Lake using a Pamlico Sound route similar to the one transited by division’s passenger ferry service, which started last summer.

With the larger, sound class vessels being used for the runs from Cedar Island and Swan Quarter, smaller vessels that are usually restricted to more protected river and sound crossings were employed.

“There was an urgency,” Dixon said. “These runs were challenging for us. We were only able to make those runs when weather permitted.”

Crews also had to work with ramps that were designed for larger ferries and were too steep to use for some vehicles.

Dixon said the extra run helped in the recovery at a critical time and provided additional ferry space for removing the massive amount of debris that followed the storm.

The division estimates it hauled off 26,861 stoves, refrigerators and other white goods and 6,780 tons of debris.

Dixon said the additional ferry runs were also important after a major setback on work to fully reopen N.C. 12 from South Dock to Ocracoke Village in November when a nor’easter struck the island.

“We had our challenges along the way. It seemed like at times Mother Nature just wouldn’t let up,” Dixon said, adding that fortunately NCDOT crews were positioned to move back into the work zone quickly.

“As soon as the weather subsided, we were right back at it. We had sandbags going in and were working to restore that road. Once the road was repaired, that took a lot of pressure off our sound routes to supply some more service.”

Work to repair damage to the stacking lanes for the South Dock station continues, Dixon said, including a shoreline stabilization project on areas that have seen repeated damage. He said that work is expected to be completed before the summer visitor season starts.

Costs tallied

Repairs made up $577,000 of the Ferry Division’s Dorian costs, so far, most of it on work to Ocracoke Island dorms and other infrastructure, which were flooded at the height of the storm.

Most repairs for the system are expected to be completed by May, except for work on the heavily damaged Ocracoke living quarters for crew and terminal, which could take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Major damage estimates include the following:

• $125,000 for Hatteras crew dorms.
• $30,000 for Hatteras grounds repair.
• $25,000 for Mann’s Harbor shipyard.
• $1.4 million for Ocracoke dorm rebuild.
• $175,000 for Ocracoke terminal.
• $75,000 for Ocracoke ticket booth.
• $50,000 Ocracoke grounds.
• $30,000 for Cedar Island terminal repairs.

Damage to employee dorms affects operations

Catherine Peele, planning and development manager for the division, said the damage to the dorms on Ocracoke and the lack of available housing after the storm made it more difficult to keep service operating.

She said it finally took a combination of hotel rooms and Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers to be able to keep ferry crews on the island.

“The main concern for the residents is that they wanted an early departure from Ocracoke to Swan Quarter so they could get over to the mainland and back in the same day,” Peele told legislators. “So being able to house those employees on Ocracoke, we were able to make that early morning run.”

The department purchased four FEMA trailers for employees and is seeking funds for another six. Peele said the trailers are not a long-term solution and once repairs to the dorms are completed, the division plans to keep some for temporary housing and disaster response in future emergencies.

Peele said the storm also had an impact on maintenance to the sound class vessels, but previously scheduled work was completed this winter.

She had some good news to report on tram service on the island. The original trams put into service last year with the debut of the passenger ferry were destroyed, along with most of the other vehicles on the island when floodwater swept across parking areas that usually remain high and dry during storms.

Peele said that Hyde County was able to obtain a grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation to replace the trams and that three trams will be available when passenger ferry service resumes this summer, with two more shortly after.

A project the size of the “jug-handle” bridge north of Rodanthe is like some intricate dance routine carried out with mammoth custom-built gantry cranes, massive 155-foot pilings and teams of workers each with their own tasks.

“The whole system is one big train. You only move as fast as your slowest part of the train,” said Adrian Price, project manager with Flatiron Construction Corp., the Broomfield, Colorado-based contractor for the project.

The process of building a bridge 2.4 miles in length is familiar to those who witnessed construction of the Marc Basnight Bridge, which was completed last year, and it’s complex. Pilings are driven deep into the bed of Pamlico Sound and capped, girders laid, then subsurface and surface layers go into place, all while heeding the natural surroundings.

Construction began in 2018. Bypassing the frequently storm-washed S-curves of N.C. 12 north of Rodanthe and jutting out over Pamlico Sound, the jug-handle bridge, so named because of its distinctive shape that was designed to minimize adverse effects on the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, is in numerous ways different than most bridge projects.

“Typically, a bridge like this, you build it with a temporary road on the side or you build it with barges,” Price said. “But with the shallow water here and the limited right of way, we had to come up with something different.”

What Flatiron has come up with is a temporary rail system on the outside of the bridge. Moving along the rails are two huge gantry cranes that are used to maneuver the pilings and other heavy items into place.

“The two big yellow gantries that you see, the gantry cranes, we purchased from a company in Italy,” Price said, adding that the cranes were a custom design built for the project.

As each section is completed, the rail system is disassembled and removed to the far end of the project.

“A rail cart then delivers it to the front of the rail to the lead crane, so that we’re able to leapfrog the whole system forward,” he said. “The train only works as fast as the slowest piece.”

That’s something that Ricky Hires knows well. Hires runs the pile driver at the front end of the project. The piles support the gantry rail system.

“We make the bridge work,” he said. “I think it’s one of the best systems I’ve ever seen, and I’ve done this for a long time, about 32 years.”

Hires noted how important it is that his team stays in front of the rest of the project.

“We’ve got a crew of four, counting myself … everybody knows his job. (If) anybody falls behind, we all fall together,” he said.

Maneuvering a piling into position is a carefully choreographed, half-hour dance that begins with the piling being lifted from a truck and fitted into a cradle that supports it and keeps it from swinging too much in the wind. Then giant rings clamp onto the piling and lower it into place. Next, a massive plywood ring is fitted over the top. That is what the hammer of the pile driver strikes, not the pile itself.

At times, there are two pile drivers simultaneously pounding pilings into the bed of Pamlico Sound as Hires and his team extend the railings forward with one as the larger crane drives a bridge piling.

Price said that the jug-handle bridge is also unlike other projects that he’s supervised because of the environmentally sensitive areas that surround it. But Pablo Hernandez, the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s resident engineer here, said that what the Flatiron project manager sees as unique is the norm for highway construction on the Outer Banks.

“We’re used to the entire project being in an environmentally challenging area. Whereas somebody who hasn’t worked here on the Outer Banks before, or in eastern North Carolina, has come from a more inland area (where) the project may be several miles long but only have just a few isolated environmentally sensitive areas,” he said. “It’s pretty well known those are the no-go zones. But here, it’s a completely different scale and can be easy to forget that you’re always in an environmentally sensitive area.”

Also for Hernandez, who has worked out of the Manteo office for years and was the resident engineer for the Capt. Richard Etheridge Bridge over New Inlet, which was dedicated in February 2018, and the Marc Basnight Bridge, which was dedicated last April, there is something different about this project. The jug-handle bridge involves work on private property and cooperation with private property owners.

He had to think for a moment about when he last worked on a major project that involved private property.

“Not since probably 2010,” he finally said.

If all goes as planned, the bridge will probably be open by late summer 2021. There’s a lot of factors that could delay completion, mostly weather related, and there has already been at least one hiccup along the way.

Back in December, inspectors noticed cracks in some of the pilings being fabricated in Chesapeake, Virginia. The size of the cracks didn’t matter; any crack is a disaster waiting to happen.

Creating a hollow tube of concrete 150 feet or more in length is complex process.

“Just to say you’re going to make something hollow sounds simple, but then when you start thinking about it, how do you make it be hollow? Then how do you pull that piece?” Hernandez asked.

What NCDOT and FlatIron Construction discovered was the removable form inside the piling had been moving during casting.

“We found that that formwork had been shifting around a bit. We were seeing certain areas needed additional support as well as some repair work,” Hernandez said. “That also forced us to go back and look at what we’ve installed in the ground. Fortunately, we only had installed 42 pilings of that style.”

Driving the piling the 120 to 130 feet deep into the sound bed might seem like a straightforward operation: A gigantic weight falls through a shaft, striking the piling, then hydraulics lift the weight before it falls again and again until the piling is at the right depth. It is, however, far more complex than that.

Electronic sensors monitor the force of each blow to the pile and how many times it’s struck. There are also handwritten observations as the crew looks for potential problems.

“Fortunately, all of that review revealed that we’re very confident what we’ve got is correct,” Hernandez said.

The bridge is being built from the north and from the south simultaneously, although progress on the north end is running a little behind the Rodanthe end to the south. The discovered defective pilings were supposed to go to Pea Island at the north end of the project.

Price said he was confident the north end will catch up, however, pointing out that there is a strong sense of teamwork and competition.

“No one wants to be the slowest crew,” he said.

MANTEO — Ocracoke Island’s north end may have to be restored to its wild state if current conditions continue. That is one of the options offered in a soon-to-be-released transportation plan.

Changing and intensifying coastal dynamics have propelled to the front and center two of the more persistent and complex transportation issues on the Outer Banks. Ocracoke’s highway has been critically wounded, while its northern end is eroding away. And Dare County has just about run out of places to dispose of the material removed from its increasingly shoaled waterways.

In updates provided during a recent meeting of the Dare County Waterways Commission, it was evident that the situations, both long-looming crises, have now become urgent concerns.

‘Five-finger’ groin at ferry dock

On Ocracoke Island, which suffered severe damage in September during Hurricane Dorian from a 7-foot storm surge, work is underway to protect the ferry basin on its northern end, John Abel, N.C. Department of Transportation bridge program manager, told the Waterways Commission. Installation of a sheet pile wall along the eroding shoreline is almost completed, he said. After sandbags are placed at the end of the wall, the contractor will leave until April, when he will return to install concrete caps and rebuild the dunes.

Also, an environmental assessment is being finalized for a proposed groin project near the same spot, Abel said. Constructed of rows of steel sheeting and steel piles, the “five-finger” groin is designed to slow sand travel, allowing the shoreline to build behind it. Once the EA is completed, it will be reviewed by several agencies and made available for public comment.

The intent of both interim projects, essentially short-term Band-Aids, is to stop the sand from washing away at South Dock, the ferry terminal at Ocracoke’s north end where thousands of vehicles on the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry, the state’s busiest ferry route, load and unload.

Study update pending

Meanwhile, NCDOT is in the process of updating its December 2016 study on long-term solutions for the hot spot on N.C. 12, which stretches from just south of the Hatteras ferry terminal and continues 4 miles. The area was identified in a 1991 NCDOT study as one of six hot spots on N.C. 12 between Oregon Inlet and Ocracoke village, meaning they are vulnerable to overwash, storm surge and beach erosion.

Since the road was built on Ocracoke in the mid-1950s, it has been subjected repeatedly and increasingly to storm damage. In recent years, the transportation department has had to do some degree of road repairs and dune restoration after nearly every large storm. Even after Dorian ripped up 1,000 feet of roadway in the hot spot area and flattened dunes, two subsequent storms inflicted further poundings. Torn asunder over and again, the road now appears perilously – and possibly irretrievably – weakened.

The updated feasibility study, which is expected to be released within weeks, Abel said, details numerous alternatives and combinations of alternatives that include road relocation or raising, bridges around or over the hot spot area and varied levels of beach nourishment. In addition to revisions in estimated costs, the main update in the proposal addresses the alarming increase in erosion on the island’s north end that is undermining the ferry basin and ferry entrance channel adjacent to the vehicle stacking lanes.

Abel said that a short-term solution could be building a bridge similar to the temporary “Lego” bridge that had initially spanned the new inlet at Pea Island. But the most dramatic solution would involve moving the entire ferry operation to a new ferry terminal that would be built south of the Ocracoke Pony Pens. Everything would then have to be brought back to its original condition – including removing the asphalt.

“The long-term goal is to release the ponies and let them roam on the north end,” Abel said about the terminal relocation alternative. “There also may be some off-road (access.)”

“The Park Service is in favor of a long-term, sustainable solution.”

Dave Hallac, Superintendent, Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Dave Hallac, superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which owns most of the land on the island except in the village, said that the National Park Service is working with NCDOT and the local community to find the best solution, but he said he is open to doing what’s necessary to help Ocracoke.

“The Park Service is in favor of a long-term, sustainable solution,” Hallac said in a recent interview, although he said it’s too soon to know what that would be.

The bottom line is that erosion on the island’s north end has gotten much worse, and it is happening much faster than anyone anticipated.

“It was astronomical, really, compared with what we’ve seen in the past,” Hallac said. “Just five years ago, the north end of Ocracoke had 30 to 50 acres of sand flats. All of that is completely gone.

“And it’s not just at the ferry dock,” he added. The off-road vehicle access has also suffered.  “Today, Ramp 59 is a ramp to nowhere.”

There will be a 30-day public comment period after the study is released.

Dredge spoil sites near capacity

While the same nasty storms strip numerous Outer Banks shorelines of their beaches and protective dunes, the inlets and waterway channels are filling with sand, creating shoals that can ground fishing vessels and recreational boats. Channels in and out of Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet in recent years have required more frequent dredging, but spoil islands or onshore disposal sites are almost at capacity. And if there’s no place to put the material, dredging will not be allowed.

The state has recently embarked on a study to determine the number and location of dredge material disposal sites on the coast, but it’s not meant to determine the locations of new suitable sites to deposit dredged sand, said Ken Willson, program manager at APTIM,  a Wilmington-based coastal engineering firm.

APTIM provided two proposals to Dare County in December that are plans for southern Dare County and central Dare County to survey coastal areas and locate suitable disposal sites for dredged material.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners subsequently approved a resolution to request a grant from the state’s shallow-draft shoreline management fund to cover 66% of the estimated total project cost of $345,191. The county would be responsible for the remaining costs.

Willson said that the grant must be in place before the county can enter a contract with his firm to start the work. He added that he expects a decision soon from the state.

In addition to conducting new surveys, APTIM will also collect existing data to determine the best way of dealing with the material, whether it’s deposited on existing or rebuilt marsh islands or onshore. The plans would also include recommendations and estimated time and costs to implement. The company would also secure the necessary permits for some of the projects, Willson said.

“Out-of-the-box” techniques, he said, will also be considered, such as spraying or pumping material onto marsh islands, or laying the material on the back side of the islands, which can provide wave-sheltering benefits.

Willson said that the goal is to have disposal sites available before the Army Corps of Engineers starts the Rollinson Channel dredging project, which is scheduled to be done in Hatteras Inlet in 2022.

Learn more

• Southern Dare County Channel Maintenance and Dredge Material Management Permitting Plan

1. Cover letter
2. Proposal

• Central Dare County Channel Maintenance and Dredge Material Management Permitting Plan

1. Cover letter
2. Proposal

Bogue Banks is accessible via two bridges, one on N.C. 58 at the west end and the other connecting Morehead City and Atlantic Beach at the east end. Image: Google Maps

MOREHEAD CITY – Carteret County officials have asked the North Carolina Department of Transportation to expedite design work for a proposed third bridge, possibly a toll bridge, to Bogue Banks to help relieve congestion and improve hurricane evacuation.

The proposed project was discussed Wednesday during the Carteret County Transportation Committee’s meeting at the Crystal Coast Civic Center. The committee advises county commissioners on transportation issues and acts as a liaison to regional transportation planning organizations, or RPOs, and NCDOT.

Don Kirkman, director of the county’s economic development department, said NCDOT was asked to add the project to its queue for express design, a process that’s essentially an abbreviated feasibility study that estimates costs and environmental effects.

Diane Hampton, corridor development engineer for NCDOT Division 2, said the project is now in the queue but behind other proposed projects and subject to budget constraints and other considerations.

“Getting it into the queue for study is the first step.” Hampton said during the meeting.

Hibbs Road, a roughly 3-mile, two-lane stretch between U.S. 70 and N.C. 24, was discussed as a possible mainland connection for the bridge. Where the bridge would connect to N.C. 58 on the Bogue Banks side of Bogue Sound has town officials in both Indian Beach and Pine Knoll Shores worried.

Tim White is town manager in Indian Beach. He told Coastal Review Online that the town board had expressed numerous concerns, including the effects the project would have on property owners in town.

“Our concern is where is it going to locate? It’s going to come in our back door,” White said Thursday. “What’s it going to do to property owners here?”

Pine Knoll Shores Town Manager Brian Kramer said his community’s concerns are the same ones expressed a decade ago when a third bridge was proposed during creation of a countywide comprehensive transportation plan.

“The feeling 10 years ago among island towns was opposition to a third bridge and widening 58,” Kramer said Thursday. “At the time, the widening of 58 was connected to adding that third bridge. With the traffic impacts and the commercial development in Indian Beach, Salter Path and Pine Knoll Shores, it would be a pretty significant game changer in the central part of the island.”

White echoed the concerns.

“Does 58 need to be widened? I don’t know if 58 can handle another bridge. And a toll bridge? That’s not going to go over well.”

Hampton, with NCDOT, noted that the long process of planning and public discussion was just beginning, but now is the time to prepare for an expected doubling of traffic volumes in the area over the next 25 years.

The project was submitted a few weeks ago for express design, a process that usually takes less than a year once work begins. The timeline for construction, assuming the project gets approval and funding, is harder to estimate, but the earliest would be seven to 10 years, Hampton said.

“Right now, it’s just an idea. There’s no funding, no plans,” she said. “But we need to start thinking about it because of the traffic growth in the area and evacuation routes are very important.”

For the project to move to the construction phase, it would first have to be evaluated and scored according to the state’s prioritization process, which weighs factors such as traffic volumes, safety and local support as well as cost.

“Right now, it’s just an idea. There’s no funding, no plans.”

Diane Hampton, NCDOT

“If it’s not scored it will just sit there on the back burner,” Hampton said.

The idea for making the bridge a toll route was “tossed around” as a way to potentially speed the process, she said.

“Tolls are controversial but the benefit to cost ratio is great and makes it more likely to get scored higher, get funding and more likely to get built,” she said.

The process would look at both toll and nontoll alternatives, with each scored and treated separately as two different projects, as well as various siting and design alternatives, and then “let local input drive the decision making,” she said.

The process would also entail a lengthy environmental review as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

“A project of this magnitude might need an environmental impact statement, which is quite an ordeal,” Hampton said.

One of the biggest challenges with the project is that the central part of Bogue Banks is across the widest part of Bogue Sound.

“That’s another reason environmental issues will be looked at very closely,” Hampton said.

She noted that one suggestion for the project would be making the bridge a three-lane span with one lane dedicated for pedestrians and cyclists and protected with a removable barrier. Removing the barrier could allow all three lanes to be used to get people off the island rapidly, such as during a hurricane evacuation.

“I think that would be a big help,” she said.

Limiting traffic to two lanes during normal times could also allay concerns about N.C. 58’s capacity on Bogue Banks. The portion of the highway on Bogue Banks is mostly two lanes, except for turn lanes.

Kramer, with Pine Knoll Shores, said the discussions never got to the point of capacity when the third bridge was proposed a decade ago.

“We never got there as to what they were going to widen it to or how would you do that. We’re concerned again and will be keeping an eye on it,” he said.

MANTEO – Paper nautical charts will soon be sinking into the horizon, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced its plan to sunset over five years the hard copy maps of the nation’s waterways.

Although NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has for years offered several digital formats for raster charts, which are the electronic version of the paper charts, to print or download, the paper charts have also been provided by request. The electronic charts have been available since 1993.

But with demand half of what it was a decade ago, the traditional charts are more likely to be found as handsome wall art for landlubbers than in pilothouses of vessels.

“If you’ve got paper charts, they’re great as collectors’ items,” Kyle Ward, NOAA Office of Coast Survey navigation manager for the southeast region told the Dare County Waterways Commission at its recent meeting in Manteo, as he clicked though slides of electronic navigational charts, or ENCs.

“This will be the only version when paper dies.”

But at the same time, NOAA is looking at adding a sweetener for mariners who transit inlets, which have been regarded as too dynamic to merit inclusion of hydrography or aids to navigation data that is on other ENCs. Ward said that test model charts with that additional data has recently been published for three inlets in North Carolina: Oregon, Ocracoke and Masonboro.

“The intent is to see the response from the local community,” Ward said.

Part of what NOAA will be considering in evaluating the models, he added, include how fast the inlet changes, how quickly updated data can be provided, how quickly products can be updated, how the level of effort has changed, and what mariners expect of the system.

Ward said that NOAA will also consider adding other inlets to the system if a request is made, he said. At that, the Dare County Waterways Commission voted unanimously to ask NOAA for an electronic chart for Hatteras Inlet.

The test charts layer additional data on NOAA’s current ENCs from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers eHydro hydrographic surveys and the Coast Guard’s ATON, or aids to navigation, and U.S. Geological Survey bathymetry.

“There’s a whole lot of channels the state has surveyed and the Corps has surveyed that’s not on there,” said commission chair Steve “Creature” Coulter, referring to Hatteras Inlet.

Responding, Ward said that as long as they pass muster in evaluations, NOAA is open to additional data sets that could be useful to mariners.

“If they’re willing to give us the data, we’re willing to put it on the chart,” Ward said.

Ward encouraged mariners to provide input to NOAA about the inlet models. For now, there is no set time for closing the comment window.

“We want to get feedback from our customers who use it,” he said.

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, established in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson, is responsible for navigation maps and services within waters 200 miles from U.S. states and territories.

There are an estimated 16 million boats in the U.S., the majority of which are small recreational vessels.

Raster charts are digital or paper images of traditional nautical charts. Color pixels in the images form the text and symbols in the chart. In contrast, ENCs can also store features, such as location, and detailed records associated with it, such as shape and quality.

“Anything we’re doing now that looks like raster, won’t be available,” Ward said.

Phased cancellation of paper and raster services will start in mid-2020 and be completed by 2025. However, an online NOAA Custom Chart application will be available for users to make their own chart centered on their chosen coordinates. The resultant chart would be geospatially referenced, custom scaled and sized, with chart notes placed on a separate PDF page. It could be downloaded, viewed or printed, essentially serving as a backup to the ENC.

Historical nautical charts going back to the mid-1800s will also be available to download for free from the Coast Survey Historical Map & Chart Collection website.

According to information provided by NOAA, ENC sales have increased 425% since 2008, while sales of paper charts have dropped by half.

“Similar to the transition from road atlases to GPS navigation systems that we have witnessed in this digital era,” the NOAA information said, “we are also seeing the increased reliance on NOAA electronic navigation charts (ENC) as the primary navigational product and the decreased use of traditional raster chart products.”

There are currently about 1,258 electronic navigational charts and 1,007 raster/paper charts, according to NOAA. As part of the phase-out of paper, NOAA is also creating a standard gridded layout and increasing the scale of ENCs, which in turn increases the level of detail and consistency. By the time the five-year process is completed, the number of detailed NOAA electronic charts will be about 9,000.

The federal notice announcing the sunsetting of paper and raster charts was published on Nov. 15. The comment period ends on Feb. 1, 2020.

“We’re really using this first year to take public comments,” Chris van Westendorp, chief of NOAA’s navigation services division, said in an interview.

Since 1966, Coast Guard regulations have mandated that commercial vessels carry charts. In 2002, the regulation expanded to permit certain electronic charts. But so far, van Westendorp said there is no plan to disallow paper charts or to limit charts to only electronic navigation.

“I don’t think that we are far enough in the process working with the Coast Guard to make that kind of call. We’re definitely moving in the direction of being paperless.”

As far as the increased vulnerability of digital data, van Westendorp said that NOAA “has pretty rigorous security in place” to prevent hacking of the ENC.

Ultimately, the ENC upgrade will create a better product for mariners, he said. Charts will have increased resolution and offer images in better scale. More data updates will be able to be added more quickly to the charts. In short, the nautical charts will benefit from the flexibility, responsiveness and immediacy of digital platforms.

Still, some see paper navigational charts as beautiful, almost romantic, maritime tools. People like the tactile nature and time-honored functionality of paper charts.

“I do get that moving away from this traditional process there’s kind of a grieving process,” van Westndorp said of the switch to digital-only. “I think the possibilities are endless. I really believe that moving to the ENCs completely is really going to improve the overall safety of navigation for our mariners who use our products.”

Submit comments by Feb. 1, 2020, on the Sunsetting of Raster Nautical Charts online via NOAA’s ASSIST feedback tool, or by mail to National Ocean Service, NOAA (NCS2), ATTN Sunset of Raster Charts, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282. Comments on Charting Aids to Navigation in Changeable Inlets can also be sent to the same NOAA’s ASSIST tool.

WILMINGTON – The North Carolina State Ports Authority must answer a lot of questions about the Wilmington Harbor Navigation Project before it can begin widening and deepening the Cape Fear River to accommodate increasingly larger container ships from Asia and other locales.

After reviewing the first draft of the project’s federally mandated feasibility study, the Army Corps of Engineers responded with multiple issues the ports authority must address before giving the project the green light, Jerry Diamantides, senior economist with contractor David Miller & Associates, told the authority’s board of directors Thursday during its meeting in the North Carolina Maritime Building on Burnett Boulevard. Diamantides attributed the Corps’ numerous concerns to a change in process that prevented the contractors from collaborating with the Corps as they conducted the study.

However, Paul Cozza, the ports authority’s executive director, said the Corps’ response is part of the approval process and that resolving the issues will help ensure the project will not harm the environment.

“It’s extremely important to make sure the environment is as sound as possible,” Cozza said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re doing it correctly. If there are impacts, we’re going to be able to reverse them by doing mitigation… We want to get this in place but not on a basis of speed over quality. We want to have high quality and high speed at the same time, because that’s all part of what’s going to be affecting North Carolina.”

Getting the Corps’ approval on the first draft of the feasibility study is the first hurdle the project must overcome. Next, the Corps must approve the study’s final draft. Finally, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James must give the project a favorable recommendation, as authorized by Section 203 of the Water Resources Development Act. WRDA approval is the process by which the Wilmington Harbor Project would be eligible to receive federal funding.

Though the Wilmington project will compete with other harbor projects for WRDA funds, two factors may work in its favor, according to Daimantides. First, the Wilmington project has a positive benefits-to-cost ratio of 5:4. The construction cost, including interest accrued during construction, is $750 million, and the annual average equivalent cost, or the expense of owning and operating the expanded harbor during its useful life, is $30 million. The average annual equivalent benefits are $158 million, which results in average annual equivalent benefits of $129 million.

Second, the Wilmington Port is underused. It has a large port capacity that can serve landside as well as waterside transportation, but it doesn’t have the channel capacity to keep up with other ports.

“Many millions of truck miles will be saved by deepening the channel and keeping the Asian cargo coming through this port,” Diamantides said.

Cozza promised complete transparency through the approval process and said public hearings will be held after the first and final drafts of the feasibility study are released to the public, releases tentatively scheduled for November 2019 and April 2020, respectively. Ports Authority officials are optimistic that James will recommend the project to Congress prior to November 2020 so construction can begin as soon as possible.

Getting the project underway is important because the port lags its competitors in terms of readiness for larger ships, Diamantides said. Competing harbors have already begun deepening their channels: Savannah’s project to deepen its channel to 47 feet is scheduled to be completed in 2020, Charleston’s project to deepen its channel to 52 feet is scheduled to be completed in 2021, and Norfolk’s deepening to 55 feet is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

This first draft of the feasibility study recommends deepening the main ship channel from its current 42 feet mean lower low water in river reaches and 44 feet in the ocean entrance reaches to 47 feet in the river reaches and 49 feet in the ocean entrance reaches. Widening multiple areas of the channel to allow passage of the ships is also recommended. Without these changes, the Port of Wilmington won’t be able maintain its status as a port of call for U.S.-Asia East Coast services and would lose trade to Savannah and other ports with channel depths of 47 feet or deeper, according to Diamantides.

While the channel could be deepened to 48 feet, the 47-foot depth would keep the Wilmington port competitive and have the least environmental impact, Diamantides added.

The feasibility study, which includes the work of university professors and other environmental experts, shows that deepening the channel to 47 feet would have only minor impacts on the environment, according to Diamantides, who emphasized that groundwater would not be affected.

Environmental advocates have previously expressed concerns that further deepening the channel could put the Castle Hayne Aquifer, the drinking water source for much of eastern North Carolina, at risk of saltwater intrusion.

“We had a go, no-go with the groundwater,” said Diamantides. “There was no way the project was going forward with impacts to the aquifers. There are no impacts to groundwater resources.”

However, the project is not without its negative aspects, especially for Atlantic sturgeon and sea turtles, both of which are on the endangered species list. While the spawning habitat of the Atlantic sturgeon will not be affected, the same can’t be said for their foraging habitat. Sea turtles may be adversely affected during beach placement.

“There was no way the project was going forward with impacts to the aquifers. There are no impacts to groundwater resources.”

Jerry Diamantides, David Miller & Associates

Primary nursery areas would also be affected, which will benefit some species and harm others, according to the study.

The wetlands, too, would change as the saltwater wedges move farther upstream when the channel is deepened. However, those changes would be minor, said Diamantides.

There would also be minor changes in species composition in the tidal freshwater swamp and marsh, the result of an increase in salinity of less than 0.3 parts per 1,000. The impact on the salt and brackish marsh would be insignificant, according to the presentation.

Despite downplaying the environmental effects, Diamantes stressed that any environmental damage would be mitigated.

And there the feasibility plan has run into another roadblock. Because of requirements under the Section 203 process, the Corps was not involved in the ports authority’s study until the draft was published and presented. Though the contractors consulted with local, state and federal resource agencies, mitigation is an area the feasibility study can’t complete without the Corps’ input, Diamantides explained. So, for now, the feasibility study includes a placeholder for mitigation plans until the Corps weighs in and includes mitigation options, such as funded fish ladders for diadromous fish to navigate around man-made barriers.

Diamantides said that much in the feasibility study is likely to change to meet Corps officials’ concerns before the final study is released.

Learn More

• Section 203 study executive summary
• Section 203 study recommendations
• June 12 public notice

MOREHEAD CITY – Expanding the state port’s operations on Radio Island will require major transportation infrastructure improvements and significant investment in site preparation, which the county’s economic development director promises will be handled differently than controversial port projects of the past.

The State Ports Authority has faced stiff public opposition to previous proposals to develop facilities to handle or process liquefied natural gas, ammonia and sulfur at the N.C. Port of Morehead City and criticism over its lack of transparency regarding its plans, a pattern spanning decades. Don Kirkman, Carteret County Economic Development  director, told Coastal Review Online that this latest effort would be different.

Kirkman went before the Carteret County Board of Commissioners Aug. 19 to share a summary of the findings of a site study that looked at what it would take to develop Radio Island and presented conceptual uses of the site. He told the board members that his presentation, which included PowerPoint, was a public information presentation and an effort to be more proactive and transparent about the development of Radio Island.

“I think the history of Radio Island has been a little bit more reactive,” he said during the meeting in Beaufort. “We have a history of controversy around projects that have been proposed, and we want to try to be as transparent as possible and to involve elected leaders and the community at large and the public early on in the process if projects are identified.”

The ports authority did not respond to multiple requests for comment by deadline.

Kirkman told Coastal Review Online last week there have been projects proposed for the Morehead City port, generally, and Radio Island, specifically, that were controversial, “because the proposed use involved the handling of a commodity that was deemed dangerous or an environmental threat.”

The assessment provided both feedback on the infrastructure needs of the property to prepare it to be marketed to prospective users as well as categories of potential users that will allow the State Ports Authority to proactively market the site to prospective port customers, he said.

“This preliminary end user identification will allow the NC Ports to be more proactive in their marketing efforts rather than reactive, and hopefully this will help avoid the controversies that arose in the past,” Kirkman explained.

He cited as examples potential expansions of existing port commodities, such as wood products, agricultural nutrients, rubber, as well as refrigerated storage, roll-on/roll-off products such as vehicles, the building or repair of large oceangoing yachts and energy generation component fabrication and assembly.

Radio Island’s large amount of available acreage on deep water with easy accessibility to the Atlantic Ocean makes it an attractive economic development opportunity for port-related industry, Kirkman told Coastal Review Online.

“There is a large gap, however, between having a large tract of waterfront property and having a developed port site that is ready for occupancy,” he said.

The county and the State Ports Authority applied in mid-January for the Duke Energy Site Readiness Program, which gives selected communities the opportunity to have one or more sites evaluated by a site location consulting firm to determine the potential for development in the Duke Energy service area.

“Duke Energy pays for the consulting services of the two consulting firms, and in addition, Duke Energy offers a $10,000 matching grant to assist with site preparation, which is a huge cost savings to the local community,” Kirkman said.

Areas Studied

Earlier this summer, the consulting team, Strategic Development Group of Columbia, South Carolina, and O’Brien Atkins Associates of Durham, shared their findings with Kirkman and other stakeholders. The findings presented July 23 addressed five components: Site Selection Fundamentals, Competing in Today’s Economy, Economic Development 101, Demographics with a focus on labor force, and the Radio Island site.

During his presentation to county commissioners, Kirkman said that the state itself or through the ports authority own about 200 acres on Radio Island. The extensive analysis was confined to the 141 acres west of Marine Drive and looked at infrastructure available to the Radio Island, soil types, zoning and topography. The analysis does not include any modification of the public beach access or the area north of U.S. 70 where the public boat ramp and pier are located.

“All of this property west of Marine Drive is within the town of Morehead City. It is within their incorporated jurisdiction, it is within its zoning authority and is served by Morehead City water and sewer utilities,” he said, adding that there’s no real role for the county in the permitting process. The site is zoned port-marine, or PM. Plans would go through the town of Morehead City. There’s not a county role in the actual permitting or development of Radio Island.

But traffic along the already heavily traveled, often snarled stretch of U.S. 70 would increase, one of the challenges for future development noted in the assessment.

“In the TIP the Newport River (high-rise bridge) is going to be widened to four lanes. That is going to be an enormously complicated and challenging project, which obviously will have very significant implications for how one enters and exits Radio Island,” Kirkman told commissioners.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s current TIP, or Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, identified 1,367 projects to be funded between 2018 and 2027, including project No. U-5876, widening from Fourth Street in Morehead City to Radio Island Road. The total estimated project cost is about $156.1 million.

“The plan, as I understand it currently, is to relocate the Duke transmission lines to south of the rail trestle to build two new lanes of the Newport River Bridge, where the current Duke transmission lines are located. Then tear down the existing two lanes of the Newport River Bridge and build them where they are. That’s going to be a very complicated project,” Kirkman told commissioners.

Right-of-way acquisition for the widening project is expected to begin in 2021, and construction in 2025, Kirkman said. One of the admonitions of the site location consultants is to make sure that as these plans are designed to to accommodate the development of port-owned property on Radio Island.

Kirkman paused during his presentation to explain that the slides show “simply hypothetical, conceptual ideas about what could happen in terms of accommodating a build-out scenario within existing environmental regulations for impervious surface and stormwater controls and the like. And again, this is purely just an idea, a visualization of what might be done there at some point in the future.”

Kirkman reviewed for the board a handful of suggested end users including existing customers of the port or marine or maritime-related manufacturing or assembly. He also went over a few build-out concepts proposed by the consultants and the suggestion to consider developing the site as an industrial park with multiple parcels or multiple tenants on the west side of Marine Drive.

Ultimately, Kirkman said, “There are an unlimited number of scenarios for construction there and obviously anything that would be constructed there would have to comply with all applicable federal, state, local and town permits.”

The state Ports Authority intends to maintain ownership of the land and is not interested in selling Radio Island, he said. “They’re interested in developing it for port-related uses. That property was acquired back in 1964 for an expansion of the Morehead City port, it’s part of the port of Morehead City, it’s been used that way and the future use will be a port-related, maritime use.”

Not A Duke Energy Project

Kirkman told the board that Duke Energy, which funded the study, has no input on what is to be developed.

“Duke Energy has a program, we applied for the program, and the program was for Duke Energy to pay for these expert consultants to come in and do an assessment of the site, that was the Duke Energy role.”

Kirkman wrote in a follow-up email that Duke Energy “simply offers a program to identify potential sites that could be used for economic development in their service territories. They are not advocates for any particular type of development activity, nor do they have any control over the development because they do not own or control the property. They offer the program as a service to the local communities that they serve.”

Meredith Archie, lead communications consultant with Duke Energy Corporate Communications, explained in an email that, “The Site Readiness program works to identify sites and develops a strategy to make the site ready for potential economic development projects.”

The program has helped in preparing properties for 18 major projects in North Carolina since the program started in 2005, resulting in more than 5,100 new jobs and nearly $6.1 billion in capital investment, according to Duke Energy.

“Duke Energy works with major site selection firms like Strategic Development Group to evaluate the sites. Based on consultant recommendations, Duke Energy will collaborate with county leaders and local economic development professionals to develop an improved strategy for marketing these sites,” Archie added.

After the potential end users are identified, they will need to work closely with the State Ports Authority, Morehead City and regulatory agencies to site their projects and the county economic development department will remain engaged in the process “to help market the site through our relationships with regional and state economic development partners, as well as to respond to requests for assistance and information by prospective customers,” Kirkman said.

Morehead City manager Ryan Eggleston told Coastal Review Online that the town is aware of the Radio Island site readiness assessment report and have heard Kirkman’s presentation.

“We understand currently there are no submitted plans for development of Radio Island by the Port, and that this document is a tool for planning purposes,” he said. “We will continue to monitor the progress of the program. Our priority at the city is to continue to make Morehead City a great place to call home while promoting sound economic development.”

MANTEO  —  The North Carolina Ports Authority has cleared a substantial hurdle to expand the ship-turning basin at the Wilmington port.

The third 1,553-ton neo-Panamax crane arrived just last month at the North Carolina Port of Wilmington, or POW, as part of the ports authority’s planned expansion to accommodate new cargo ships, currently the largest calling at East Coast ports.

With the Panama Canal widened in 2016, the new “ultra-Panamax” vessels, about triple the size of older container ships, are now preferred by shipping companies because of the vast increase in capacity. They are scheduled to call at Wilmington by early 2020.

The state Coastal Resources Commission during its meeting April 17 in Manteo granted the authority a variance to state rules that will permit the turning basin to be expanded again, after a similar enlargement in 2016, to accommodate the new super-sized container ships.

On March 24, the authority submitted a letter to the CRC asking for an expedited variance hearing at the April meeting. A permit application to widen and deepen the turning basin nearly 18 acres was submitted on Oct. 26, 2018. The permit was denied in March, based on the expected damage to fish nurseries and effects on sturgeon that migrate up the river to spawn in late winter and early spring and are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“If the turning basin is not expanded, those vessels will bypass the POW and call on other east coast ports, thereby causing significant economic impact to the POW and the North Carolina economy,” the State Ports Authority said in its variance request to the CRC. “The POW has the existing infrastructure such as cranes, berths, storage, and transportation to accommodate a 14,000 TEU ship, with the exception of the turning basin.”

TEU stands for 20-foot equivalent unit, a unit of capacity measurement for ships carrying standard 20-foot-long containers.

According to the State Ports Authority, container ship business garners 48% of the Wilmington port’s roughly $38.2 million in annual revenue and billions more in economic impact across the state.

“The port is trying to meet the demand of the shipping companies,” North Carolina Special Deputy Attorney General Scott Slusser told the CRC. “And if North Carolina doesn’t do it, the other states will.”

Still, Slusser said he understood the division’s “frustration” and vowed to streamline “as much as possible.”

But coastal managers weren’t questioning the economic benefits to the state. Rather, they took issue with the ports authority’s sidestepping communication about the project with division staff and the lack of opportunity provided for public information, input and comment.

“This is not how this process is supposed to work,” said Christine Goebel, general counsel for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, during a presentation to the Coastal Resources Commission.

DEQ’s Division of Coastal Management, or DCM, enforces the state’s Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, and Dredge and Fill Act and the federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 in North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties. The division serves as staff for the Coastal Resources Commission, which sets policies for the state’s coastal management program and adopts rules for both CAMA and the Dredge and Fill Act.

“If DCM had made a public records request,” Goebel added, “we would have had more information than the ports shared.”

The mitigation proposed by the ports authority, which included a perpetual conservation easement on 30.2 acres of port property east of the Brunswick River, a donation of $800,000 to complete construction and monitoring of a fish passage farther up the Cape Fear River at Lock and Dam No. 1, and tidal marsh enhancement, also didn’t match the size of scale of the dredging, Goebel said.

CRC Vice Chair Larry Baldwin of Harkers Island said he could see the ports authority’s justification for the project, but he also questioned the lack of respect for the process.

“I’m going to echo staff,” Baldwin said. “The lack of public input – I think that’s pretty egregious – and not to let people comment, especially the sister agencies.”

Permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the North Carolina Division of Water Resources had not been finalized, said Patricia Smith, a spokeswoman for the CRC. The Corps had indicated to the ports authority that it had the capacity for the dredged material at its site on Eagle Island.

In its recommendation to the CRC, the division agreed that in light of Wilmington being the state’s sole port capable of handling the larger vessels, as well as its history of heavy dredging, the economic hardship to the ports related to losing container ship traffic would be greater than the impact to the affected fisheries.

“However, Staff notes that the POW has created some hardships by not openly engaging resource agency staff early in the planning process for the proposed turning basin expansion,” the DCM stated in variance documents.

As an example, the agency said, the ports had commissioned an “Interim Expansion Study” after the successful navigation in 2017 of a super-large ship in the Panama Canal that included analysis of five alternative designs at the Wilmington port. But the study was not shared with the division until April 1 as part of the variance process. Nor were the alternatives analysis disclosed during a pre-application meeting earlier in the fall, or in the permit application. As a result, according to the document, there was no engagement with resource agencies about designs and mitigation plans or their potential environmental effects.

But the ports authority discounted any disconnect with the regulatory agencies.

“North Carolina Ports works closely with the Division of Coastal Management and will continue to work closely with DCM during this project,” State Ports Authority spokeswoman Bethany Welch stated in an email response to Coastal Review Online. “NC Ports’ partnerships with state agencies are critical to the success of this very important project not only for our organization but the entire state of North Carolina.”

The turning basin was enlarged to 1,400 feet wide in 2016, a year after the CRC had granted a variance for larger vessels. But when a 13,092 TEU vessel navigated through the wider Panama Canal in 2017, the shipping industry started favoring use of the super-large vessels.

The $30 million project is estimated to take seven months. Although the ports authority included the delayed starting date of July 1 as part of its mitigation that addresses fisheries impacts, the division noted that the date coincided with when the dredging window would open anyway.

The variance also included additional mitigation measures the division required, including a fish monitoring plan coordinated with state and federal agencies and paid for by the ports. It also required a memorandum of understanding between the ports and the agencies outlining requirements for future projects, including public engagement and coordinated timelines.

“Staff acknowledges the significant economic value of the POW and believes it is within the spirit of the rules to consolidate industrial port activities in the coastal area,” according to the DCM document summing up reasoning for granting the variance.

CRC Chair Renee Cahoon applauded division staff for pulling together a difficult wrap-up of the complicated project.

“A lot of work was done in a short period of time,” she said, “and that’s not the way it’s supposed to be done.”

But in a later interview, Cahoon said the CRC may have been irked, but the panel was well aware that the ports are a major economic driver in North Carolina. The goal is to cooperate and communicate in the best interest of the state, she said, using a process that keeps everyone informed.

“The MOU will solve that problem,” she said, referring to the memorandum of understanding, or agreement on mitigation, required as part of granting the variance. “Sister state agencies will have to work together.”

SOUTHEAST N.C. — Narrowed down from a dozen, the six options, or alternatives, for a proposed large-scale transportation project intended to improve traffic in the Wilmington area will be presented next week.

North Carolina Department of Transportation will hold open houses and public hearings Monday and Tuesday about Cape Fear Crossing, a 9.5-mile proposed road and high-level bridge over the Cape Fear River that officials say would help improve traffic flow and enhance freight movements from U.S. 17 and Interstate 140 in Brunswick County to U.S. 421 near the North Carolina Port of Wilmington in southern New Hanover County, according to an announcement Monday from NCDOT.

NCDOT Communications Officer Lauren Haviland told Coastal Review Online that the project, in addition to easing congestion on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, would serve as another way to evacuate in the event of a hurricane or other emergency.

The public can drop by between 5 and 6:30 p.m. Monday for the open house, which will be followed at 7 p.m. by a public hearing, both in John T. Hoggard High School cafeteria, 4305 Shipyard Blvd., Wilmington. The second open house is 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday with the hearing to follow at 7 p.m. at North Brunswick High School Gym, 114 Scorpion Drive, Leland. Comments also can be submitted online until May 16.

Community members will be able to ask questions, submit comments and discuss the proposed project with NCDOT representatives during the open house. The public hearing will include formal presentations explaining the six alternatives, right of way and relocation requirements and procedures. The same information will be presented at both meetings, which will be recorded and a written transcript will be prepared.

Detailed Study Alternative Maps are online, and more information is on the project website and at NCDOT public meetings website.

Haviland said that that the public’s involvement in this process is vital and comments will aid in NCDOT’s decision.

“NCDOT will balance that against other factors, such as: safety, traffic service, human and natural environmental impacts and costs, to name a few,” she explained, adding that the location and selection of an alternative is not based on any one single comment because it does not reflect popular or majority preference.

The estimated cost of the project is $620 million to $995 million. The final cost will be determined during the design process. The NCDOT’s 2018-2027 State Transportation Improvement Program funded the planning and environmental studies for this project. Once funding for construction is secured, the project is expected to take about five years to complete, according to NCDOT.

In addition, the formal review is underway of the Cape Fear Crossing Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, that was approved March 25 by NCDOT, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, according to the release. A requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act, the purpose of DEIS is to detail how the transportation project was developed, alternatives that were considered and shows compliance with other applicable environmental laws and executive orders. The DEIS also explains how different alternatives will change communities, and impacts to environmental justice areas.

During the open houses and hearings next week, formal comments can be submitted regarding the DEIS to be included in the project record. The 1,009-page DEIS and maps with the six detailed study alternatives are available for review online and until May 16 at several locations in the region and in Raleigh. Comments will be accepted until May 16.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District, will issue a public notice explaining the ongoing process in choosing the Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative, or LEDPA, for the subject project, under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

Haviland said that the project is not expected to have a substantial impact on ground or surface water quality.

“The US Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over wetlands and streams within the study area, and any impacts to these resources will be avoided, minimized and mitigated to the extent practicable,” she explained.

“Fragmentation and loss of wildlife habitat would be an unavoidable consequence of all the detailed study alternatives. During construction, impacts resulting from erosion and sedimentation will be kept to a minimum by employing Best Management Practices such as revegetating or covering disturbed areas,” Haviland added. “Traffic noise impacts will be abated where feasible and reasonable in accordance with applicable federal and state policies.”

Ramona McGee, attorney based at the Chapel Hill office of the Southern Environmental Law Center told Coastal Review Online that they are monitoring the project and reviewing the recent environmental analyses.

“We are concerned about the extensive direct and indirect environmental impacts for such a costly project—including severe impacts to local communities, natural areas and wetlands, and imperiled wildlife,” she added. “The project appears poised to cause such environmental destruction with little benefit to local residents. That said, the project is not currently funded, so its future seems murky at best. We plan to attend the public hearings next week.”

Following the comment period that ends May 16 for both the six detailed study alternatives and DEIS, public input will be summarized and considered when choosing a preferred corridor, or the preferred alternative, which is not a final decision. Public comment will also be taken into account when developing the final design of the project, according to NCDOT.

After the public comment period and review by local, state and federal agencies, NCDOT will prepare a Final Environmental Impact Statement, expected to be complete in Spring 2020, that will identify the preferred alternative and address comments regarding the draft environmental impact statement.

The environmental study process will wrap up with a record of decision in the summer of 2020 that will include the approved ​corridor, or selected alternative, detail why that alternative was chosen and how to minimize and compensate for human and environmental impacts. The selected alternative is a final decision.

Since at least 1999, the Cape Fear Crossing project, though under different names, has been considered in local and regional plans, according to the DEIS.

The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, a transportation planning agency for the lower Cape Fear region, determined that because U.S. 17 is a key entry point into the town from the west, an additional crossing would alleviate congestion on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, according to the release.

Mike Kozlosky, executive director of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, told Coastal Review Online that the federally-mandated and federally-funded entity is “tasked with providing a regional and cooperative transportation planning process that serves as the basis for the expenditure of all federal transportation funds in the greater Wilmington area” and is required to prepare long-range transportation plans for the area with a minimum of a 20-year horizon.

The project, initially known as the Southern Bridge, was first proposed as a highway from Independence Boulevard and U.S. 421 travelling west across Cape Fear River.

“The project described as ‘Southern Bridge’ was identified in Greater Wilmington Urban Area Transportation Plan 1999-2025,” he said.

The project was renamed by 2005 the Cape Fear Skyway. The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan, or LRTP, proposed that the project shift to the south of Leland and Belville and was considered a priority, according to the DEIS.

“The 2030 Transportation Plan described a project that extends east from U.S. 17 at the proposed I-140 (Wilmington Bypass) interchange, across the Cape Fear River, to Independence Boulevard at US 421. This project has been carried forward in Cape Fear Commutes 2035 and Cape Fear Transportation 2040,” Kozlosky said.

A merger team made up of local, state, and federal agency representatives is developing the Cape Fear Crossing project following the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/Section 404 Merger Process. The team met several times, including in August 2017 to review and eliminate some of the 12 alternatives because of residential and business relocations and impacts to historic and natural resources.

In December 2017, it was announced that half of the 12 proposed project alternatives were eliminated and the six detailed study alternatives that were selected will be the focus next week of the open houses and public hearings, when the public is encouraged to give feedback.

Learn More

• Contact Jamille Robbins, NCDOT public involvement, community studies and visualization group leader, at 1-800-233-6315 or at capefear@ncdot.gov to comment on any aspect of the project or make arrangements for auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Those who speak Spanish or have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English, may receive interpretive services upon request before the hearing by calling 1-800-481-6494.
• NCDOT will live-stream the public hearing on Facebook though questions and comments submitted through the social media platform during the event will not be answered or be recorded.

COROLLA – Any day now, legal action may be taken to challenge construction of the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge, but it would be par for the course for a project that has been presumed dead for much of four decades.

Plans for the 4.7-mile, two-lane span between Currituck County’s mainland and Outer Banks reached a milestone last month that not long ago seemed impossible: approval to move forward.

With the Federal Highway Administration’s Record of Decision on March 8, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Turnpike Authority have the official go-ahead to seek environmental permits, acquire rights of way and advance plans for construction of the $490 million bridge, Project No. R-2576. The project also includes a 1.5-mile bridge over Maple Swamp in Aydlett, the project’s mainland entrance about 25 miles south of the Virginia state line.

But debate about the project’s environmental effects, its cost and its very necessity continues unabated.

“This is a massive boondoggle,” said John Grattan, a member of Concerned Citizens and Visitors Opposed to the Mid-Currituck Bridge, or NOMCB, and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. “A half a billion dollars (would be spent) for a bridge that is going to fulfill its function relieving traffic on only 13 weekends a year.”

“This is a massive boondoggle.”

John Grattan, NOMCB

Bridge proponents, including officials in Dare and Currituck counties and the towns of Duck, Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk, say it is needed to relieve hourslong summer congestion on U.S. 158 approaching the Wright Memorial Bridge and on N.C. 12 between Southern Shores and Corolla. Not only is the traffic an inconvenience to visitors and residents alike, they say, it is a safety hazard in a resort area subject to intense weather. In addition to shaving an hour off the time for visitors coming to the Outer Banks from Virginia, the bridge would also increase employment and cut commuting time for seasonal staff, proponents contend.

“The Mid-Currituck Bridge will provide much-needed transportation improvements for hurricane evacuation clearance times and connectivity to the Outer Banks,” Chris Werner, acting executive director of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, said in a statement in March.

Estimating Demand

According to Currituck Economic Development, the county’s year-round population is projected to grow from the current 25,000 to 42,000 by 2045, and the seasonal population is expected to increase by more than 30,000 in the same period. Without the second bridge, NCDOT estimated that the hurricane evacuations by 2035 would take 36 hours. State rules call for clearance time – the hours from the start of evacuation until the last vehicle is gone – to be 18 hours.

But the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing NOMCB and the Wildlife Federation, contends that NCDOT and the Turnpike Authority are required under federal regulations to update the environmental impact statement, or EIS, that was completed in 2012 because it is based on outdated information, including about traffic volume and sea level rise and storm surge data. The groups have requested that a supplemental EIS be completed to update the information in the 2012 document that was the basis for the just-issued Record of Decision.

“Since that time, there have been substantial changes made to the project and to the proposed alternative solutions,” SELC attorney Kym Hunter said in a March 18 letter to the agencies requesting a supplemental EIS. “In addition, significant new information has developed with regard to project costs, environmental impacts, traffic forecasts, hurricane evacuation modeling, development assumptions, and financing plans.”

In an interview, Hunter also said that recent estimates show that there would be fewer vehicles using the bridge than earlier projections, which would affect not only congestion and hurricane evacuation forecasts, but also potential toll revenue.

She noted that the state had set aside $178 million in the NCDOT Division 1 budget for the project, leaving about $300 million to be provided by tolls or some other revenue source. Tolls could be as much as $28 each way during peak season, Hunter said, and NCDOT costs could consume “a considerable part” of the Division 1 budget.

The need for the bridge as an evacuation route, Hunter said, is undercut by the latest climate science showing increased sea level rise and storm surge.

“So, during a hurricane, it’s very likely that this won’t even be a usable bridge,” Hunter said.

Meanwhile, Hunter said SELC is waiting for a response to its request for a supplemental environmental impact statement.

“We have asked NCDOT to prepare a SEIS, which is legally required because of the many changes that have occurred since 2012, and because the current documentation is outdated and inadequate,” Hunter said in an email dated April 1. “If the Department will not do so we will be forced to take legal action on behalf of our clients.”

The law center has 150 days from the record of decision, or until Aug. 5, to file a legal challenge.

Another alternative developed by an engineer hired by the groups proposes a combined approach that would cost about $146 million and would include the following:

• Building a flyover at the intersection of U.S. 159 and N.C 12.
• Replacing traffic lights with roundabouts.
• Using staggered check-in and check-out times and electronic keys for weekly rental customers.
• Creating manned traffic controls at peak times.
• Developing a traffic app for visitors to help avoid congestion.

Long, Troubled History

An east-west crossing over Currituck Sound was first identified as a need in 1975. Since then, the Mid-Currituck Bridge has lurched along in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back planning process. After formal planning finally began for the bridge in 1995, nearly every state and federal stakeholder agency raised objections. Among the objections were concerns that development would be encouraged in an area unsuited to handle it.

The proposal was eventually tabled. But in 2006, the project was revived, and it was delegated to the Turnpike Authority to develop a public-private partnership to fund and build the bridge as a toll project with a price tag of about $600 million. At the time, tolls were estimated to cost about $8 each way during summer and $6 during the remainder of the year.

By 2012, the proposed cost was reduced to about $410 million, but the North Carolina General Assembly declined to provide funding. Two years later, the project was added to NCDOT’s 10-year transportation improvement plan, but it didn’t meet the state’s priorities for funding, which use scores projects receive based on population and traffic. So again, the project was put on hold.

After an amendment to the transportation plan that considered more local input, the project was moved up in the priority list, qualified for construction and was included as a funded project in the 2016-25 state transportation improvement plan.

According to the federal decision, the bridge is to be financed by a combination of toll revenue bonds; a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, loan; Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE bonds; and state matching funds. The total cost including utilities, environmental mitigation and rights of way is $490.59 million.

Rodger Rochelle, NCDOT project engineer, said that the department determined that changes since the 2012 environmental statement were not substantive enough to warrant a supplemental environmental statement.

The public-private partnership concept was dropped after the agencies were unable to come to an agreement with the developer on costs to build and maintain the bridge for 50 years, Rochelle added.

“The alignment and the scope of the project essentially has not changed since the EIS,” he said in an interview.

Lacking Infrastructure

Rochelle said that a toll estimate is expected to be available after a revenue and traffic study is completed. He declined to estimate when it would be done.

But Jen Symonds, NOMCB’s steering committee chair, said that the bridge proposal does not consider that the village of Corolla and Carova, the unpaved community to its north, lack the infrastructure to handle the increased traffic that the bridge would bring. Carova can barely handle the crowds that come for wild horse tours, she said.

“They’re tearing up the beaches,” Symonds said. “You’ve got vacationers up there using the beach as a toilet.”

But Currituck County Manager Dan Scanlon said that the county has made and is continuing to make significant improvements to the beach areas, including a greenway, a pedestrian plan and additional parking, sidewalks and restrooms. The county also has recently updated its land use plan, he said. But there’s a difference of opinion, he said, about the bridge’s potential effect.

“There’s a finite amount of development left,” Scanlon said. “I think we are addressing growth potential.”

But to Symonds, the whole idea of the bridge improving hurricane evacuation or easing congestion makes no sense, considering that the bridge will only bring more traffic.

“The bridge has one lane each way, so it will queue back up,” she said. “And it’s not going to help that traffic that they experience on N.C. 12. They’re going to be going south and north to get to the rental offices.”

Traffic is a fact of life in all vacation areas, Symonds said, whether it’s a ski resort or a beach resort.

“You could build a thousand of these bridges,” she said. “It’s not going to help the road capacity on N.C. 12. Deal with it.”

Learn More

• Related documents

MANTEO – Unable to leave its home port at Roanoke Island Festival Park for the last two years, the state-owned Elizabeth II may go through another winter without maintenance before a shoaled channel blocking its passage will be cleared.

More than $2 million has been provided in this year’s adjusted state budget to dredge Manteo channel at the intersection of Shallowbag Bay, but until recently no entity had stepped up to take charge of the process.

Finally early last month, the Dare County Board of Commissioners agreed to allow County Manager Bobby Outten, who also serves as county attorney, to administer the dredge project.

“From our perspective,” Outten said, “it’s good for the community – it’s good for everybody.”

The state grant, which require no matching funds, is being handled by the North Carolina Department of Water Quality.

Addressing the low spot in the channel would mostly benefit commercial and recreational boat traffic to and from the Manteo harbor and the waterfront docks, as well as allow the Elizabeth II to leave the dock. But neither Manteo nor the state volunteered to take the reins of the dredge project.

About a week before the board voted to approve the county’s role, Manteo Town Manager Kermit Skinner had contacted the county to ask it to take charge, Outten said.

Since Dare County has experience navigating the complicated permitting process for dredge projects, as well as the ability to cover upfront costs until it is reimbursed, Outten said it is logical for the county to handle the administrative duties.

“We’re not walking into a complete unknown,” he said. “It was the most expeditious way to do it.”

The county contracted with consultant Ken Wilson with Wilmington-based firm Aptim Coastal Planning & Engineering of North Carolina Inc. to handle the permitting process and execution of the project. Once final details are completed, Outten said, the consultant will be able to determine how much dredging would be required, who is available to do it, when it can be started and completed, and how much it is likely to cost.

The last time the Elizabeth II had been hauled out for maintenance at the state shipyard in Manns Harbor was in January 2016, said Dwight Gregory, a volunteer crew member. In October of that year, the 69-foot vessel ran aground at the shoaled Shallowbag Bay intersection and was stranded there overnight until the high tide floated it free. Since then, the ship has not moved from its mooring in Doughs Creek at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

“It’s unlikely the ship can get out,” Gregory said recently. “It’s not any deeper than it was when it got stuck.”

Some bottom planks below the waterline need replacement, said Gregory, who has volunteered on the ship since 2007. So far, he said, the vessel does not appear to be leaking more than usual nor is it in imminent danger.

Still, its wooden hull can remain immersed in the creek’s briny water only so long before it starts to deteriorate.

“There’s work that needs to be done on it,” Gregory said.

The representative 16th-century sailing ship was built for $670,000 in 1983 at the Manteo waterfront to mark the 400^th anniversary of the 1584-1587 Roanoke Voyages, the first attempt at English colonization in the New World.

The state took ownership of the vessel when Roanoke Island Festival Park opened in 1998. The colorful three-masted, square-rigged ship, moored directly across from the Manteo waterfront shops and marina, has been a popular attraction at the park, where interpreters in 16th-century sailor costumes show off the ship and tell stories to visitors.

Michele Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said that the state is monitoring the ship’s condition, and is planning to have it hauled out this winter, if possible.

“Dredging this area will benefit the Town of Manteo, including the Elizabeth II and Festival Park,” Walker said last month in an email. “The Town of Manteo is the primary beneficiary of the proposed dredging work. Therefore, Manteo and Dare County have taken the lead on this project and have kept us informed.”

Before the county agreed to administer the project, Skinner said the town would have reluctantly taken the helm if it had no choice.

“It’s a reimbursable situation,” he said. “But it’s in excess of $1 million – that would pretty much bleed us of our fund balance.”

In May, the Dare County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution supporting Manteo’s request for emergency dredging.

Skinner said he had hoped the project could be done over the winter, but the challenge “first and foremost” is finding a place to put the dredge material.

“We don’t really have a suitable spoil site,” he said. “If we can do it hydraulically rather than manually you can get the price down.”

Interest has been expressed in using the material to widen the eroding Roanoke Sound shoreline along the Elizabethan Gardens and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on the north end of Roanoke Island.

“If the permitting can be worked out,” Skinner said, “I think that could be a good solution, but I’m led to believe that would be a very complicated permit to get.”

Some critics said that Manteo should have had the channel cleared as part of long-overdue dredging project that the town did last winter in Doughs Creek that was largely paid for with state funds.  In an earlier interview, Skinner said that the state never requested the work be done at the Shallowbag Bay intersection.

Although that shoaled area is technically part of federal channel, it has not been maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers since the 1981 construction of the state-owned Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park.  When the seafood park was built, the state agreed to take over maintenance of the channel north of Wanchese Harbor, according to the Corps.

But dredging has not been done in the channel since 2005, and the problem spot at the intersection now has 4 feet or less of water. The Elizabeth II draws 8 feet.

Carl Jordan, Manteo dockmaster, said that boats that draw more than 6 feet rarely bother trying to come into the harbor, and those docked at the Manteo waterfront marina are all smaller vessels.

“Even those with 5- to 5 ½-foot (drafts), I spend half my time on the phone making sure they don’t run aground,” Jordan said. “I spend all my time telling them exactly where to go.”

Jim Medlock, civil works project manager at the Corps’ Wilmington office, said that the quality of the dredged material would be a big factor in where it can be placed, and whether it would be permitted.

But he agreed that getting material to the north end of the island or finding another site to deposit it would be a challenge.

“It doesn’t make any difference if it’s 5 cubic yards, or 100 cubic yards,” he said. “There has to be a place to put the material.”

Medlock said the Corps could potentially be contracted to help with the project, or a private contractor could be hired.  Meanwhile, he said, he would “be more than happy” to discuss the options with the county.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said about the permitting. “It’s a lengthy process and it does take time.”

RALEIGH – In a presentation to legislators Wednesday on Hurricane Florence, Karen Collette, Division 3 engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, said the lesson of what happened to U.S. 421 at the Pender-New Hanover County line was evident.

In the aftermath of the storm and the inundation of 4 miles of Interstate 40, U.S. 421 became a key route into Wilmington until a culvert failure and washout near the county line cut deep into the roadbed and left a wide gash that will take months to repair.

“When we looked at old plans, there used to be a bridge and we think there’s a reason there needs to be a bridge,” Collette said. “Mother Nature has a way of reminding you.”

The damage from Hurricane Florence is starting to get clearer and the major challenge for many communities in reopening schools and clearing out flooded areas is restoring the hundreds of road links still under water or in need of serious repair.

“I will remind everyone the storm is not over until the last site is repaired, the last road is open and last housing debris is removed,” Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon told members of the House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Range Funding Solutions during its meeting Wednesday in Raleigh.

Trogdon said dozens of major highways and hundreds of secondary roads were damaged in the storm. Most were in the coastal plain, but washouts from the storm extended as far west as Avery County. In all, there were 3,101 sites with damage. The worst, Trogdon said, was U.S. 421.

“This is probably the most severely damaged site that we have in our state,” he told legislators. “The water cut a 15- to 18-foot hole through 421.”

Trogdon said contractors were on site and working to put up a temporary bridge over the break with an expected single lane to open in each direction. The plan for a permanent fix at the site is to put in two, 500-foot bridges carrying the northbound and southbound lanes. Trogdon said the timetable calls for finishing the work and reopening both lanes in each direction in seven to eight months.

North Carolina’s transportation costs from Hurricane Florence are expected to reach $266 million, most of that reimbursable through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Highway Administration. The state’s estimated share of the costs is $66.8 million, Trogdon said.

There were some success stories from the storm, he said, including much better integration of drones and on-the-ground reporting to update the public on road closures and traffic conditions.

Ports Authority, Ferry Division Report Damage

Property repairs or replacement at the two state seaports are estimated at about $54 million. Both Wilmington and Morehead City ports had wind damage to roofs and storage areas and several dislodged containers.

“In non-technical terms I can tell you that both ports took a wallop in this storm,” Paul Cozza, executive director of the North Carolina Ports Authority said Wednesday.

Morehead City was not as heavily damaged as Wilmington, he said, but both will require extensive repairs to buildings. None of the cranes or berths were damaged, he said.

The port channels continue to be reviewed and one major obstruction, a 7-foot-diameter rock, had to be removed from the shipping channel in Wilmington.

The state Ferry Division fleet has resumed regular operation, but also incurred damage during the storm. After evacuation operations, including moving 1,074 vehicles and 2,181 people off Ocracoke Island, most of the 21 state ferries were in safe mooring sites at the Swan Quarter dock and the state shipyard at Mann’s Harbor. Service was suspended for 18 days with a loss of $27,713 in revenue.

Sterling Baker, director of facilities management for the Ferry Division, said the most damage from the storm was on the Bayview-Aurora route, where there was bulkhead damage and shoreline rip-rap erosion, and the Cherry Branch terminal, which had extensive bulkhead erosion and large washout areas. Major repairs there and roof work at the Cedar Island ferry terminal is expected to cost about $550,000, in addition to about $100,000 for other repairs.

The state is also rebuilding the lineup loop for the Ocracoke to Hatteras ferry terminal at the northern end of Ocracoke Island. Erosion at Hatteras Inlet caused damage to the area last summer and a sandbag wall was added during the spring, but currents from the storm scattered the sandbags and damaged the pavement again.

Session to Continue

The look at the damage to the state’s transportation system is just one of many reviews started as the estimates roll in on the costs and consequences of what is likely to be the state’s most devastating storm.

It took less than four hours on Tuesday for legislators to open a special session and pass the first round of recovery legislation, which is aimed at ensuring matching funds for federal aid and pay for school employees, as well as extending deadlines for voter registration and granting greater calendar flexibility to school systems in hard-hit areas.

The North Carolina General Assembly is scheduled to return Oct. 15 to consider additional legislation after state agencies have had more time to prepare cost estimates.

On Monday, Division of Coastal Management director Braxton Davis is scheduled to review storm impacts for the House Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and other departments are also compiling their costs and future budget needs. Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to present a comprehensive budget request for Florence response ahead of the mid-October session.

OUTER BANKS — With more than 50,000 people on the move, the evacuation of Hatteras Island is slow but steady and – for now – N.C. 12, the island’s lifeline, is still open.

Dare County ordered the mandatory evacuation of the island first, with the rest of Dare County to follow, and Tuesday Gov. Roy Cooper reaffirmed moving all residents and visitors off through a first-ever statewide evacuation of all barrier islands.

N.C. Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday that despite a few over-washes they had been able to keep the road open.

“Obviously for now the focus is on the evacuation and we’re doing what we can to assist with that effort,” said Jerry Jennings, North Carolina Department of Transportation’s chief engineer for Division 1, which spans the state’s northern coast. “Really no problems to speak of, a couple of locations where we’re receiving a little over-wash, but nothing affecting traffic. We have crews on site trying to address those areas.”

Two weeks ago, Jennings led a group of legislators with the House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Term Funding Solutions on a tour of the iconic thin ribbon of asphalt that runs through Pea and Hatteras islands. In places, the road is separated from the ocean only by a windswept dune that’s over-washed enough that no plants will root in it. The sand there is constantly spilling into the road and crews have to clear the area regularly.

“It’s like dealing with a snowstorm 365 days a year,” Jennings told legislators on the tour.

Keeping track of the hot spots along Hatteras Island has been somewhat easier since the department started using drones to map the ever-shifting shoreline and its proximity to the highway. This will be the first major use of the drones in hurricane response.

“We had them out yesterday and did a pre-storm flight of some of the problem areas just to have that documentation,” Jennings said Tuesday. “After the storm, once conditions are such that we can get it back in the air it’ll be a good way to do surveillance of any damage.”

With the track through North Carolina still uncertain, Jennings is reluctant to speculate on how Hurricane Florence will affect Highway 12. Yet, he expects an over-wash on Pea Island and the “S Curve” region near Mirlo Beach, where last week contractors set the first piling for the so-called “jug-handle bridge” that shifts the road further into the sound and away from the oceanside dunes.

The highway through both islands were hit hard during Hurricane Irene and closed the road for weeks, cutting off most of the inhabitants of the island from their link with the rest of Dare County.

Then, supplies, repair crews and emergency aid got to the island southern part of Hatteras Island via an emergency ferry crossing from Stumpy Point to Hatteras.

Jennings said that whether N.C. 12 closes again will depend on the severity of the storm.

“If it’s just sand on the road and it can be cleared in a day or so then, that can be opened up before the temporary ferry route could be operational,” he said.

If the road is impassable, traffic would likely be stopped north of the Bonner Bridge. Jennings said crews working on the new bridge over Oregon Inlet have been securing the site ahead of the hurricane.

“The contractor implemented his hurricane plan, demobilizing equipment and mooring it for the storm, removing any loose materials and making the site as storm-worthy as possible,” he said.

Another zone NCDOT crews are keeping watch on is across Hatteras Inlet at the northern end of Ocracoke Island. Last winter, part of the roadway loop at the end of the island used to que up ferry traffic collapsed due to heavy erosion at the inlet.

NCDOT rebuilt the road and has installed a sandbag wall to protect it, but the inlet continues to eat away at the northern end of the island.

Sound Future

The impending arrival of Hurricane Florence underlines the fragility of N.C. 12, Kym Hunter, of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said Tuesday.

Hunter, who has served as one of the lead attorneys in several cases involving N.C. 12, said planning a long-term future of the road is a challenge, given the dynamics of the North Carolina coast and fast-rising seas along the state’s northern region.

Hunter said she also expected damage to likely show first at the S-turns and Pea Island hotspots along the Outer Banks highway.

She said the new jug-handle bridge will be a benefit because it solve the problems with the road in that area by shifting it along a bridge farther out on the sound. She said SELC and the groups it represents will continue to push for sections of N.C. 12 to be redesigned in a similar way.

“We have consistently advocated for taking much of that highway off the island into the sound side so its protected,” Hunter said. “If you keep the road on the island it’s eventually going to be in the ocean.”

Jennings said the new bridge will make a difference for access to the area. “Certainly, it will make a tremendous improvement,” he said.

The jug-handle bridge wasn’t popular with some property owners in the area and SELC, which in the past has sued the state most famously over the design of the new bridge, has joined with the NCDOT to defend the bridge in court. Plaintiffs lost the case to stop the bridge in federal district court and are now appealing the case. Hunter said briefs in the case, like the first winds of Hurricane Florence, were due Wednesday.

Learn More

• View live Dare County traffic information

WILMINGTON – The North Carolina State Ports Authority is asking the public to weigh in on a feasibility study on proposed “enhancements” to the Wilmington harbor, but no specific proposals on how to make the port more accessible to larger and more fully laden ships were presented last week during a meeting at the Coastline Conference and Event Center.

Bethany Welch, the authority’s communications manager, said port officials are exploring various options to allow deep-draft vessels to efficiently navigate to the port.

“A more efficient channel would modernize the port, attract more import and export business, help mitigate East Coast congestion, and help North Carolina ports become an even stronger player in this competitive landscape,” she told Coastal Review Online in a follow-up interview. “The goal of the feasibility study will help N.C. ports assess the impact of these improvements and help map the future of the Wilmington Harbor.”

Changing vessel operations, widening and deepening the 26-mile-long channel beyond its current 42-foot mean lower low water depth, “softening” bends in the river and finding beneficial uses of dredge spoils are alternatives that may be considered, according to materials on display at the informal meeting held to provide the public information and gather input about the study. The public also can email comments to port officials at WH203study@ncports.com throughout the duration of the project.

More than 20 attended the meeting, including ports authority representatives and contractors for the project who were available for the public’s questions and concerns. Displayed in a crescent shape, about a dozen posters were on easels with bullet points of information that provided details on the feasibility study to be funded by the port authority’s operating revenues. No federal money is to be used for the study.

Among the posters on display during the meeting was “Study Purpose and Need,” which read that the purpose is “To evaluate alternative harbor improvements that will allow efficient use of the harbor by containerships calling on the U.S. East Coast,” and the need is “The fleet containerships is increasing in size to reduce marine transport costs. Existing channel conditions cannot accommodate these larger vessels efficiently. Carriers will shift cargo to deeper, more efficient ports causing longer truck hauls and increasing total transportation costs.”

The contractor for the study is the Washington, D.C.-area-based water resources project planning and development firm David Miller and Associates Inc., in conjunction with environmental consulting firm Dial Cordy and Associates Inc. and coastal engineering firm Moffat and Nichol.

Welch said that the meeting marked the beginning of the feasibility study, which is to look at any potential environmental effects, such as degraded water quality, saltwater intrusion into freshwater bodies and aquifers and effects on wildlife and how to mitigate the damage.

“We look to conclude the study in the spring of 2019 which is when it will ideally be submitted to the assistant secretary of the Army for review and approval,” Welch said. “Once it’s with the Army Corps of Engineers, a decision for the study should be issued by 2021. As for the project, there is no current timeline, because the study will help determine what that project could look like.” The Corps is responsible for maintaining the federal channel.

Welch said that the ports authority prides itself on being a good neighbor.

“It’s important that as we grow and look to make improvements, the community is involved in the process every step of the way, which is why we host public meetings for projects like the Wilmington Harbor Navigational Improvement Project Section 203 Study,” she said.

Welch added that the authority has an “open-door policy” and encouraged the public to call or stop by and ask questions to learn more about the project. Also, there is a page on the website for the project that is to be routinely updated.

Environmental Concerns

Attending the event was Michael Rice of Southport with the nonprofit Save the Cape Inc. He said, “we need to know about this deepening project because it seems foolish and reckless. There’s an aquifer at risk. What’s to be gained?”

Rice was referring to the Castle Hayne Aquifer, the groundwater source for much of eastern North Carolina’s municipal drinking water supplies.

“Our aquifer is very important now with the GenX issue in the Cape Fear River,” Rice continued. “We need the Castle Hayne aquifer, it’s a very significant water source. It’s about 26-28 feet (below the river bottom) where it crosses the river. They want to go to 52 feet, so they’re going to scrape the top of it off.”

From that, two things will happen, Rice said. “The fresh water in the aquifer will leak out into the Cape Fear River, or if the pressure balance changes, the salt water will go into the aquifer. It does seem reckless but it also seems that the consultants that they’ve hired are very capable and will bring out all of these issues. So we’re confident that the report will be something people will work with and a well-done report will produce the right conclusions on how to go forward or not.”

Frank Yelverton, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, also attended. He was there to learn more about the project, which he said the nonprofit organization is watching to make sure the river is protected.

Kit Adcock, mayor pro tempore of the Village of Bald Head Island, has been a permanent resident of the exclusive community at the mouth of the Cape Fear River since 2006, but has owned property there since 1990.

“I have been watching the ports growth and expansion carefully for years,” she said.

Adcock is concerned that whatever the ports authority is proposing could affect Bald Head Island, which built a terminal groin in 2016 in an effort to combat chronic erosion some locals have blamed on the nearby ship channel.

“This could hurt us dramatically. We don’t know. The studies haven’t been done. We’re looking forward to seeing the studies, and we’re making those who are doing the studies aware of what the risks are,” Adcock said. She added that the risks are on the south and west beaches, where there’s mostly rental properties, the more expensive homes that generate significant property tax, occupancy proceeds and contribute to sales tax revenues for the county.

“We want to keep an eye on this, we want to be at the table,” she said, adding that they don’t want to be contrarians but want to work together for what’s in everyone’s best interest.

Tainting the Castle Hayne aquifer that serves Bald Head Island is another concern, Adcock explained. The study needs to look at how the project would affect the aquifer and the island’s drinking water, she said, noting that saltwater intrusion could affect not just drinking water but also the flora, including the maritime forest.

Port officials say the study will consider effects on marine resources, protected species, water quality, fish and wildlife resources, cultural resources, essential fish habitat, socio-economics resources, coastal processes, aesthetics and recreation and other effects identified through public involvement and agency coordination. According to the public notice published June 12, the feasibility study is to comply with the Corps’ guidelines and the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

The study is to be performed under Section 203 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, stating, “A non-federal interest may on its own undertake a feasibility study of a proposed harbor or inland harbor project and submit it to the Secretary of the Army.”

CURRITUCK COUNTY – Perhaps the ultimate irony for Carova, a tiny Outer Banks community with no paved roads, is that every summer its wide beach becomes a parking lot – a long, crowded one.

At the height of the season, thousands of off-road vehicles a day drive along an 11-mile stretch of shoreline, navigating past thousands of beachgoers and their vehicles squeezed on the strand of soft sand between ocean and dunes.

In an effort to address safety concerns and control the number of parked vehicles, the county, during this past Memorial Day weekend, implemented a new ordinance requiring out-of-town vehicles to pay for a parking permit, while exempting Currituck residents and nonresident property owners. Within weeks, the Virginia Four Wheel Drive Association sued the county, contending that charging a fee only to nonresidents was unconstitutional.

Last week, a judge turned down the group’s request filed June 21 for a preliminary injunction that would have halted the permit requirement until the case was resolved.

But the debate that led to the dispute lives on.

“Of course we are disappointed that the judge did not issue an immediate injunction, but as the judge said, it has no reflection upon the merits of the case,” the group’s vice president, Sandy Schneirla, said in a statement provided by the association’s Washington, North Carolina-based attorney, Edwin Hardy.

“After hearing the arguments in court of both sides,” the statement continued, “we are more confident than ever that we will prevail when the case is finally heard on the merits of the constitutional issue.”

Driving up the beach is the only way to access the 3,000 platted lots in the community, most of which are located off sand roads behind the dune line and remain undeveloped. Although only 200 or so people live year-round in Carova – the name is a blending of Carolina and Virginia – the beach explodes with day-trippers and vacationers in the summer.

A beach driving committee appointed by the county in 2011, when 1,242 vehicles were counted on a July day, had recommended the parking permit system, but the ordinance was not approved until March 5.

Nontransferable permits are assigned at no cost to each vehicle driven by a resident or Carova property owner, covering Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Nonresidents are charged $50 per vehicle for a 10-day permit. Two seasonal guest permits are also allotted at no cost for each household in a rental program, and two free unassigned guest parking passes are provided to full-time residents in the off-road area.

Currituck County has until Aug. 20 to respond to the complaint, but county attorney Ike McRee said the implication of an unfair burden to nonresidents overlooks that county residents, through their taxes, are already paying their share.

McRee said that the permit requirement does not prevent visitors without a permit from driving on the beach. Also, he said it is not unusual for certain fees to be lower for local users of a service or program.

One example of a local benefit he cited is that the town of Southern Shores issues parking permits only to town residents.

“There are a number of cities and counties that charge different fees for recreational programs, depending if you are a resident of that locality,” he said.

County manager Dan Scanlon vowed in a statement to “vigorously defend” the ordinance and to “continue to work towards the enhancement of public safety on the north beach.”

But Scanlon acknowledged in an interview that the new permit system has been controversial, and he has received a number of complaints. He has also heard from Carova residents who applaud it.

“I guess the comments I’ve heard have run the gamut – that it’s working smoothly to it’s not working at all,” he said.

Some tweaks will likely be made later this year, he said, when the county board of commissioners plans to meet with the sheriff’s office to review issues, pro and con. For instance, Scanlon said, it may make sense to adjust the distribution of passes for rental programs.

At least one property owner agrees.

“The only negative thing I have to say about it,” said Tom Huduk, a Swan Beach property owner for 48 years, “is that a seasonal resident like myself … can’t get guest passes that aren’t assigned to a vehicle.”

Hudak, who lives in New Jersey, said he asked for a waiver, but was turned down, “which I think is discriminatory to the seasonal residents” since he pays the same taxes.

Carova has gone through head-spinning growth in tourism, helped partly by the county’s successful marketing campaign focused on the free-roaming wild horses and the undeveloped beach.

Less than 15 years ago, the northernmost end of the Outer Banks beyond the paved road in Corolla was still isolated and mostly ignored by tourists. But with the growing popularity of off-road wild horse tours and adventure tourism, visitation soon exploded.

Inevitably, more conflicts developed between beachgoers, homeowners, vehicles and the horses. In recent years, the county has put more limits on horse tours to reduce stress on the roads, the animals and the community. As a result, residents have taken to staying home as much as possible to avoid crowds. That can make some a little impatient when out-of-towners challenge measures that are trying to address the problem.

“Why doesn’t Virginia Beach allow them to drive in the sand in Sandbridge?” Connie Johnson, a Carova Beach resident who works in Corolla, asked about the plaintiffs and the beach community across the state line on Currituck Banks. “Why not fight with their own city?”

Beach driving is no longer permitted in Virginia Beach. But Johnson, who was born and raised there, said she remembers when people routinely drove back and forth over the state line on the beach, until a gate was installed in 1979. Now that 10-mile trip has become a three-hour trek.

With that eyewitness experience, Johnson understands the appeal of Carova’s rugged coastal environment and pristine, off-the-beaten-track beaches. A property owner since 1995 and full-time resident since 2005, she said that traffic in Carova has grown exponentially in the last five years, and the parking permit does not appear to have alleviated the congestion.

“There are just so many vehicles,” Johnson said. “I think the solution is a driving permit.”

For the time being, Johnson said that baby steps may be the best to expect, and she believes the community gets it.

“I think they’re glad that something is being done,” she said.

Updated 10:30 a.m. July 17: Sam Walker with the Outer Banks Voice reported during his podcast Tuesday that dredging of the channel into Rodanthe Harbor would take place Tuesday. Work to repair the damaged drain pipe in the nearby dredge spoils pit was completed over the weekend, in time for an Army Corps of Engineers dredge heading to Florida from Manns Harbor shipyard to clear the shoal in less than 24 hours.

Reprinted From Island Free Press

As Tropical Storm Chris was spinning out in the Atlantic off the Outer Banks this week, Dare County Waterways Commission members on Monday discussed progress on dredging an irksome small shoal clogging the emergency ferry channel in Rodanthe Harbor.

It’s a minor job that the Army Corps of Engineers would be able to take care of soon, but the work has been complicated by the recent discovery of a broken culvert.

The emergency channel between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point is a critical transportation backup for Hatteras Island when roads or bridges are inaccessible after major storms or accidents.

With the dredge departing earlier than expected, Joen Petersen, U.S. Corps of Engineers Chief of Floating Plants, stressed that time is of the essence. The dredge that could quickly do the project, he explained, is nearly ready to leave the shipyard in Manns Harbor, where it was being repaired, and head to Florida.

“We’re talking literally a day for those 400 (cubic) yards,” he told commissioners, referring to the small volume of material that needed to be removed. “My concern is we get to Miami and I start moving on those projects, and I don’t get back for a year.”

The challenge, however, is getting the damaged outfall repaired no later than a few days after the dredge leaves the shipyard by around July 15, responded Ann Daisey, the Waterways Commission administrator.

Daisey said in an interview that she had recently discovered that the corrugated outfall pipe at the site where dredge material is deposited had been cut in two for some time. Records show that the last repair was in 2013, she said, but there is no record of subsequent damage.

The spoil site has limited capacity for additional material, Daisey added, although it has not yet been determined how much that would be. The pipe directs water that drains from the sediment into the harbor.

“The main thing that needs to be done before they can dredge is to get that outfall pipe repaired,” Daisey said. “It would be inefficient on cost for them to leave and then come back.”

After earlier consultation with engineers at Albemarle and Associates, a formal bid had been put out for a complete repair project, she said. With the new urgency to get the channel cleared before the dredge leaves, Daisey said that the engineers have reached out to a former contractor who had previously done work on the culvert.

The hope is that at least a partial repair could be done to allow the dredge to remove enough material to make it navigable for the ferry. The 24-inch diameter pipe, divided in 30- to 40-foot sections, would need two or three sections replaced, depending on the condition of the mean high tide portion.

“The work on the pipe, in my opinion, would take less than a day because we’re not extending the pipe to the original distance out into the sound,” Daisey said, adding, “It needs to happen this week.”

According to Corps estimates, about 300 cubic yards of material would have to dredged to achieve a depth of 6 feet at the entrance to the channel – the minimum required for the ferry, which draws 5.5 feet. Currently, there is only 5.5 feet of water at the shoaled spot.

“Since we have a tropical storm sitting right there, it would be good to have it done,” said commissioner Natalie Kavanaugh.

Other members in attendance at the meeting in Manteo were chairman David May and commissioners Ernie Foster, Dan Oden and Steve “Creature” Coulter.

‘A Hole in the Middle of Nowhere’

Much of the discussion Monday centered on dredged and un-dredged areas of the federal Rollinson Channel leading to Hatteras Harbor, with some heated exchanges about the reasoning behind recent work.

Hatteras charter captains, including Coulter, Foster and Oden, have been complaining for some time about shoaling at the breakwater at the mouth of the harbor. All three expressed frustration that a part of the same channel had recently been dredged for the new passenger ferry, although that operation has been delayed.

Despite the long-stated concern about the pinch at the breakwater, Foster said, he was flabbergasted to learn about the nearby work.

“I’ve spent four years talking about it,” Foster said about the breakwater shoaling. “They literally dredged a hole in the middle of nowhere.”

Coulter said that vessels are now forced to hug the fender to get through, causing some to run aground.

“You didn’t discuss it with us – the people that use it,” Coulter said, addressing Corps representatives in the audience. “They were within 200 yards of where we needed them to dredge. … Everything was done so the passenger ferry would have enough water, but the passenger ferry is not going to run for six months. “

In response, Jim Medlock, Corps’ civil works project manager, said that the dredge is scheduled to return to the area in mid-September.

“It’s not just that they have this breakwater,” he said. “There’s other work that needs to be done.”

The Corps’ Wilmington district commander Col. Robert Clark, who was attending the Waterways Commission meeting for the first time, had sharper words.

“If we direct the contractor how to do his work, he’s going to jack up his price – that’s what happens,” Clark said. “So our business is we generally tell them, ‘Here’s the scope of the work.’ We certainly will ask them. If there’s no cost …”

Interrupting, Coulter said that since the dredge, after leaving Ocracoke, drove right past the area where the dredging was needed, it should have been in its scope.

Picking up where Clark left off, Medlock agreed that it would be reasonable to talk to the dredge contractor about schedule or work adjustments when possible.

‘It would be nice if we can continue to use the harbor,” Foster said sarcastically.

Impatience with the inefficiency of the bureaucracy soon shifted to the overarching complexity of getting necessary maintenance. A patchwork of federal and state authorized channels through the inlet often requires a laundry list of permits from different agencies, resulting in a time-consuming process. But increased shoaling in the waterway has made it more challenging to keep the inlet navigable for commercial and recreational vessels as well as vehicular and passenger ferries.

The increased shoaling has also created a need for more disposal sites for dredge material. One new site, “DOT island,” is close to final approval, but more are necessary.

The idea of having Hatteras Inlet declared a federal project was raised again by members as the best solution, but Medlock reaffirmed that it would take an act of Congress. And Clark dimmed any hopes of more federal funds being appropriated in future to the Corps for shallow-draft projects.

Still, it would be possible to try to get authorization that would provide more flexibility for dredging projects, Medlock said.

“I suggest we work on both at the same time,” he said. “Look for new disposal sites while seeking the authorization.”

The next meeting of the Dare County Waterways Commission is scheduled 7 p.m. Aug. 13 in Buxton.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast

OUTER BANKS — It was not as long ago as it may feel to many Outer Banks residents, but it was indeed last century when planning for the replacement for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet began.

As the massive deck under construction dwarfs the adjacent 55-year-old span that will soon be gone, it may be a minor miracle that one of the most controversial bridges in North Carolina is on target to open by year’s end.

“All of the piles have been driven, work is continuing on the segmental portion of the bridge,” state Department of Transportation Division Engineer Jerry Jennings said in a recent interview. “The high-level portions heading south over open water is nearly completed.”

Taller, tougher and torturously delayed, the new 2.8-mile-long Bonner Bridge – the only land link between Hatteras Island and the central Outer Banks – is one of the more innovative spans in the state, and ultimately, one of its costliest and contentious projects. Yet, even after monumental battles over its design and location, it still crosses the most unruly inlet on the East Coast at the same place, and connects to the same portions of the most environmentally vulnerable barrier islands in the nation.

But now the bridge, 20 feet higher and a half-mile longer, is being built to last 100 years, twice what was originally planned, incorporating the latest technology and coastal science.

Jennings said that modeling had been done during the design phase to account for the maximum amount of scour at bridge pilings, which are significantly longer and deeper than those of the old bridge. The concrete is also stronger and reinforced with stainless steel rebar, making it much more durable in the harsh saltwater environment.

“Certainly for this part of the state, it involves a lot of construction methods and materials that we haven’t used on any other bridge,” Jennings said.

To the millions of people who have driven their vehicles over or steered their vessels under the old bridge every year, the much higher and longer navigational span of the new bridge will be most noticeable.

Instead of a single hump in the center, the new bridge will have seven, 300-foot spans, allowing vessels to follow best water rather than a fixed center channel. The higher deck, curved gracefully over the picturesque waterway, will provide an even more spectacular vista of Oregon Inlet, the only access from the sound to the ocean between Virginia and Hatteras Island.

And the new bridge will also have much safer 8-foot-wide bicycle lanes.

Partly due to a design adjustment that pulled the alignment on the south end of the bridge closer to N.C. 12 to minimize impacts, the replacement bridge cost has increased from $215 million when it was awarded in July 2011 to PCL Civil Constructers to the current cost of $250 million, Jennings said. About $19 million of the additional cost, he added, was owed to the contractor when the project was delayed by legal action.

Lawsuits, conflict and increasing coastal erosion have been the bane of the replacement project from the beginning, not to mention weather delays and unplanned problems.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, in just the years the bridge was being planned, there were 95 hurricanes and tropical storms and numerous ocean overwash events experienced in the project area. And as recently as last summer, a huge crisis was created – although work didn’t stop – when PCL workers accidentally slashed a power transmission line to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, cutting power for a week and forcing thousands of tourists to evacuate.

When the 2.5-mile Bonner Bridge was built in 1962, the price tag was about $4 million. By the time the bridge opened to traffic in Nov. 1963, the Corps had been dredging the inlet for three years to keep it navigable.

Since the day Oregon Inlet was slashed open by a hurricane in 1846, it has stubbornly and inexorably been moving south, and bridge engineers soon discovered that the waterway was not readily tamed.

According to an NCDOT document, the bridge was built with a curved alignment intended to protect the structure from the ocean’s fury during storms. Also, the bridge’s navigational span was situated under the assumption that twin jetties would be built within 10 years to stabilize the inlet. But the highly controversial jetty project never materialized.

“Since its construction, the bridge has required continual maintenance,” the agency lamented in the 1993 draft environmental impact statement for the $55 million proposed bridge replacement.

Within two years of being opened, severe scour was discovered around piles near the navigation span, according to the document, and the problem never really stopped. Between 1978 and 1992, for instance, the agency spent $9.3 million to correct scour issues, and has repeatedly – up until recently – had to take similar corrective measures.

The bridge has also been plagued over the years by corrosion and spalling, requiring numerous rehabilitation projects. By the time the bridge had passed its 25^th birthday, NCDOT had spent close to $56 million on repairs.

In 1990, a $14 million terminal groin, or rock wall, was built perpendicular along the shoreline on the north end of Hatteras Island to control erosion of the roadway on bridge’s south entrance. Later that year, a huge dredge hit the bridge during a storm, demolishing several spans. It took nearly four months for the bridge to be repaired and reopened.

After work on the 1993 draft plan was shelved for years over issues with endangered species, planning for the replacement bridge was finally revived in 2002. The supplemental draft plan completed in September 2005 had expanded the study area south through Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to Rodanthe. Subsequent bridge alternatives that included a $1 billion, 17-mile bridge that would bypass the refuge set off a firestorm and a series of lawsuits against NCDOT by environmental groups.

Anxiety about the bridge’s safety grew to alarm as year after year went by, way past its expected 30-year lifespan. In 2007, the bridge had a sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100, with 100 being the best.

A citizens’ group formed in Hatteras to urge construction of the new bridge, peppering lawmakers with letters and phone calls. Finally, after the lawsuits were settled in 2015, the replacement bridge was allowed to go forward, with groundbreaking on March 8, 2016. Meanwhile, under the terms of the legal agreement, smaller permanent bridges in Pea Island and in Rodanthe were also planned as part of Phase II of the project.

As requested by the Corps, the terminal groin and a portion of the existing bridge on the south end will remain. That infrastructure, the Corps said, will help to keep the inlet navigable after the old bridge is demolished. The expectation is that it would forestall Davis Slough from returning to the prevailing deep-water channel it had been before the old bridge was built.

“The existing Bonner Bridge substructure acts as a flow restrictor in Davis Slough and helps prevent the shifting of deep water channels within the inlet,” the Corps wrote to NCDOT in 2008.

Jennings said that discussions are ongoing with the National Marine Fisheries Service about the possibility of allowing people to fish on the remnant bridge. Catwalks on the south side of the bridge have long been popular fishing spots.

Meanwhile, mariners are expecting much easier and safer navigation in the inlet, notorious for its treacherous currents and shifting shoals.

Joen Petersen is chief of floating plant with the Corps, which means he oversees floating cranes, debris boats, towboats, tugs, survey boats, dredges and other vessels related to navigation services. To Petersen, the changes will greatly improve the efficiency of his job dredging Oregon Inlet.

“It’s only going to get better at this point forward,” he said. “And we fully expect that there will be less – much less – dredging at the bridge.”

As a result, he said, the Corps won’t need to spend as much on dredging Oregon Inlet, and there will more time to concentrate on maintaining the ocean bar, where boaters enter the inlet. Also, the irksome spit on the north end that has often moved into the channel will no longer be an issue to mariners, thanks to the flexibility provided by more navigational spans.

Petersen said it’s still unknown how the inlet will respond once all the construction equipment is gone and the old bridge is demolished.  But with all the larger openings under the bridge, it’s bound to be better for navigation, no matter where the prevailing deep water wants to be.

“I am ecstatic about it,” he said. “I am very, very hopeful.”

MANTEO — Shortages of qualified marine welders and American-made aluminum has delayed initial plans for a mid-summer launch of the Ocracoke Express, the state’s first high-speed passenger ferry. But that doesn’t mean that Outer Bankers won’t possibly be taking a few spins on the new vessel and tram service this year.

“I just think it will give us time for a successful roll-out,” Jed Dixon, deputy director of the North Carolina Ferry Division, said at the May 18 meeting of the Passenger Ferry Stakeholders Committee in Manteo. “We’re going to miss the peak season.”

After it is delivered later this year, he said, the ferry will undergo sea trials and be ready for operation in spring 2019.

But Hyde County manager Bill Rich prefers to regard the later kickoff as a golden opportunity for the island community to familiarize itself with the tram route through the village, and maybe enjoy a few special event runs of the passenger ferry.

“I really believe they’re going to deliver that thing in September,” Rich said Wednesday. Hopefully, he added, that means the passenger ferry could transport some people to the Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree Oct. 25-28 and the 300^th anniversary of Blackbeard’s demise on Nov 22.

“If we have it completed,” Rich added, “the ferry will run for those two events.”

According to Tracy Gable, project manager at U.S. Boatworks in Hubert, North Carolina, the boatbuilders are hustling to get more welders on line and working split shifts and weekends. But she stopped short at promising a delivery date.

“We’re trying to get the vessel to DOT and the good folks of Ocracoke as soon as we can,” Gable said in an interview. “Our ultimate goal is we want to provide to the state of North Carolina a high-quality vessel that they can be proud of.”

Early on, she said, the vessel’s design drawings revealed issues with the hull and the lines of the boat that had to be re-worked to improve performance. A new team was hired to design a lighter boat that would run faster, setting the project back a few calendar days.

Also, the “buy American” clause in the contract resulted in more time locating sources for the kind of domestic aluminum they needed. But getting the welding done on the 92-foot vessel was even more difficult.

“The biggest thing that was a challenge was trying to find the skilled labor,” Gable said.

Unlike the West Coast, she said, there are not many marine welders on the East Coast who are qualified to work on marine-grade aluminum. They also must pass a certification test by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The company, she said, reached out to community colleges and technical schools, ran advertisements for welders in sites that reached up and down the coast and offered on-the-job training. So far, there are 14 certified welders on the job, and another three about to be certified.

The company, located on the Intracoastal Waterway about 20 minutes from Jacksonville, has been in Hubert since 2014.

Dixon said the $9 million project, including $4.15 million for the 100-passenger boat, is creating jobs and more opportunity for the region.

“It’s an overall great story for North Carolina,” he said. “We haven’t built a ferry in North Carolina in my recent memory.”

The 70-minute trip from Hatteras will cost $15 for a round-trip ticket and take passengers directly into Ocracoke village at Silver Lake Harbor. It is anticipated that the online reservation system that is being planned will eliminate the hours-long wait in the summer for a free vehicular ferry.

Dixon said that a media event is planned in mid-June at U.S. Boatworks when the hull is turned over. At the end of June, construction of passenger shelters at the terminals at both sides, as well as parking improvements in Hatteras and new bathroom facilities in Ocracoke, are expected to be completed. Temporary floating docks will also be constructed and in place for the new ferry.

Meanwhile, two electric-powered trams are expected to be delivered to Ocracoke by the end of July, Rich said, and the remaining two by early August. There will also be two trailers that can be pulled by the trams.

Since the state is giving the trams to Hyde County to operate, the county has the flexibility to use them at other times in addition to serving the passenger ferry customers. There will be two trams running the half-hour, eight-stop loop every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. when the passenger ferry is operating. Anyone can ride the 16- to 20-passenger trams, which is a nice bonus for villagers.

On May 7, the county awarded a 5-year contract to Joseph Ramunni to operate the trams. Rich said the contract averaged $161,000 for each season of 127 days.

The county plans to build a $20,000 storage building at property it is leasing for $500 a month at the Berkley Manor, Rich said.

The building will include a charging area for the trams, which can hold a charge for about five hours.

Ramunni, owner of the Ocracoke Community Store at the heart of the village and a resident for five years, said he is a perfect fit to run the tram operation.

“It’s kind of a spelled-out process that took some time and energy to set up correctly,” he told Coastal Review Online. “I have an in-depth understanding of the people who come to Ocracoke and the flow of the island.”

The state is paying up to $90,000 for the trams and their operation, and Ocracoke agreed to kick in $70,000 of occupancy tax revenue for the first two years. If the villagers are agreeable, Rich said, he would like to get the trams up and running in August as a test period.

Whenever it all comes together, Ramunni said the new services are going to be good for the island – at the very least because they will alleviate summer traffic on the ferry line and around the village.

“I have full confidence,” he said, “that the ferries and the trams will blend fully with life on Ocracoke.’

RALEIGH — The reception to recommendations for fare increases and cuts in off-season ferry trips ranged from tepid to ice cold at a legislative hearing here last week.

Members of the joint House and Senate Program Evaluation Oversight Committee said the proposal from the legislature’s Program Evaluation Division, which would double the fares for some state-operated ferry routes and cut dozens of crossings, needs more study and could potentially treat coastal residents differently than other North Carolinians when it comes to the state’s transportation system.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said there’s not enough data, including passenger counts for individual trips, to make decisions on specific route cuts. He also argued against the plan on philosophical grounds, stressing that the ferry service is part of the transportation system and not a business.

“I hope we don’t do anything as a General Assembly that will treat our folks down east, in those rural counties who have enough to struggle with, that we don’t do anything that treats them like second-class citizens,” Dollar said. “Because they’ve got to get from Point A to Point B, too, and this ferry system is their bridge system.”

Chuck Hefren, a principal program evaluator with the Program Evaluation Division who worked on the study, said there is no way the state could make the ferry system pay for itself using fares, which at present only provide 4 percent of the funds for the system. But Hefren said the state can make improvements. The cost per vehicle on off-season crossings on expensive routes can run as high as $250, he said.

“We think the reliance on state funds can be lessened and still provide great ferry service in North Carolina,” Hefren said.

The proposal reviewed by the oversight committee finds that the state could save $1.5 million by reducing the number of crossings and another $1.7 million through fare increases. The bulk of the estimated $1.5 million in savings, $953,419, would come from dropping 12 daily crossings for the Hatteras-Ocracoke route, the service’s highest-cost route. Other reductions in service to Ocracoke would include eliminating two daily crossings each from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island. The largest number of daily crossings eliminated would be 18 of the 54 crossings for the Cherry Branch-Minnesott route. Fort Fisher to Southport service would be reduced by nine crossings.

Hefren told the committee that the impact of fare increases on local residents and regular commuters would be minimal because most would take advantage of the $150 year-round pass.

North Carolina Department of Transportation officials offered a response to the report, saying the cost-saving estimates are unrealistically high and that many of the suggestions, such as targeted route reductions, are already being considered.

Dollar said the proposal was unnecessary given improvements and route adjustments already being made by NCDOT and would likely be met with heavy opposition on the coast. He recalled reaction to an effort in 2012 to start charging fares for free routes.

“Folks came out by the hundreds of thousands with their pitchforks,” he said. Pointing to the process used to settle on the upcoming fare increase for the Southport to Fort Fisher route, Dollar said the system is working.

“We need to leave these things to DOT under the structure that we’ve got and make sure that the local governments are involved and do it that way, as opposed to the General Assembly weighing in,” he said.

Rep. Becky Carney, D-Mecklenburg, agreed, saying that she’d like to see better reporting and updates on the system before taking on large-scale changes.

‘Struggling With the Math’

Some inland legislators were more receptive to the report’s recommendations.

Sen. Andy Wells, R-Catawba, said he didn’t understand why the state is providing a free commute for coastal residents. Wells said a 5-mile commute, the length of the average ferry run, costs $1,400 per year based on the current Internal Revenue Service mileage deduction rate of 54.5 cents per mile.

“I’m struggling with the math on this,” Wells said. “If your commute is over the highway your cost is $1,400 a year, but if it’s over the water, it’s zero.”

Rather than move forward with the proposed fare increases and crossing reductions, the committee is reviewing potential legislation for the 2018 short session that would require NCDOT to develop a 20- to 30-year forecast of transportation demands for the coastal region and look at possible alternatives for transporting vehicles and passengers via ferries. The plan would include a review of routes, pricing structures for fares and all ferry operations. The report would be due Dec. 1, 2019.

The committee is scheduled to review the proposed legislation at its April 9 meeting and decide whether to forward it to the General Assembly for consideration during the session, which opens May 16.

Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said she agrees there needs to be more information before considering major changes.

“I think the long-term study is the right decision,” she said Tuesday in a text response to Coastal Review Online. “There are many moving pieces to this issue. We need to consider tourism that generates billions of dollars to the economy. A modest fee increase for cars on ferries where there is an alternative road might be appropriate but there needs to be stakeholders involved in the final plan for any changes.”

Partnerships Pushed

While there was plenty of pushback on parts of the ferry service evaluation, a proposal to encourage more public-private partnerships was generally applauded.

A plan under consideration would revive the idea of a network of passenger ferries to boost tourism in the state’s Inner Banks, a marketing term that describes the inland areas of the coastal plain, particularly in the Albemarle Sound region.

Nick Didow, a marketing professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, told the committee that a new study by a new Inner Banks collaboration, showed that a public-private partnership model could be used to launch a new ferry passenger as part of an economic revitalizations for Albemarle communities. The concept draws on an idea proposed in 1993 by former Roper mayor Bunny Sanders, Phil McMullan and Peter Thompson.

The network of ferries, Didow told the committee, would benefit locals by connecting communities as well as the tourism economy. It also would expand eco-tourism in the region.

The study, conducted for a coalition dubbed the Harbor Town Project, looked at adding passenger ferry service between Elizabeth City, Edenton, Hertford, Plymouth, Columbia and Kitty Hawk. One proposed route would be an express service between Kitty Hawk and Edenton.

In the study, the infrastructure, including docks and vessels for the system, would be provided with public funds, with an initial investment estimated at $22 million. The service would be operated by a commercial ferry service.

The study estimates that 107,000 passengers would use the service during the first year and 170,000 per year after that and increase as routes increase.

Reprinted from Island Free Press

Funding has finally been secured for trams that will serve customers on the new passenger ferry in Ocracoke village, with the state agreeing to provide up to half of the operating costs for four years.

“It’s great news,” Hyde County Manager Bill Rich said during the March 23 Passenger Ferry Stakeholders Committee meeting in Manteo. “We are just totally stoked about it.”

Not only has the state promised to pay up to $90,000 for four years, he said, it is buying the trams and giving rather than leasing them to the county.

“It’s a tremendous commitment,” Rich said. “It’s going to make it happen.”

Earlier plans had called for the trams to be accessible to only ferry customers wearing wristbands; an idea with questionable enforcement challenges. But now, as long as there are seats available, anyone in the village will be welcome to hop on.

“It’s a community tram,” Rich said. “That’s what we always wanted.”

Bids, which will be available to private entrepreneurs, will be open until April 10 and will be awarded in May, he said.

Until the county received a letter on March 12 from the director of the state Department of Transportation’s Public Transportation Division, Rich was uncertain about how the trams would be funded. The county had committed to paying $70,000 of the cost from its occupancy tax revenue for the first two years, but had asked the state to pick up the remainder of the estimated $150,000 annual cost.

Rich also shared with the committee the recent news that the Island Inn, built in 1903, will be purchased by the Ocracoke Preservation Society and be turned into a visitor center, which is a win-win for the community and for tourists. The location would be the third of the eight stops on the tram route.

The two trams will be quiet, non-polluting electric vehicles with 23 seats. Each will pull a trailer that holds another 11 to 16 passengers, depending on if two handicapped seats are occupied. The 30-minute, 3-mile loop will go through the village from the Silver Lake dock to Howard’s Pub, then U-turn, turn right onto Back Road and work its way back to the dock.

Between the two rotating trams, passengers waiting at a stop would be picked up every 15 minutes.

In a later interview, Rich said that the trams will also be available for the county to use on Ocracoke when the passenger service is not in use.

But even when the passenger ferry is running, he added, the trams will be a nice way for visitors to go, for example, from their motel to the pub to have lunch and do some shopping, or for islanders to go from the school to meet a friend for dinner. And as long as the county meets its obligation to take ferry passengers in season between the hours of 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., the community can take good advantage of the tram service

“It’s a beautiful way to transport people around the village,” Rich said. “I can see it being used for just about anything we need it for.”

The county has yet to determine where the re-charging station will be, he said. The trams, which each cost $175,000, are expected to hold a charge for about five to six hours. The most likely choice for recharging will be at the new EMS building, which is planned to be built with pre-fab construction on land the county will purchase across the street from the Island Inn. Another option may be by the National Park Service Visitor Center.

If the trams are parked inside when not in use, they can last about 10 years, Rich said. But their batteries have a much shorter lifespan.

The Ocracoke Express, the state’s first high-speed passenger ferry, is expected to be ready for service in mid-July. According to an update from shipbuilder U.S. Boatworks in Hubert, North Carolina, the aluminum pontoon hull is about 70 percent assembled.

With 96 interior seats, 26 seats on the upper deck, and accommodations for two wheelchairs and 16 bicycles, the catamaran-style ferry will travel 70 minutes each way between the Hatteras Ferry Docks in Hatteras village to Silver Lake Harbor in Ocracoke village. Round-trips tickets will cost $15, and passengers will have access to wireless internet service and a concession area.

At the beginning of the meeting, NC Ferry Division deputy director Jed Dixon talked about the positive feedback he has received about the $9 million project at industry and tourism-related events. There has also been good coverage of the new ferry service in the media.

Project Manager Ed Timoney said that the passenger ferry would depart from Hatteras at 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m, 5 p.m and 8:30 p.m, with a 15-minute lay over built in to the schedule. From the Ocracoke side, it would depart at 11:45 a.m., 3:15 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. So far, the expectation is about 60,000 total passengers for the season.

“We’re looking at all aspects of ridership,” he said. “The metrics are still being worked out.”

Elaborating, Dixon said that one important metric will be customer satisfaction. The Ferry Division, he said, plans to expand beyond its Facebook page that it currently relies on for feedback. The division intends to develop a mobile “app” for the reservation system and social media. Eventually, the reservation system will be like going to an online store, he said. Plans include providing a ticket with a bar code, similar to the option airline customers have, that would allow passengers to go directly to the boarding area.

Greer Beaty, NCDOT deputy secretary for communications, said that full-bore promotion of the new ferry to target audiences can happen only after the launch date is nailed down.

“You want the first people to get on the boat to think it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” she told the committee. “The greatest thing about (free media coverage) is that it is a third-party validation on everything you know. It has a stronger connection to the reader … That is a validation that is stronger than what we pay for.”

Several committee members cautioned that it is also important to coordinate with the local community to get information to passengers about Ocracoke’s attractions and activities.

“It’s one thing to think about taking the ferry,” said Dave Hallac, superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. “The next thing is – then what?”

But the committee agreed that it was critical to get the word out as much as possible about the passenger ferry.

Suggestions included giving information to people in line for vehicle ferries and to folks who visit Ocracoke in the shoulder seasons, as well as asking people who look online for Outer Banks information to opt-in for passenger ferry news and updates.

Update rack cards will soon be available that will help visitors decide whether the vehicle ferry or the passenger ferry would be the best fit for their plans. For instance: Do you have a lot of stuff to take to the beach? Vehicle ferry. Do you just want to stroll around the village shops and enjoy the harbor view while eating lunch? Passenger ferry. Another impetus is not spending precious vacation time waiting in lines, since the passenger ferry can be reserved.

Meanwhile, the more people in the community who talk up the passenger ferry to as many folks as possible, the better chance of success it will have, Beaty said.

“I think it’s important for the business community,” she said. “The greatest tool you have is word of mouth. They already trust you.”

The next stakeholders committee meeting will be held on May 18.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

HUBERT – The North Carolina Department of Transportation is touting its first passenger-only ferry, a high-speed, aluminum-hull catamaran being built here, as a way to provide a higher level of service to coastal travelers and boost tourism on the state’s Outer Banks.

State and company officials hosted last week an open house for media at US Workboats’ manufacturing plant on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Hubert, an unincorporated community in Onslow County near Swansboro. The company is building the 92-foot-long, 26-foot-wide Ocracoke Express passenger ferry that will operate from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island’s Silver Lake Harbor. Officials expect service to begin by mid-summer.

“Our goal is to get those tourism levels back to where they were,” White said.

In 2013, shoaling in Hatteras Inlet prompted the Ferry Division to switch to a longer, deeper route between Hatteras and Ocracoke, the most heavily used route in the state’s ferry service. What was once a 35- to 40-minute, 4.5-mile crossing for the Hatteras-Ocracoke vehicle ferry is now about an hourlong, 9-mile trip.

The effects of the change were “dramatic,” according to the state’s feasibility study. Daily crossings in each direction were reduced from 53 to 36, and fuel and labor costs increased by more than $7,000 each day. The change also created long queues at the ferry terminals, making it difficult for visitors to the Outer Banks to make a day trip to Ocracoke. Local business owners blamed their lost business revenue on fewer day-trippers.

“The projected loss of between 31,000 and 50,000 visitors to Ocracoke in the peak months could be attributed to the lower levels of service caused by the longer route,” according to the study.

Almost all Ocracoke business owners surveyed for the study said that long wait times at ferry docks were a major challenge to their business.

Plans call for the 100-passenger ferry to use Rollinson Channel to access the Pamlico Sound and Big Foot Slough to access Silver Lake, making four round-trips daily with the first departure from Hatteras at 10 a.m. and the last departure from Ocracoke at 8:30 p.m., May through September. The round-trip fare will be $15 per passenger.

White said the Ocracoke Express will offer guaranteed boarding, with less wait time at the ferry terminals, compared to vehicle ferries, which will also continue service after the passenger ferry runs begin. The new ferry will also offer amenities such as an air-conditioned passenger cabin with open-air seating on the top deck, concessions and bike racks for passengers wanting to bring their bicycles to Ocracoke.

“You can do the entire thing without a car,” White said, adding that the plan has already sparked private business investment in Ocracoke Village. Some locals are buying golf carts to make available for rent to visitors, she said.

“Entrepreneurs in Ocracoke are seeing this as a wonderful way of experiencing Ocracoke,” she said.

The state in June 2017 awarded the $4.15 million contract to build the ferry. It’s part of an overall $9 million passenger ferry project that also includes parking improvements and visitor facilities at the Hatteras and Ocracoke-Silver Lake terminals. Money for the project is from a grant from the Federal Lands Access Program and an appropriation by the North Carolina General Assembly.

In addition to a faster crossing, the Ocracoke Express will arrive at Silver Lake Harbor in the heart of the village, rather than at the north ferry terminal about 20 minutes and 13.5 miles away, where vehicles from Hatteras Island arrive.

Unlike the vehicle ferries, the shallow conditions in Hatteras Inlet and Pamlico Sound won’t be a problem for the Ocracoke Express. Speed and a shallow draft were the basis for the new ferry’s catamaran design, which drew inspiration from a ferry the division tested in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said Ferry Division spokesman Tim Haas.

“The catamaran hull is perfect for the environment it’s going to be operating in,” Haas said.

The new 95-ton ferry will feature water jet propulsion and four 803-horsepower Caterpillar C18 ACERT marine engines that are advertised as meeting the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2017 Tier 3 emissions standards.

Sheila Pierce Knight, executive director of Jacksonville-Onslow Economic Development, said at the media open house that US Workboats has been “a great success story for eastern North Carolina.”

The Port Angeles, Washington-based company, formerly known as Armstrong Marine, specializes in welded aluminum boat manufacturing. The company in late 2013 announced it would invest more than $8.4 million in the facility in Hubert. Originally a Tiara Yachts manufacturing plant, the site was most recently owned by Brunswick Corp., which built Hatteras Yachts here from 2005 until 2008.

Armstrong Marine completed its first boat made entirely in North Carolina in 2015, a search and rescue boat made for Sullivan’s Island Fire Department in South Carolina.

US Workboats has 24 employees and is adding about three each week, depending on work and space for workers on the vessel, said the company’s Tracy Gable.

Securing the state contract to build the ferry in Onslow County is a source of pride for the community, Knight said.

“It makes sense to have a boat being built for North Carolina Citizens by North Carolina citizens,” she said. “It keeps our tax dollars at home.”

The passenger ferry is one of two builds underway for the Ferry Division. The other vessel is a new river class ferry being built in Louisiana and slated for launch in 2020. The addition of two new vessels is intended to reduce delays and travel times, Haas said.

“Hopefully, we’ll get summer wait times down to a reasonable level,” he said.

The state in October 2017 awarded a $9.7 million contract for construction of the new river class vehicle ferry. That vessel will be 183 feet long and have room for 38 regular-sized vehicles.  It will serve as a replacement for the 22-year-old M/V Thomas A. Baum, a Hatteras-class ferry that carries 26 vehicles.

Once built, the new vessel will be the Ferry Division’s first new car ferry since the M/V Sea Level was christened in 2012.

Learn More

• US Workboats

OCRACOKE ISLAND – As North Carolina’s first high-speed passenger ferry is coming together nicely at the shipbuilder’s shop, plans are still evolving for transporting people once they land.

The Ocracoke Express is targeted to be in the water by mid-summer, supplementing service on the state Department of Transportation Ferry Division’s busiest vehicular ferry route between Ocracoke and Hatteras islands. But Hyde County is struggling with the cost of free tram service for passengers disembarking at Silver Lake harbor in Ocracoke Village.

“Transit was never of the belief that they would have to find the funds to operate the tram,” said Bill Rich, the county manager, referring to Hyde’s public transportation shuttle. “It was late in the game when everything switched.”

Rich said that initially the costs for operating the tram and construction of shelters would have been covered by a grant, but somewhere in the planning process those funds disappeared. Since then, he said, the county has come up with a total commitment of $70,000 in occupancy tax revenue to help get the project started for the first two years. Rich said he has requested that the state pick up the remainder of the $150,000 estimated annual cost, but he has not yet received a response.

“Believe me, it was never confrontational,” he said. “Everybody was always working on this together.”

Work to upgrade ferry terminals and docks, a $1.45 million contract awarded to Williamston-based contractor A.R. Chesson Construction, began last week and is expected to be completed in late May. Improvements include construction of passenger shelters, new and upgraded parking lots, tram loading lanes and an additional sewer connection. The floating docks and gangways for the passenger ferry are being bid separately.

The National Park Service, owner of the land, has been a cooperative partner in the $9 million passenger ferry project, including planning for the tram, Rich said.

But he said it took numerous meetings in the last year with the Ocracoke community to tweak the tram service to better meet the needs of businesses and tourists. The vehicles are “like 15-passenger golf carts,” Rich said, that can go up to 15 mph.

Everyone agreed that it made sense to not charge a fee for the tram; there was disagreement over whether it should be available for anyone, including school children, standing at one of the 10 stops to hop on.

After much discussion, Rich said, it was decided that, for safety reasons, the tram should not go down Lighthouse Road, and instead it should drop passengers at the corner to make the short walk to the Ocracoke Lighthouse. The tram should also not plan to go to the beach. And only ferry passengers wearing a wristband would be allowed on the tram.

The eight-stop, 3-mile route, as it’s set now, would travel from the Silver Lake dock through the village and down the highway to Howard’s Pub, where it would make a U-turn and then take a right onto Back Road, stopping at a restaurant, a coffee shop, the library and a gourmet wine and microbrew market. The tram would also make three stops in the village. All the stops are timed to the vehicle traveling at 11 mph and are designed with road pull-offs.

Already, several people are planning to offer additional transportation choices, including bicycle and golf cart rentals and shuttle service to the lifeguard beach and pony pens.

“To me, the only obstacle out there is funding the tram,” Rich said. “The entrepreneurship always comes out on Ocracoke.”

At a meeting of the ferry stakeholders committee in Manteo on Jan. 26, assistant ferry director Jed Dixon showed a photograph of the $4.5 million ferry’s hull under construction by contractor U.S. Workboats, formerly Armstrong Marine, at its shipyard near Swansboro, and presented a time-lapse video of a trial run of a similar ferry taking the 24-mile route through Hatteras Inlet (see below).

Zipping along at about 30 knots – versus the average 10 knots of vehicular ferries – the Ocracoke Express will take about 65 minutes each way. The two-deck aluminum catamaran holds 96 passengers and includes spaces for wheelchairs and bicycles.  Currently, fare for a round-trip ticket is proposed at $15.

Dixon said that he and other Ferry Division officials recently visited Bald Head Island to learn more about that passenger ferry system, which is in the process of being transferred from a private operator to a public authority.

Bald Head Island LLC has run the 3-mile route from Southport to Bald Head Island for 34 years. In 2016, the round trip fare was $22.

Dixon, who has been appointed to the new authority, said there are plans to visit Bald Head again on Feb. 15.

Although its vessel is different than the Ocracoke Express, there are numerous similarities that could be of value to the Outer Banks, he said.

“They run a passenger-only ferry,” he said. “They do 300,000 people a year. They have four boats, run two at a time. The business is very seasonal – summer months – and it’s a tourist destination accessible only by ferry.”

Meanwhile, the Ocracoke Express is a little behind schedule, Dixon said, with delivery expected in mid-July rather than early June, as first expected.

‘Homework’ Assigned

Assigning “homework” to the members, Dixon asked them to come back to the next meeting, scheduled for March 23, with a list of things to accomplish.

“Really, the success of this project is going to be determined by what everybody puts into it,” he told the panel. “Look and see how you can contribute.”

Ray Stallings, a longtime visitor who lives in Rocky Mount, said that he has found that many people on the island either don’t know what is planned or are misinformed about the project.

Dixon responded that an important part of the project is getting accurate and updated information to the public so they know what to expect. An online reservation and ticketing system for the passenger ferry service is being developed by IT professionals at N.C. Web Applications.

“I think it’s really, really important that we start out on a good foot,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that things are in place. We’ve got to feel good about what we’re doing.”

In a later interview, Stallings said that he has launched a business, OBX Rentals & Shuttle Services, to take ferry passengers and others to the beach. The “affordable” service is to be available starting on Easter weekend, when he will be living on the island full time.

The shuttle would serve different populations of visitors by transporting them from anywhere on the island to where they want to go on the beach. For instance, the lifeguarded beach is a half-mile from the village and the pony pens are 3 miles away. He will also have beach gear – tents, coolers, games, chairs, umbrellas – available to rent, and provide setup if desired. People could make a reservation on his Facebook page or website or call as needed.

Stallings, who owns a ceramic tile installation business and a travel baseball tournament company, said that even before the passenger ferry became a reality, he was inspired by watching people struggle to take all their beach gear from their vehicles parked along the highway to the beach.

“I’ve been there, done that,” he said. “It’s not fun.”

Tom Pahl, a Hyde County commissioner who represents Ocracoke Island, said that many islanders have come around to giving the passenger ferry its best effort.

“There certainly is skepticism,” he told the committee, “but it absolutely isn’t universal.”

Islanders are concerned about negative effects the passenger ferry could have on the island. For instance, will food and drink served on the ferry snack bar cut down on island restaurant customers?

“The idea is, from our perspective, to promote our businesses and to make that successful,” said Pahl, who has been a full-time island resident for 15 years. “We don’t want to undermine that.”

For that reason, the business community did not want the tram to be seen as a negative in the village. A show of islanders’ support, he said, is the willingness of the businesses to put the occupancy tax revenue into the tram.

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, he added, Ocracokers know how to rise to a challenge.

“Really, we have a lot of confidence in the entrepreneurial spirit of the people of Ocracoke,” Pahl said. “I think we all recognize that this all is a trial run and there’s going to be a learning curve, and I think we just have to be kind of patient with this process.”

WILMINGTON – Last year when the House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Term Funding Solutions took a trip to the coast, members scouted the clogged New River Inlet on shallow-draft shrimp trawlers. For this year’s visit, the vessels encountered were considerably larger.

On Monday, the committee, which reviews legislative needs for large-scale transportation projects, toured the North Carolina Port of Wilmington to review its recent resurgence in shipping, ongoing upgrades and a long-range list of spending priorities.

Topping the list is a request for state backing of a major freight rail realignment that both city and ports officials say will allow the port to grow and transform regional transportation for the fast-growing area.

Glenn Harbeck, the city’s director of planning, development and transportation, said that with growth projections for the region showing a population of 700,000 by 2040, there has to be a way for the port’s growth not to lead to gridlock. The question, he told legislators, is “how can the port be successful without killing the goose that laid the golden egg, without traffic coming to a grinding halt?”

The centerpiece of the proposed solution would be a rail line that moves freight service to the port to the west side of the Cape Fear River, running parallel to a portion U.S. 421. The 5-mile route would be 3 miles shorter than the current 8-mile route through Wilmington, but more importantly it would eliminate 32 at-grade rail crossings in the city.

Harbeck said that becomes critical going forward for two main reasons: An increase in rail activity at the port means longer trains and longer wait times at crossings along the city’s main traffic corridors as a result, and keeping the rail line through town means elevating the city’s proposed extension of Independence Boulevard, a major north-south route. The city and the state have been at odds over the project after Wilmington officials rejected a North Carolina Department of Transportation proposal that required the road to be built on a 30-foot-high berm to avoid rail crossings. Without that requirement, Harbeck said, the boulevard project would cost $75 million less and not bisect the city with an elevated four-lane street.

A second phase of the project would then repurpose the former rail route through town for either a greenway or a trolley system to move people in and out of downtown.

“This is not a project for tomorrow. It’s not a project for next year,” he said, “but it is a project that we all should be keeping in mind.”

Laura Padgett, chair of Wilmington’s rail realignment task force, said the proposed rail route is currently being reviewed for potential environmental effects. About a third of the route would run along a raised former rail bed, which should reduce some of the impacts, she said.

Mike Giles, a coastal advocate with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said there are wetland and stream crossings along the route that would need to be thoroughly reviewed, but moving the rail line would likely have a positive effect on the environment, as well as reducing traffic congestion, truck traffic and the vehicles idling at rail crossings.

“It does make sense to move that industrial use out of the middle of the city,” he said in a recent interview.

Not Cheap

The cost of any rail realignment starts out approaching the $1 billion mark, with estimates for the main bridge over the Cape Fear at $350 million and a shorter bridge over a channel on the west side of the river at $260 million.

But so far legislators haven’t balked at the price tag.

“They’re big numbers, but they’re all big numbers these days,” Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, who chairs the select committee, said after the ports presentation. Torbett and Rep. Holly Grange, R-New Hanover, said one appeal of the project is being able to reduce the reliance on truck traffic by improving the rail link.

“It’s a no-brainer to me, because it will help reduce some of the truck traffic that now goes over the bridge,” Grange said. At the same time, she said, it will assist the port with a much-needed rail improvement.

“We’ve got to remain competitive and we’ve got to make the investment to do that,” Grange said.

Port officials say the rail realignment could assist in helping Wilmington’s port move goods inland.

Paul Cozza, executive director of the North Carolina Ports Authority, said use of a rail line to an inland port location near Charlotte has grown faster than predicted and underlined the need for improvements to rail service.

The port lost its intermodal rail facility about three decades ago, he said. Rebuilding intermodal capability, Cozza added, is one of the key ways Wilmington can stay competitive with other ports. About 30 percent of all container traffic on the East Coast moves inland by rail, and shippers want that option, he told legislators. If shipping companies see Wilmington as a truck-only facility, it makes it much harder to compete.

“We need to offer that to be able to grow,” he said.

Padgett, who has led the project since 2015, said Wednesday that she’s upbeat about legislators’ reaction to the plans, so far. She also expects to brief staff with 3^rd District Congressman Walter Jones office in the next few weeks.

“Everybody has been very excited and interested in this,” she said. “It’s not cheap, but nothing worth doing is.”

Learn More

• Rail relocation map (7MB PDF)
• Committee meeting agenda and presentations

Reprinted from Island Free Press

MANTEO — The Ocracoke Express, the state’s first high-speed passenger ferry, could provide a different kind of tourism adventure for Outer Banks visitors by next summer. But first, it has to be figured out how to divert passengers from long lines of traffic to board the boat, and then readily get them around Ocracoke when they disembark.

Adequate parking, public awareness and plenty of good information are also critical elements to the success of the new ferry service planned between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.

That was the consensus of more than three dozen members of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division’s passenger ferry steering committee that met for the first time last week to work out myriad details of a proposed plan to supplement vehicle ferry transportation with a passenger ferry from May to September.

“I want to make one thing clear: We want your input,” Jed Dixon, the deputy director of the Ferry Division told the committee, which has a total membership of 48 stakeholders. “There’s nothing set in stone here.”

Crammed around a table in the meeting room at the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau office in Manteo, the committee representing business, government, tourism and community interests on both islands listened to a Ferry Division presentation about the passenger ferry project and operation.

Overall, their response was upbeat and enthusiastic about it being a positive evolution for Outer Banks tourism.

“This has been such a huge project for Hyde County,” said Hyde County Manager Bill Rich, adding that the county expects to garner $4 million a year in revenue from the passenger ferry. “It’s just big, big, big … great things, I think, are going to happen.”

Hyde County is still working out its plan for operating the four trams that will be provided to transport passengers around the island on the eight-stop, 3-mile loop, he said.

As everyone on both islands knows, dramatic changes in Hatteras Inlet in recent years have had a negative effect on ferry travel. A rapid increase in shoaling started after Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and worsened in subsequent storms. At the same time, the ends of both islands, especially Hatteras, have eroded. In 1984, the inlet was a quarter-mile wide; in 2016 it was about 2 miles wide.

“It’s changing at a staggering rate,” Dixon said, “and there’s really no sign of the trend changing at all.”

By 2012, ferry traffic had to be rerouted from the former straight-shot, 4.3-mile channel to the current U-shaped channel that is 9.5 miles long. As a consequence, the one-way trip between the Hatteras and Ocracoke ferry docks takes an hour rather than 40 minutes, and fuel cost about $250,000 more a month.

And longer trips mean fewer trips. Daily departures on each side have been cut from about 52 to 42, resulting in longer lines of vehicles waiting to get on a ferry.

About 20 percent of would-be passengers – 61,600 – turn around and leave, translating to significant business losses on Ocracoke. A single passenger ferry could meet that demand with four round trips a day. The $15 round-trip fare would also generate $924,000 in annual revenue.

Dixon said that the original plan for two passenger ferries had to be scaled back because of funding.

“This kind of gives us a start,” he said.

In response to a question about why passengers can’t buy one-way fare to encourage overnight stays, Dixon explained that it’s mostly because long-term parking provisions are not yet available.

So far, the plan calls for about 140 parking spaces in Hatteras in the vicinity of the ferry docks. Although a survey showed that the majority of visitors to the island are day-trippers, he said, it is still an issue that the division plans to address.

If a breakdown were to make the passenger ferry unavailable, Dixon said affected passengers would be able to walk onto a vehicle ferry and sit in the lounge. He added that the high-speed ferry is subject to the same limitations in bad weather as the vehicular ferries.

Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums, which includes the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum across from the ferry docks, said he had concerns about ferry passengers being caught in traffic.

“The point is to alleviate congestion on Hatteras Island,” Schwarzer said about the extra ferry. “But it’s not going to.”

Schwarzer was skeptical that a shuttle service could be a solution, since vehicles can back up long before they reach the stacking lanes. “They can’t get there,” he said. “You’re going to be stuck trying to get to the passenger ferry.”

But Dixon expressed confidence that the issue can be addressed with a combination of good signage, redirecting traffic and shuttles. But he warned the committee that there will be complications as the new service gets underway.

“I’ll be completely honest – we’re not going to know all these things from the start,” he said. “We can’t forward-think everything. But once we have a problem, we’ve got to identify it and figure out how to fix it.”

For that reason, it would be wise to have a “soft release” and not promise visitors too much out of the gate, said Chip Stevens, an owner of Blackbeard’s Lodge, a hotel on Ocracoke Island.

“Let them understand that they’re part of making this happen,” he said.

It is important to make the passenger ferry an enjoyable visitor experience, from parking their car in Hatteras, to enjoying drinks and snacks on the ferry, to bopping around Ocracoke on the tram, the committee agreed.

The Ocracoke Express, the name chosen by area students, will have a cruising speed of about 30 knots, compared with the average 10-knot speed of vehicular ferries, and will take about an hour and five minutes each way, dock to dock.

The 24-mile route will bypass the problematic part of the inlet environment. It will dock at new floating docks in Silver Lake Harbor at Ocracoke and Hatteras Village, and both sides will have new covered passenger shelters.

Manufactured by U.S. Workboats, the two-deck aluminum catamaran will carry 96 passengers and have two wheelchair spaces, bike racks and a snack bar. The vessel is expected to be delivered to the division on June 6, followed by testing, trials and training, and should be ready for operation in mid-summer.

The terminal improvements project had been put out to bid, Dixon said, but because only one company responded, it must be re-bid. The passenger ticketing is targeted to be available online by mid-April.

In a later email, Dixon provided a breakdown of the roughly $9 million project costs, which are as follows:

• Passenger ferry: $4.5 million.
• Engineering, architectural and environmental permitting: $2.1 million.
• Hatteras and Ocracoke terminals and docks: $2.3 million.
• Ocracoke transit: $170,000.

Of that total,  the General Assembly appropriated $3.6 million and $5.4 million was covered by a Federal Land Access Program grant.

As a bold upgrade in transportation options for tourists, the state sees opportunity for future partnerships with other coastal areas, Ferry Division Director Harold Thomas said.

“We want to promote this the best we can,” Thomas said.

To Danny Couch, a committee member who also represents Hatteras Island on the Dare County Board of Commissioners, the passenger ferry is a great way to illustrate how “inseparable” the islands and their unique assets are in Outer Banks identity.

“You’ve got the ability now to maximize what has sold us,” he said. “We’re going to get $2 for our $1 by working together.”

The next bi-monthly meeting of the passenger ferry committee will be held in December.

Learn More

• NCDOT Ocracoke Express Passenger Ferry

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. You can read other stories about Hatteras and Ocracoke here.

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA – People who drive electric cars will soon have more places to stop for a recharge around here.

Duke Energy recently awarded grants to Jacksonville, Oriental, Swansboro and CarolinaEast Health System in New Bern to cover the costs of installing electric vehicle charging stations. It’s part of a program to encourage adoption of electric vehicles by improving infrastructure needed to support their use. Jones County, Kinston, Wayne County and Goldsboro also received grants.

The deadline to apply for the program was in September. Duke Energy has yet to formally announce all the award winners, but some individual towns and cities have been notified.

Randy Wheeless, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said the company was pleased with the response to the grant program.

“We will end up with around 50 award winners. Right now, we’re just alerting cities and towns that they won and how much,” Wheeless said Thursday.

That’ll be enough for about 200 new public charging stations statewide. With a growing number of electric vehicles on the market for consumers to choose from, boosting the number of charging stations available to the public is key, Wheeless said.

“If we’re advocating more EV adoption, I think one of the barriers is how many charging stations are in the state,” he said.

The grant program stems from a $5.4 million legal settlement in 2015 with the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department of a lawsuit filed in 2000. The EPA and environmental groups alleged Duke Energy had violated federal Clean Air Act provisions by making modifications to five North Carolina power plants without also making required upgrades to air pollution controls. The Supreme Court found in favor of the EPA and Duke Energy agreed to settle rather than fight the lawsuit. The utility maintained it had complied with federal law, but agreed to pay a $975,000 fine and donate $4.4 million to environmental projects, including the installation of electric vehicle charging stations.

Duke Energy said in July its $1.5 million program will increase the number of public electric vehicle charging stations in North Carolina by 30 percent. The company’s EV Charging Infrastructure Support Project is to provide $1 million to help municipalities install public charging stations. Duke Energy will pay the total costs up to $5,000 per charge port, $20,000 per site or $50,000 per city under the program.

“Over the past decade, Duke Energy has supported the development of several hundred electric vehicle charging stations in North Carolina,” David Fountain, Duke Energy’s North Carolina president, said at the time. “Adoption of EVs depends on a robust infrastructure for consumers.”

In addition, Duke Energy is providing $500,000 to cities and towns for the construction of electric bus charging stations, funding the total costs up to $250,000 per entity.

The grant program provides leeway for the awarded cities and towns to choose locations to install the charging stations as they see fit, Wheeless said.

There are about 4,750 electric vehicles registered in North Carolina but only about 700 public charging ports around the state.

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that there will be more than 700,000 electric vehicles in North Carolina by 2030 with 37,000 on the road in eastern North Carolina.

The New Bern-based East Carolina Council, the regional council of governments and planning organization serving Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico and Wayne counties, has also been involved in promoting plug-in electric vehicle use and increasing the number of charging stations.

Judy Hills is the council’s executive director. Hills said the council began at the outset of the Duke Energy program to make sure communities knew about it.

“We really made a concerted effort to get the word out,” Hills said.

The council’s efforts to promote electric cars have also included forming a committee back in February to develop a plug-in electric vehicle readiness plan for the region surrounding the U.S. 70 corridor, which passes through many of the counties the council serves. This committee is now wrapping up its work, with a draft report set to be released soon.

The money for the planning effort came from an Economic Development Administration grant.

The promise of economic growth is often a good motivation for elected officials to get behind a project. Research has shown that installing a charging station at a business can increase customer traffic and shopping time. Businesses can also promote the stations to differentiate themselves from competitors. Municipalities with charging stations may also attract new businesses that value sustainable technology and innovation, according to the council.

Here on the coast, offering charging capabilities can also help lure environmentally conscious vacationers and visitors. But the response to these efforts has at times been only “lukewarm,” Hills said.

The council presented an electric vehicle drive event in Kinston on Sept. 17 to help promote the array of new electric cars on the market, but the event wasn’t well attended. Hills said there’s still an attitude in the region that electric vehicles are “for somebody else, not for me.” That will change with time, she said.

Part of the resistance is because this part of the state doesn’t have the air pollution other, more urban areas have. A key point for driving electric cars is that they don’t pollute, Hills said. Another aspect is the demographics of the eastern part of the state, where there may be a little more reluctance to embrace new technology.

“I think as technology adopters go, we sometimes seem to be a little behind the curve. Areas where people more readily adopt new technologies are way ahead of us,” Hills said.

But new products, including cars with longer-lasting batteries, and the addition of charging stations will encourage adoption and change minds.

“As those changes come about, more people will consider it when they buy a new car, or even a used car,” Hills said. “Also, changes in the environment and other things happening in the world may make that decision more attractive going forward. It may take us a little longer but I think we’ll get there.”

Hills cited a recent report that showed purchases of electric vehicles increase in areas after charging stations are installed there. That’s where the Duke Energy program can provide a big boost, she said.

“It’s hard to ask a government to make an investment in something that has a limited use. You have to think, what makes a government want to invest in this?” Hills said. “And so, this money that Duke has available for that will certainly go a long to helping move that along.”

The council is set to be recognized Tuesday for its efforts at the sixth annual Plug-in NC Summit in Raleigh.

Plug-in NC is a statewide program that promotes electric vehicles through education, outreach and consulting that has been working since 2011 to establish North Carolina as a leader in electrified transportation. The program provides resources for the public, including informational webinars and an interactive map to help drivers of electric vehicles locate charging stations available for public use.

Learn More

• Plug-in NC
• The East Carolina Council’s Plug-in Electric Vehicle Initiative

BRUNSWICK COUNTY – As the proposed extension of a South Carolina expressway into southern Brunswick County is getting a breath of new life, concerns are being raised about where this roadway may go.

The idea to lengthen Carolina Bays Parkway from S.C. 9 in Horry County across state lines through to U.S. 17 in Brunswick County has lingered for more than a decade. Now that North Carolina has the funds to move forward with a project development study, the bypass extension is back on the map.

A 2006 feasibility study conducted by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, or NCDOT, in coordination with its South Carolina counterpart, examined a series of potential corridors for the parkway extension. One of the routes takes the proposed, multi-lane bypass through Caw Caw Swamp, an area that stretches northwest of Shallotte several miles to the Waccamaw River near the South Carolina line.

“It’s a natural drainage area,” said Phil Norris, a resident of the area and former Brunswick County commissioner chairman. “It’s in a pretty extensive watershed and floodplain area. It’s a major watershed in southern Brunswick County. If DOT doesn’t change the alternatives through that area, the design would have to accommodate building above the flood plain area.”

Norris, who lives in the Hickmans Crossroads community of Calabash, said he fears that building a road through the area would destroy wetlands and affect the flood plain.

Brunswick County officials are in the midst of trying to implement flood mitigation measures in the Caw Caw area. County commissioners earlier this year were presented with a series of possible flood control options, the costs of which ranged from $1.5 million to upwards of $30 million.

Norris said he hopes the problems the county is facing will prompt transportation officials to stay clear of building the parkway extension through the area.

“The alternatives that would stay on higher ground I would hope would be more cost effective and would not have as much of an impact on the wetlands,” he said.

Jay McInnis, NCDOT project engineer, said the possible corridors mapped out in the 2006 study are “very preliminary.”

“These alternatives, people might never see them again,” he said. “Those alternative areas are going to be a starting point. People should be mindful that the project is going along, but they shouldn’t be worried about those lines because they could change. They were the best look at the time, but we’re taking a more detailed look now. We’re going to have a large study area we’re looking at. We understand that this is an area with a lot of wetlands so that is certainly something that we’ll be mindful of and that will play into our development of alternatives.”

This summer the department contracted a team of engineering firms led by Raleigh-based CALYX Engineers and Consultants to develop the project and complete environmental studies.

Funding for the multi-million-dollar project is still in the early stages. There is no money yet for construction and right-of-way acquisition.

“South Carolina doesn’t yet have funding, but there’s a bond referendum in Horry County that would go toward roads and some of the money, if that bond passes, would go toward the parkway,” McInnis said.

The project study will help determine specifics such as how many lanes the expressway will have and a speed limit.

The average length of the Brunswick County portion of the parkway, based on alternatives in the 2006 feasibility study, is about nine miles. The total estimated length of the extension is roughly 14 miles.

“A part of what we’re doing right now is gathering information to help establish the purpose and need,” McInnis said. “Generally, what we see is the need to divert some of the traffic off (U.S.) 17 in both Brunswick and Horry counties.”

The next step, McInnis said, will be getting the public’s input.

The project team is expected to accept public input on the proposed project by year’s end, according to NCDOT’s website.

“We’ll be getting that information plus we’ll be getting traffic data, looking at accident data, looking at how big of an area we’ll need to be studying,” McInnis said.

Once the team has an updated set of alternative corridors those will be presented in public meetings in both states.

The project, from start to finish, may be nearly another decade in the making.

“When the draft [environmental impact statement] comes out we’re still only halfway through our process,” McInnis said. “Our schedule right now is that the draft EIS would come out in early 2020 and, following that DEIS, we would have a public hearing and, at that public hearing, we would have the selected alternatives.”

A final EIS may be released in the fall of 2021, with a record of decision coming out sometime around the spring of 2022.

According to information provided on NCDOT’s website, the project will cost an estimated $202 million to $280 million.

To Learn More

• Carolina Bays Parkway Extension project page

WILMINGTON — With the first of a new, larger class of ships to transit the recently widened and deepened Panama Canal calling at East Coast ports in June, state port officials here have begun investing in projects to accommodate the behemoth vessels. Meanwhile, a team of academics here is proposing what they say could be a more economical and environmentally friendly way to handle the cargo from the so-called post-Panamax ships, which are predicted to carry as much as 62 percent of the world’s container tonnage by 2030.

The opening of the Panama Canal to the much larger vessels was the culmination of a nine-year, $5.25 billion project expected to usher in a new era of commercial shipping. Some ports, such as Norfolk and New York, have already begun to deepen channels to the 50-foot depths and 160-foot widths these larger ships require.

The N.C. Ports Authority is investing more than $100 million in a port-modernization plan, said Cliff Pyron, the authority’s communications manager. The plan includes berth enhancement, purchasing new post-Panamax container cranes and installing a submerged toe wall along the berths in preparation. A $16 million dredging project to enlarge the ship’s turning basin in the Cape Fear River was approved in December 2015.

The authority had purchased for $30 million land in 2006 near Southport as a possible international port site to accommodate deeper draft ships, but the plan was put on hold in 2010 in the face of public and political opposition.

Now, a group from the University of North Carolina Wilmington is proposing that port officials consider another idea, the use of lightering barges, or lighters, flat-bottomed vessels equipped with container-handling cranes. The barges have a shallower draft and are used to load containers off-shore and bring cargo to and from ships and ports, according to a paper from Dr. Larry Cahoon and two of his graduate students in the Master of Coastal and Ocean Policy program. The barges, also known as lighters, could solve the navigational and other challenges for post-Panamax ships here, they said.

“The use of lighter barges has a lot of merit,” said Cahoon, who is an oceanographer with a background in coastal policy.

Pyron said ports authority staff were not familiar with the research.

Cahoon said he first learned of lighters by reading a marine technology publication. The barges were used in Hong Kong while that port expanded. They have also been used at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Cahoon’s graduate students, Jonathan Bingham and Kathryn Cyr, were eager to look into the feasibility of lighters in a local setting as part of a research project.

“Smaller ports are ambitious to catch up with some of the bigger ports in ways that aren’t ideal,” Cyr said.

As the research continued, acquiring a fleet of barges, or working with a private company to do so, began to make more sense.

“I don’t know why it’s not used more,” Bingham said.

Cahoon and his students looked at the challenges of navigating larger ships through the 26-mile long river channel and making the 90-degree turn at Battery Island to reach the port. With use of lighters, the larger ships would remain offshore and the more maneuverable barges would make the trip to and from the port. This would alleviate the considerable costs associated with making and keeping the channel navigable by post-Panamax ships.

“It isn’t a one-time cost,” he said. “It would have to be done again and again. Dredging, and re-dredging is an expensive proposition.”

By comparison, the barges are cheap, he said.

Also, with lighter barges, the river could be spared from additional environmental damage. Deepening the channel can have effects on the river system.

“One of these is saltwater intrusion,” Cahoon said. “Anyone can see the results of what has happened with this.”

Cahoon said evidence of the change is apparent in the stands of dead cypress trees upriver from the port, where salinity has increased in what was once more freshwater or brackish wetlands. “They don’t tolerate this saltier water,” he said.

Another potential benefit of lighter barges is a reduced chance of ballast water from large ships introducing invasive species into local waters. According to the paper, ballast water is responsible for the invasion of Gracilaria vermiculophylla, a seaweed, in the Cape Fear River.

“It has really caused problems for those who fish the waters,” Cahoon said. “It has made it impossible for them to work in certain areas.”

Although the use of lighter barges appears to make logistic, economic and environmental sense, according to the authors, there is a potential problem.

“The Jones Act is the biggest hurdle,” Cyr said.

The law, which is more formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, states that only ships built, registered and owned by U.S. citizens and manned domestic crews may deliver cargo by water between ports here. Cahoon said he was unaware of any U.S.-made lighters. Congress would have to issue a waiver to allow the port to use foreign-built vessels.

“It’s something they’ve done in the past, and it’s entirely possible that they’d do so in this case, too,” Cahoon said.

The team completed its research earlier this year and are eager to get the idea out to the public.

“Basically, we think it’s an idea that makes a lot of sense,” Cahoon said.

Learn More

• Read the UNCW report
• UNCW Master of Ocean and Coastal Policy Program

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

RODANTHE — The proposed bridge project in Rodanthe is a good example of the difficulty that government has trying to make everyone happy.

Holding signs and chanting “Save our Sounds,” a small group of northern Rodanthe property owners gathered in front of the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Building on Hatteras Island last week to protest the project that they say will ruin kiteboarding off their Pamlico Sound beach and hurt property values, livelihoods and lifestyles in their neighborhood.

Inside, officials with the state Department of Transportation were conducting the second of three public hearings on the Outer Banks to consider the revised environmental assessment on the bridge. The project proposes a long-term solution to keeping the road open through Mirlo Beach, an area subject to increasingly frequent overwash and road closures.

And many long-time residents seem relieved that something is finally going to be done to keep traffic flowing on N.C. 12, the main road on Hatteras Island.

“Most of the folks have been interested, but not unhappy,” Brian Yamamoto, NCDOT project development engineer, summing up the feedback he had heard at the hearing., which was attended by more than 90 people. Other hearings were held in Ocracoke and Manteo.

The preferred alternative is a 2.4-mile “jug handle” bridge between the south end of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and the north end of Rodanthe.

But in order to do that, Midgett’s campground, three businesses, and two homes would have to be removed, and other properties, while not having to be moved, would suddenly have an intrusive strip of asphalt as their neighbor.

In that light, the frustration expressed by protesters is understandable, said Malcolm Fearing, a Manteo native who represents DOT’s Division 1 on the state Board of Transportation.

Click to enlarge

“I get it,” Fearing said, in between chats with residents and local officials at the meeting. “That’s the tough thing about transportation projects – they affect people. This is one of those things. It’s a tough call.”

But others view the Rodanthe bridge as a necessity, a compromise borne out of years of grappling with how to keep one of the most vulnerable sections of road on the Outer Banks passable and safe for residents and millions of tourists who visit the island every year.

“There’s no easy answer,” said Scott Caldwell, who along with his wife, Martha Midgett Caldwell, owns about 20 acres and numerous businesses in Rodanthe. “In order to survive down here as a business owner, you have to have that road open. I just feel like what they’re talking about, this is the best scenario – and I stand to lose the most from this.”

An earlier alternative that DOT had considered would have included exit ramps that would have “wiped out” Island Convenience, the family’s very busy store on the north end of Rodanthe, Caldwell said. The current proposal would eliminate the 23-site Midgett Campground, an 8-year-old business that is highly productive, he said. It would also take the family’s two residential structures, a building that houses four businesses – a food pantry, a bake shop, thrift store and an arcade – and just north of that, the Whaley Jack Burger Shack.

“Martha’s parents worked their tails off to get that property,” he said.

Martha Caldwell’s father was the late Mac Midgett, a businessman and county commissioner who had been one of the most distinctive characters in Dare County during his lifetime.

Caldwell said he has known that the DOT plan has been in the works since Hurricane Irene in 2011. But considering the options, he said that he knows also that there’s no way to stop it. He plans to hire an attorney to assist in negotiations with DOT.

“If I can get just compensation, I’m good with it,” Caldwell said. “We have been through all this different stuff and we’re at the edge of getting it done. It’s hard to please everybody, but you know long-term, we’ve got to have this bridge.

“If that road is not done,” he said, “we’re done.”

The proposed bridge bypasses a hot-spot just north of Rodanthe – called “S-turns” by surfers and “S-curves” by coastal engineers – renowned for great waves and a huge annual erosion rate, respectively. When Hurricane Irene struck the Outer Banks in August 2011, a section of Highway 12 between S-curves and Mirlo Beach was breached, as well as a section of road a little further north in Pea Island.

Over the last 15 or so years, various fixes at Mirlo were discussed and studied, including beach nourishment and different versions of bridging. Along the way, the project was grouped in with a lawsuit challenging the Bonner Bridge replacement project, leaving the long-term solution for both breaches tangled in with the legal fate of the bridge project.

The lawsuit was finally settled, and the Bonner project has begun. An emergency beach nourishment project was done in 2014 at S-curves to protect the road while road planners worked on the Rodanthe solution. An interim concrete bridge is currently being constructed at the Pea Island breach.

Brian Yamamoto, NCDOT project development engineer, said that the preferred Rodanthe alternative was decided officially a few months ago. But he said an early concept emerged about 15 months ago, after officials with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries expressed concerns about the effects on underwater grasses with an alternative that curved farther west into the sound.  In the revised plan, the bridge now comes in closer to land but affects less grasses.

The preferred alternative in 2014, a bridge within the existing easement of N.C. 12, was dropped because of its exposure to the ocean.

If the project, estimated to cost about $200 million, moves forward as planned, Yamamoto said, it can be awarded to a contractor as early as this fall. After gearing up for about another year, it would take an additional three years to complete.

Warren Martin, who owns property off Corbina Drive, said he and a group of about 20 neighbors in northern Rodanthe prefer another alternative such as a causeway.

“We realize that there’s a need to have a safe corridor,” Martin said.

The opponents explain their late-to-the-party objections as being blindsided by the latest change in the plan that brings the bridge much closer to the shoreline.

“What upsets us is it seems like a lot of this stuff was done from behind closed doors,” said Guy Finn, another northern Rodanthe property owner.

Rick Shaftan, who recently created a video against the proposal, favors moving the road away from the shoreline and bridging at Mirlo Beach.

“This is ridiculous,” he said, pointing towards the wall, where a map of the proposed plan showed the bridge curving right into the area around Corbina Road.

“This is a show,” he said about the hearing.

Mark Haines, who owns property on Pappy Lane and operates a soundfront kiteboarding business, said that the DOT needs to re-consider the severe effects  to residents and businesses.

He said he favors having the bridge further out in the sound, where it would not hinder kiteboarding as much, or better still, have the roadway come in north of Rodanthe or move the roadway to the west. Haines said that no kiteboarder is going to want to rent one of his houses while all the work is being done. And the bridge itself would hurt his business overall because its structure alters the wind quality and creates an obstructive hazard to the boarders.

“I get a pit in my stomach here just listening to these guys,” Haines said. “They say it’s a public hearing, but they’ve already decided what they’re going to do.”

In responding to a question about a possible lawsuit, Haines said the opponents “are leaving all options on the table.”

“At the end of the day, we just want to feel part of the decision,” he said.

When asked whether the preferred alternative could be changed at this stage of the process, Yamamoto, with DOT, said “it’s possible. But with such a long history with working with the public and the agencies, we’re almost out of different things to try. And we have tried a lot of different things.”

Altering the plan would be “difficult,” he said, requiring each stakeholder agency to be contacted again. If the option ended up being changed, most likely DOT would have to do another supplemental document, which would require more public meetings and more public comments to consider – probably taking a couple of years to complete.

Even if it was an option DOT had already looked at, he said, there would still be the necessity of going back to consult with all the agencies, although the supplemental document would not have to be done.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. You can read other stories about Hatteras and Ocracoke here.

To Learn More

• DOT: Rodanthe Bridge

HAVELOCK – A proposed state highway in Craven County continues to draw criticism from environmentalists who argue that the state’s preferred location for a U.S. 70 bypass would destroy habitat crucial to endangered birds and rare plants.

N.C. Department of Transportation officials are preparing an environmental document for a proposed divided, four-lane bypass that will cut through the Croatan National Forest on the west side of Havelock.

The so-called “record of decision” will identify the selected alternative and also discuss all of the alternatives considered during the planning and design process. It will also describe the measures DOT took to avoid and minimize environmental harm and programs for the implementation of mitigation measures. The document must also include the agency’s responses to public comments on the final environmental impact statement, or EIS, which DOT released last year.

DOT plans right to begin right-of-way acquisitions for the $173 million project as early as this year with a projected construction start date of 2018.

Transportation officials initially identified the need for a bypass around the city in the mid-1970s, but funding, environmental issues and other road projects pushed the Havelock bypass onto the back burner. Heavy traffic, particularly in the summer when beachgoers head to the ocean, clog Havelock’s main thoroughfare, which has more than a dozen stoplights.

Some environmentalists, including the Croatan group of the N.C. Sierra Club, say DOT’s environmental study for the project is inadequate and that it minimizes the ecological significance of the portion of forest that will be impacted.

The Sierra Club addressed several environmental concerns to DOT and the Forest Service in 2011. Club members in March raised those same concerns in a 21-page letter to the head of National Forests in North Carolina.

“They’ve just been so, so locked into their decisions all through this process,” said John Fussell, a consulting biologist and Sierra Club conservation committee member.

DOT initially selected its preferred location for a Havelock bypass in January 1998. Fussell said that much of the initial environmental study done nearly 20 years ago was incorporated in the EIS that was released in October.

According to the final study, the preferred location is cheaper than other alternatives because it’s a shorter distance and it would displace fewer homes. The preferred alternative, alternative 3, also offers the best compromise between effects on the city and the Croatan National Forest.

The trade-off, according to the study, is that though alternative 3 would affect the highest acreage of wetlands – 140 acres – and the greatest acreage of national forest – 240 acres – of all the alternatives, there will be fewer effects to habitat fragmentation and home relocations.

An estimated 16 residences, three small businesses and Craven County’s Waste Transfer Facility would have to be relocated to make way for the 10.1-mile-long bypass. The DOT bypass project development engineer did not respond to a request for comment.

Alternative 3 may have less of an effect on people, but the preferred location would have a significant effect on the federally protected red-cockaded woodpecker, Fussell said.

“Habitat for those woodpeckers is going to be taken out and fragmented,” he said.

The bypass will be built through red-cockaded woodpecker “clusters” where some of the longleaf pines in which they live are upwards of 95 years old.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers prefer mature, longleaf pine forests generally more than 80 years old. They are the only woodpeckers that excavate cavities solely in living pine trees.

The assemblage of cavity trees is called a cluster. The average cluster is about 10 acres and may include up to 20 or more cavity trees.

“The highway dissects the very best habitat for the woodpeckers in one section,” Fussell said.

To help the woodpeckers’ habitat, DOT and U.S. Forest Service officials have developed a prescribed burn plan. Longleaf pine ecosystems depend on fire because the trees need to be able to germinate and grow in open ground. Without periodic fires, fallen pine needles will blanket the ground and prevent seeds from sprouting. Those that do get shaded out by faster growing trees and shrubs.

Croatan District Ranger Jim Gumm said the plan is to burn between four to six hours every few years.

“What we’re looking at is probably a long morning into the early afternoon,” he said. “One day would be the expectation. It doesn’t have to happen every year. The normal burn rotation around here is about every three years.”

Forestry officials prefer to initially burn in the winter to clear out underbrush then again in the summer, which is the most effective season to burn, Gumm said.

DOT will have to close the bypass during burns. The Forest Service will coordinate burns during the week to reduce the effect on traffic.

This is just another challenge the Croatan faces as an urban forest, Gumm said. He said he understands Fussell’s concerns, but that the Forest Service’s own endangered species experts have said the bypass will not have a significant effect on woodpecker habitat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the biological assessment conducted by DOT and the Forest Service was sufficient and agreed that the burn plan will help sustain woodpecker habitat. The Fish and Wildlife Service decided a formal consultation was not needed.

Fish and Wildlife Service also agreed with the biological assessment’s conclusion that the bypass “may affect, not likely to adversely affect” the red-cockaded woodpecker and rough-leaved loosestrife, an endangered perennial herb.

But Fussell questions whether routine controlled burns will actually occur once the bypass is open.

“As far as the woodpeckers, the one thing they’re saying is there’s not going to be a problem if burning can still take place,” he said. “If the highway gets some special designation is it going to make it harder to burn? I think it’s very fair to be skeptical that burning will take place.”

The Forest Service is not able to conduct enough prescribed burns to restore habitat for certain rare, loamy soil savanna species, according to the Sierra Club letter.

DOT and the Forest Service have been collecting seeds from goldenrods, Le Conte’s thistles and awned mountain mint populations to replant in other areas of the Croatan, according to the EIS.

Le Conte’s thistle is not listed as endangered or threatened, but it may be one of the rarest, Fussell said.

“Right now the Croatan has the largest few remaining populations,” he said. “One site will totally be destroyed by the bypass. The other, some of it will be destroyed. My thought is this plant has been declining so do you really know that replanting is going to be successful?”

The highway would cut through one of the most unique power line corridor sites in the Croatan, he said. This corridor has loamy soils, which contain a balance of sand, silt and clay.

Regular mowing in the corridor, which has some of the nicest loamy soil in the Croatan, has maintained the longleaf savanna that several rare plant species rely upon, Fussell said.

The longleaf pine ecosystem in the United States has vastly diminished and altered since the early 1700s due to European settlement, commercial timber harvesting and tree farming, urbanization and agriculture.

The coastal plain of the southeastern United States once included an estimated 70 million acres of longleaf pine. Only about 1,500 acres of virgin, pre-settlement longleaf pine forest remains, according to the Longleaf Ecology and Forestry Society.

“The Croatan, even though it’s fairly small and fragmented, it’s one of the most significant areas of that ecosystem,” Fussell said. “The EIS definitely did not give a good idea of the area being impacted by the bypass. The amount of longleaf, the age of the longleaf, the relatively contiguous state of the longleaf, the two natural heritage areas – there is no appreciation of the longleaf in the study.”

The bypass would affect two significant natural heritage areas – the Southwest Prong Flatwoods Natural Heritage Area (NHA) and the Havelock Station NHA, according to the Sierra Club.

“The discussion in the FEIS about these two natural heritage areas is surprisingly brief and does little to provide an appreciation of the significance of the two areas, although it does point out that the Southwest Prong Flatwoods NHA contains one of the best examples in the state of a mesic pine savanna (Coastal Plain subtype),” according to their letter. “More importantly, the FEIS does not describe the degree to which the ecological significance of these two NHA’s would be impacted by the introduction of a highway.”

The letter goes on to say that not all rare plants and animal species in the project area have been identified or acknowledged in the state’s environmental study.

“We’re still finding species,” Fussell said. “Some of these power line corridors where I’ve gone every year for years, I’m still finding things.”

To Learn More

• DOT’s Havelock Bypass page
• Final EIS
• Longleaf Ecology and Forestry Society
• Croatan National Forest
• Croatan chapter, N.C. Sierra Club

NAGS HEAD — Delayed for decades by funding shortages, bureaucratic showdowns and seemingly endless lawsuits, Tuesday’s groundbreaking for the replacement bridge over Oregon Inlet is a day many frustrated Dare County residents thought they’d never live to see.

“I’ve been worrying about it for a very long time,” said Beth Midgett, a 49-year-old Hatteras resident who founded a group a decade ago that pushed to get the bridge built. “I do feel like the grassroots efforts put a face on what Bonner Bridge meant. It wasn’t just a structure – it sounds like a cliché, but it was our lifeline. We were literally scared to death that they would study this to death.”

Clear blue skies and pleasant spring temperatures added to the celebratory atmosphere at a mid-morning press conference Gov. Pat McCrory held at the north end of Pea Island, with the 53-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge as a backdrop.

Wearing sunglasses and an open-collared shirt and jacket, McCrory put his notes aside and spoke about when he first came to Oregon Inlet, how struck he was at how personal the Bonner Bridge was to residents of Dare County.

“It was personal because not having this bridge would impact their livelihoods, “ McCrory said. “It’s personal when it’s a public safety issue. It’s personal when we’re talking about economic development.”

McCrory, a Republican who is seeking a second term in November, blamed a “small group of people” for blocking the project for years through litigation.

The state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration reached a settlement in July 2015 with environmental groups the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The settlement was a result of nine months of negotiation and ended a July 2011 lawsuit filed to stop DOT’s plan to replace the bridge with a parallel span and address problems on N.C. 12 south of the bridge as needed. The environmental groups favored a 17.5-mile bridge that would have bypassed Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, but the groups agreed to drop the legal action in exchange for DOT agreeing to consider building bridges out into Pamlico Sound to bypass sensitive areas in the refuge.

“We had to find a common-sense solution to make this long-delayed project become a reality,” McCrory said.

The $246 million, 3.5-mile replacement bridge will be built by contractors PCL Civil Constructors Inc. and HDR Engineering Inc. of the Carolinas.

“It’s going to be a beautiful bridge,” McCrory said, “and it’s going to be one that will improve the quality of life.”

As the governor addressed the small crowd of Outer Bankers and local, state and federal officials, a plane circled overhead at least 10 times, trailing a banner that said:  “Oil Drilling is Bad for Business. Not the Answer NC.org”

McCrory later declined to comment on whether he still favored oil and gas exploration off North Carolina, saying it was a day to celebrate. At least 27 coastal counties are opposed to drilling, and the federal government does not favor a plan to share any lease revenue with the Atlantic states.

“I’m not going to divert the attention off this incredible accomplishment,” McCrory said after the groundbreaking, adding that he did not notice the banner being flown above the site.

“The definition of politics to them is the art of diversion,” he said about the anti-drilling effort.

Several speakers lauded McCrory’s dedication to getting the project moving forward, although the governor said that the success was a product of effective teamwork on all levels of government.

“Were it not for Gov. McCrory,” said N.C. Transportation Secretary Nick Tennyson, “we would still be talking about a court case and not a new bridge.”

Tennyson said that maintenance costs for the aging bridge were “outrageous,” but the new bridge, which will take about three years to build, will be made with modern materials like reinforced stainless steel and updated piling designs that will ensure it lasts at least 100 years. It will also have seven, rather than one, spans open to navigation to make it safer for boat traffic.

A new interim $14.3 million concrete bridge is also being built farther south in Pea Island to replace a temporary metal bridge that was installed in 2011 after Hurricane Irene. The permanent bridge is still being planned.

More than 20 years beyond its useful lifespan, the Bonner Bridge replacement planning began in 1990, with the first environmental study completed in 1993. Plans repeatedly were thrown off course by regulatory and environmental challenges.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said that the importance of Bonner Bridge to the people of the Outer Banks underscores why government needs to invest in projects at home, rather than overseas.

“This is a different county,” Jones said. “It’s a county that’s been blessed by God in so many ways.”

As the bridge got older and more decrepit, the community became more concerned. People who used the only link to Hatteras Island on a regular basis joked darkly that they opened their windows when they crossed the bridge in order to increase their chance of survival.

“With this new bridge, the people of Hatteras Island will have peace of mind,” said Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners. “The bridge is vital to our regional economy and the tourism industry.”

Jerry Jennings was dealing with the Bonner Bridge, whether getting it repaired or getting it replaced, even before his time as DOT division engineer, a position he has held since 2007.

“The bridge has really needed to get done for several years,” he said. “Certainly, in Division 1, it is one of the more complicated projects we have done.”

A lot has been learned in the 30 years since the first bridge was built, he said.  The new bridge will alleviate many of the problems with navigation and dredging, as well as the constant worry about scour at the pilings and structural corrosion.

The new bridge’s seven spans will be 300 feet apart through the high rise and elevated for 3,500 feet from a little north of the existing span almost to the south side before sloping down.  That will make the bridge much less susceptible to the whims of current and sand shifting that have created constant headaches with unpredictable shoaling and navigation of the channels in Oregon Inlet.

Harry Schiffman, owner of Salty Dawg Marine Towing and a waterman who has worked on Oregon Inlet issues for half of his 74 years, said that the wide spans on the new design makes the replacement bridge much less hazardous for commercial and recreational vessels that transit the notoriously treacherous waterway.

“This is a great day,” Schiffman said about the official kickoff of the project.  “I wasn’t sure I would be here to see it.”

NEW BERN – U.S. 70 between Raleigh and the coast has a couple of long stretches with limited opportunities for motorists to fill up the tank but not so limited as to cause much worry. For folks who drive electric vehicles, however, there are far fewer places along the route to plug in and recharge.

The distances between charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles in the eastern part of the state are enough to cause what some call “range anxiety” – fears that the vehicle’s charge is insufficient to reach the driver’s destination. Because nobody likes getting stranded, range anxiety is considered a big barrier to wide-scale adoption of zero-emission, all-electric vehicles.

Despite this, sales of all-electric cars are growing in the state, especially in urban areas and among young, affluent buyers – the kinds of people merchants, hoteliers and tourism officials seek to lure to vacation destinations on the N.C. coast.

Judy Hills, executive director at the East Carolina Council of Governments in New Bern, says she’d like to see counties and municipalities in Eastern North Carolina become more competitive with other parts of the state in offering services for drivers of electric vehicles.

“If we want to attract the touring public who drives these cars, it’s something to think about,” Hills told a group Feb. 5 at the council’s offices in downtown New Bern.

The meeting was the first in a series of 11 planned sessions on electric cars. A handful of town and county planning and economic-development officials attended. The council sent invitations to many more, including tourism, military and transportation officials and chambers of commerce across the region.

The East Carolina Council is one of a number of regional groups in North Carolina working to create a plan for electric cars. It’s a collaboration with the N.C. Plug-in Electric Vehicle Taskforce, which has been working since 2011 to establish the state as a leader in electric transportation. The taskforce includes various industry, utility, nonprofit and other entities led by consulting firm Advanced Energy Corp. and the N.C. Commerce Department, providing research and support to local groups.

Hills said the state’s vehicle traffic is predicted to increase by 25 percent by 2030. A shift toward zero-emission electric vehicles can have significant health, environmental and economic benefits, she said, adding that Eastern North Carolina could suffer economic consequences if the region fails to provide services for such vehicles.

The council has funding from the federal Economic Development Administration to create a plan to accommodate electrics along the U.S. 70 corridor in this region. Having a plan in place could help position the region for grant opportunities to help pay for new charging stations along the route.

Hills cited research from the Electric Power Research Institute that there will be more than 700,000 electric vehicles on N.C. roads by 2030, including 37,000 in the eastern part of the state.

More than 3,300 electric cars were registered in North Carolina in 2014, the most recent figures available. Fewer than 50 were registered in Carteret, Craven, Jones, Lenoir and Wayne counties as of January 2015, according to information presented at the stakeholder meeting.

An Economic Boost

Michael Gunhus, owner and innkeeper at The Aerie Bed and Breakfast Guest House and Conference Center in downtown New Bern, installed a charging station for electric vehicles at the inn about a year ago. The idea was to provide an additional service for his guests but the amenity, which shows up in the navigation systems of electric vehicles, has also helped draw new visitors to the inn.

“It’s proven very successful for us,” Gunhus said.

Charging is free for guests of the inn but others can also take advantage of the service without staying the night. Visitors to the historic downtown area sometimes choose to get out and walk to the nearby shops and restaurants while their electric cars’ batteries recharge back at the inn. The inn charges a small fee for non-guests.

Gunhus doesn’t have a big investment to recoup. Select Registry, an innkeepers’ association of which Gunhus is a member, covered the installation cost, which totaled about $1,400. It was part of promotional deal the association had with Tesla Motors, a maker of high-end electric vehicles.

“They put it out to us and we said ‘sure.’ We were one of the first to sign on,” Gunhus said. “It’s very important that owners of Teslas know where they can go to charge.”

Tesla uses a unique connector that isn’t compatible with other makes. The B&B also has a second charging unit manufactured by ClipperCreek that can accommodate other electric cars.

“We can charge any vehicle and we knew we could increase our traffic by having this option. We are very pleased with it,” Gunhus said.

Vehicle Options

Car manufacturers are heavily invested in electric vehicle technology. There are about 30 different models on the market.

Nissan representatives were on hand at the meeting and offered test drives of their company’s flagship all-electric, the LEAF.

The Nissan LEAF is one of the more popular of the breeds, with sales that outpace about a dozen standard internal combustion engine-equipped cars, especially in certain markets including Atlanta, Ga., where tax incentives for buyers are better than in North Carolina. Nissan says it’s the best-selling electric vehicle in automotive history with global sales of more than 190,000 and more than 80,000 on U.S. roads. The 2016 model is powered by a 30-kilowatt-hour battery and has a range of 107 miles, according to its Environmental Protection Agency rating.

The LEAF can accommodate three types of chargers, which vary in terms of recharge speed.

An alternating-current, or AC, level 1 charger works on a standard 120-volt circuit and adds about five miles of range per hour of charging. An AC level 2 charger works on a 240-volt circuit such as the type used for home clothes dryers. This type charger adds about 20-40 miles of ranger per hour of charging. A direct-current, fast charging system requires a 480-volt AC circuit and provides up to 50 miles of range in about 10 minutes.

Tesla’s pricier Model S offers a mileage range of 270 miles, according to the EPA rating.

The Tesla Supercharger is touted as the world’s fastest charging station, providing a 170-mile charge in about 30 minutes.

Plenty of other options are available to car buyers. See the EPA’s website below for comparison information on all-electric vehicles.

Road Readiness

Making the U.S. 70 corridor more accommodating for electric vehicles could include working with hotel chains and state agencies, such as museums, aquariums and history centers, to install charging stations, Hills said.

North Carolina ranks 14^th in the number of public charging sites. There are more than 600 charging stations across the state, mostly concentrated in the Triangle, the Charlotte area and in Asheville. These areas are also have the highest levels of electric car ownership in the state.

Public charging stations can also be found on the N.C. coast at the Boathouse at Front Street Village in Beaufort; the Hampton Inn and Edenton Harbor in Edenton; the Courtyard Marriot in Jacksonville; the Villages at Brunswick Forest in Leland; the Inn on Pamlico Sound in Buxton; and various other locations in Wilmington and along the Outer Banks, particularly north of Nags Head.

The availability of charging stations is key to the public’s adoption of electric vehicles, said Marcy Bauer, market manager for the Carolinas and Southern Virginia for NRG EVgo, a clean energy resources and technology firm with headquarters in Houston, Texas.

The company has partnered with Nissan, BMW and a few other electric vehicle manufacturers, said EVgo spokesman Jeremy Desel in a telephone interview. The company provides purchasers of certain electric cars free charging on its nationwide network of charging stations.

“Nissan was our first imbedded deal like that and it’s now blossomed into more than just Nissan,” Desel said.

The company’s chargers will work with a variety of autos, which use various charging standards, including the two different rapid-charging, direct-current types. Japanese and Korean manufacturers have one type while the latest European and American vehicles use another standard. Tesla uses yet another standard that is compatible with a special adapter.

Desel compared NRG’s chargers to pumps that offer both gas and diesel fuel.

“Our chargers are able to charge every electric vehicle on the road today,” Desel said. “We have the largest DC fast-charging network in the country.”

Pulling the Plug

Some say N.C. lawmakers have worked to pull the plug on electric vehicle sales. A state law that took effect in 2013 resulted in the removal of charging stations from N.C. Department of Transportation rest areas in Johnston and Alamance counties. The charging stations were installed in 2012 as part of a grant-funded pilot program and were free to use. The law directed the department to charge a fee for use but that directive conflicted with a federal law that said states may only collect money at rest areas along U.S. highways when it comes from vending machines.

North Carolina began in 2014 collecting an additional $100 fee from electric car owners. The extra fee was supposed to help offset the anticipated loss of revenue from the state’s gas tax, which goes to fund highway construction.

Learn More

• East Carolina Council’s Planning
• Where to Find Charging Stations
• NCPEV Task Force
• EPA’s Comparison Information for All-Electric Vehicles

NAGS HEAD — Last month’s announcement that a major hurdle had been cleared in the saga to replace the half-century-old Bonner Bridge was only a first step on a winding path before construction will be seen at Oregon Inlet.

The settlement of a lawsuit brought in 2011 by environmental groups against the state of North Carolina had three main requirements before the legal action would be dropped.

Once they are met, construction of a new bridge over Oregon Inlet costing at least a quarter-billion dollars could start sometime next spring, with a projected opening of late-2019.

The first was cancellation of a contract to build a 2.4-mile-long bridge over the inlet through Pea Island cut by Hurricane Irene in 2011. That was done the day the settlement was announced, Heiss said.

Parsons Construction is now in the process of pulling out their equipment and cleaning up the site, and they should be finished by the end of the week, according to NCDOT bridge engineer Pablo Hernandez.

Contractors had already started building the bridge over New Inlet when closed-door negotiations to end the lawsuit began.

Detour roads around the construction site are now in place, and three test pilings were driven as much as 100-feet into the sand when that work was stopped last August.

She added that final totals of how much the state will pay for cancelling the contract are still being worked out.

“Second, the ‘jug handle’ alternative to bypass Mirlo Beach north of Rodanthe had to be presented and approved by the merger team,” composed of numerous state and federal agencies, recently gave their blessing to the proposal, Heiss said.

After that, the agreement suggests, an addition over the Pamlico Sound would extend north to the border of the refuge.

The final step in the way of the lawsuit being dropped is approval of a state Coastal Area Management Act permit for a 3,000-foot long bridge that will replace the current temporary steel bridge at New Inlet.

“We expect that permit to be granted sometime later this summer, a contract will be awarded this fall, and construction will start by the end of the year,” Heiss said.

While it will be a concrete bridge at New Inlet that would open in mid-2017, it is only considered an interim fix for that area under terms of the agreement.

The test pilings at New Inlet will be cut below ground because they are too deep to remove and can’t be incorporated into the design of the interim bridge, Hernandez said. But the pavement on each side of the steel bridge will work for detour routes.

A $216 million contract was awarded in 2011 to PCL Civil Constructors and HDR Engineering for construction of the new Bonner Bridge.

But only 80 percent of the design work has been finished because it was also halted last August when the settlement process was announced, Heiss said.

“Exact costs of the Bonner Bridge will have to be adjusted, since four years have passed since we awarded the contract,” Heiss said.

But that adjustment, just like all other Bonner-related topics, has to await the three conditions of the settlement being reached.

From an Outer Banks Voice report.

NAGS HEAD — Gov. Pat McCrory declared Monday a “historic day for the people who call the Outer Banks home and the millions of visitors who travel here each year. Today, we begin building a bridge that has been more than two decades in the making.”

With that, the governor confirmed what many Outer Banks residents and visitors learned a few hours earlier:

The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, will withdraw its legal challenges against building a parallel replacement to the Bonner Bridge.

Joined by state officials and law center and refuge association representatives, McCrory held a press conference on a steamy beach at the southern end of the Bonner Bridge.

The backdrop: An Army Corps dredge and returning charter boats gliding through Oregon Inlet.

While much work remains concerning a permanent fix for the new inlet cut by Hurricane Irene in 2011 and the paved portion of N.C. 12 through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, the players in the years-long struggle now seem to be moving in the same direction.

“This has been more than two decades in the making and I’m convinced if these groups had not had viable discussions during the past many months this could have been delayed for another decade, and that is totally unacceptable,” McCrory said.

Before Monday, many wondered if a new bridge would ever be built. Legal negotiations were dragging into their ninth month in an effort to settle lawsuits filed by the environmental groups that had stopped work under a $216 million contract awarded in 2011.

The bridge is the only land connection to Hatteras Island and is well past its expected lifespan. Opened in 1963, it was built to last 30 years. Now, it is considered structurally deficient but still safe after more than $50 million in continual repairs.

What We Know

The state will replace the Bonner Bridge with a parallel span across Oregon Inlet. Chosen by the state in 2011, PCL Civil Constructors and HDR Engineering were notified June 15 to prepare to resume work. But the contract price will be higher now due to the four-year delay.

The conservation groups will dismiss state and federal lawsuits against the Bonner replacement, and the state will cease work on a permanent bridge in the current easement over the Pea Island breach created in 2011 by Hurricane Irene. A temporary span was put up after the storm, and so far $3.9 million has been spent by the state on a permanent bridge.

The groups had long advocated a 17-mile bridge over the Pamlico Sound to bypass Pea Island, where N.C. 12 continually suffers washouts. The Army Corps of Engineers has added sand to the beach to protect a chronic “hot spot” at Mirlo Beach north of Rodanthe.

At the heart of the primary lawsuit was the contention by conservationists that fixing N.C. 12 should have been included in environmental studies for the Bonner replacement. Instead, the state opted to proceed with the parallel span and deal with N.C. 12 south of it later.

DOT will implement interim measures to ensure safe motor travel over the Pea Island breach as it works with state and federal agencies to settle on a satisfactory permanent solution. They will explore building causeways in Pamlico Sound bypassing the Pea Island inlet and the area north of Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe.

The state’s preferred option for Rodanthe/Mirlo Beach is a “jug-handle bridge,” which previously was considered by DOT in earlier environmental studies.

It will take at least three years to complete the new Bonner Bridge, and it is hoped work can begin in March 2016 once the lawsuits are officially dismissed.

In essence, with the Mirlo/Rodanthe jug-handle bridge option and the approval of all parties to dismiss lawsuits against the Bonner Bridge replacement, two of the three major legal issues appear to be resolved.

It is thought that once the new Bonner Bridge is finished, some of the shoaling issues in Oregon Inlet will be mitigated by new channels and spans located in deeper water farther to the south.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, at present, is opposed to any plans that would allow N.C. 12 to continue to exist within the present easement that was agreed to by the state and federal authorities decades ago.

What We Don’t Know

Questions not answered Monday include the new cost of the Bonner Bridge, given the four-year delay, and of the “jug-handle” bridge in Mirlo Beach. The route of that bridge also wasn’t discussed or how much of Rodanthe will be bypassed.

How the N.C. General Assembly and DOT will fund all of the above as the agreement moves forward is also still a big question.

EAST LAKE — While many people rejoiced that the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge was included in North Carolina’s draft 10-year transportation plan, not much griping has been heard about the U.S. 64 project being left out.

But some are worried that the 55-year old bridge over Alligator River, which is part of the now unfunded U.S. 64 road project, will continue to deteriorate.

“That bridge should be looked at as a separate project,” said David Clegg, the Tyrrell County manager.

Built in 1960, the 2.8-mile Lindsay C. Warren Bridge is a swing span that opens as much as 35 times a day for marine traffic. It is considered structurally deficient but safe to cross.

At one time, there were 19 mix-and-match alternatives in a plan to widen the highway to four lanes through miles of swampland in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the small communities of Alligator in Tyrrell County and East Lake in Dare County. Miraculously, a suitable alternative was finally found.

But now, construction plans for the proposed 27.3-mile project – the last section of U.S 64 to be widened from Raleigh to the coast — are on hold.

Stretching between Columbia and Manns Harbor, divided in half between Tyrrell and Dare counties, the proposed project is estimated to cost $392 million. Unless the funds are allotted in the transportation plan, the project will not move forward.

With residents and environmentalists angry about the proposed project for the much of the 18 years or so it has been in the planning stages, the lack of outrage at its omission in the state plan is not surprising.

“We’re fine with them doing it when the funding is available,” said Rosemarie Doshier, a resident of East Lake. “We’re in no rush to get it done.”

In fact, until about 1½ years ago, residents had fought the initial proposal that had the highway cutting right through their community, taking out 12 homes, churches and historic cemeteries and the 1936 fire tower.

Environmental groups, including the N.C. Coastal Federation, question the need for the project, citing environmental damage to the refuge and overall lack of traffic on the existing two-lane highway. In response, the state said that U.S. 64 is important as a hurricane evacuation route, and that the bridge over Alligator River is overdue for replacement.

An unusual compromise was announced in August 2013. The refuge managers had agreed to allow the road to curve into its land in order to bypass East Lake.   Meanwhile, on the Tyrrell County side of the project, four of the five residents affected in Alligator told the N.C. Department of Transportation, or DOT, that they were willing to sell their often-flooded property.

Despite that the major conflict over placement of the road had been resolved, the U.S 64 project did not meet the state’s new prioritization formula for transportation projects, which in part is based on traffic congestion and population. Still, the State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, that was released in December is a draft that will go through a public comment process. And that means there will be changes.

“It’s not final,” said Ted Devens, DOT project manager. “There’s been a lot of push back from rural parts of the state.”

Devens said that all the major stakeholders in the project have agreed on how to proceed, and the final Environmental Impact Statement, which documents the decisions made throughout the planning process, is nearing completion.

“This thing has been studied since 1998. So we’ve made all this progress,” he said. “We have completed all the merger team coordination, and we have a concurrence.”

Devens said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was enthusiastic about how the road design made allowances for the different creatures that routinely cross the highway within the 154,000-acre refuge, ranging from bears and wolves to snakes and rodents. The refuge managers agreed that a loss of some of their land in East Lake was a worthy trade-off.

“The team agreed that the benefits of the wildlife crossings to the whole region justified the taking,” he said.

So far, consultant work for the project has cost $4.2 million, Devens said. That figure does not include costs for DOT time, he added.

Skip ahead to 30 seconds to take a road trip over the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge that crosses Alligator River. We hope you don’t mind 80s rock.

Devens said that public meetings will be held in March and April to discuss the draft STIP. It will be known by June, when the STIP is finalized, whether or not the U.S. 64 project has been added to the 10-year plan.

Even if the state decides for the time being to not widen U.S. 64, it must address the aging bridge, said Clegg.

In a resolution passed on Dec. 2, the Tyrrell County Board of Commissioners said that the two-lane bridge is “outdated, narrow and unsafe” and does not meet current state and federal safety standards.

The board requested that “without delay” the state “design, schedule, fund and construct” a new bridge.

“We didn’t want DOT to think that we looked at that project all having to be done simultaneously,” Clegg said, “because we don’t.”

Clegg said that the region and Tyrrell, among the poorest regions in the state, are losing out in the new transportation formula that favors factors such as urban congestion. Neighboring counties of Dare, Hyde, Washington agree, he said. “We all live and die by Highway 64,” Clegg said.

“If you look at that process, northeastern North Carolina is not garnering enough points to really have anything put on the drawing board anytime soon,” he said. “I think if you look at general improvements, we came out at the short end of the stick.”

Even the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge — one of the northeast’s major projects in the draft STIP — that would alleviate traffic to the Outer Banks from Virginia is not scheduled to start the permitting and acquisition phase until 2019.

Clegg said that the Alligator River bridge should be viewed in light of its importance to the people who depend on it as their only route to jobs and nearby communities, as well as for the tourists coming from the west. For instance, repair of the swing span gears in 2013 resulted in a 90-minute detour for travelers.

“I don’t think a lot of these traffic counts are necessarily reflecting tourism traffic,” he said.

The most recent bridge inspection in 2014 gave the bridge a “sufficiency” rating of two out of 100, Devens said. “That does not mean the bridge is unsafe,” he explained in an email. “It means that, after studying a number of factors including bridge inspection results, traffic volumes and road widths, engineers used a standard formula to rate the bridge’s ability to remain in service. Based on those calculations, they consider the bridge ‘structurally deficient’ and in need of replacement.  A low rating places a higher priority on bridge replacement.”

Devens said that the likelihood of building the bridge as the first phase of the project – followed by the Tyrrell section, then the Dare section – has always been the case.

“This discussion of separating the bridge out is nothing new,” he said. “In fact, that’s right in character with the project all along.”

In 2013, costs for the bridge and connectors to both sides were estimated at $210 million; the Tyrrell portion of U.S. 64 was estimated at $73 million and the Dare side at $110 million.

Devens said that the bridge design is similar to that of the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge between Manteo and Manns Harbor, except it has wider outside shoulders. The old bridge, he said, is still useable.

“But again, we want to get it replaced before it gets unsafe,” he said.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

The preferred route of the Mid-Currituck Bridge has the bridge anchored off U.S. 158 near Aydlett in Currituck County and landing between the Corolla Bay and Monteray Shores subdivision on the Currituck Banks. Map: N.C. Department of Transportation

Gov. Pat McCrory and State Transportation Secretary Tony Tata last week unveiled North Carolina’s plan for road construction over the next decade and it includes the long-delayed bridge between mainland Currituck and Corolla.

While the Mid-Currituck Bridge’s appearance in the latest draft Strategic Transportation Improvement Plan was met with excitement and hope by local and state officials, it is still not a certainty that the 7-mile-long span between the placid community of Aydlett and the bustling beaches of Corolla will be open to traffic before 2025.

“Currituck County has been in support of building a Mid-Currituck Bridge since the 1970s, so we are pleased to see this project elevated to a status where it might become a reality within the next ten years,” County Manager Dan Scanlon said.

The bridge will help ease traffic congestion during the summer vacation season, improve emergency medical response and evacuation time and provide for more economic development opportunities on the mainland, according to a county statement.

Overall, the bridge will cost an estimated $410 million, with the state contributing $173 million, according to Jennifer Garifo, a N.C. Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

“The remaining funds are anticipated to come through toll revenues generated over the life of the project,” Garifo said.

The draft plan must still be given final approval in June, about the same time the N.C. General Assembly will be writing and approving a budget for the next two fiscal years.

“The project will be programmed in the plan with construction scheduled to begin in 2019,” Garifo said. The draft plan calls for the bridge to take about four years to complete.

Inclusion of the Mid-Currituck Bridge project in the plan announced will not change DOT’s main priority in the region — building a new Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet. The state has been ready to start construction, but litigation has delayed the project. State and federal agencies are now negotiating on a compromise that will get things started.

“The money for the Bonner Bridge replacement has already been allocated and this did not impact spending priorities in Division One under the new funding structure,” Garifo said.

State Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, was optimistic after the plan was released.

“One of the most critical obligations for the bridge is to reduce the hurricane clearance time for residents and visitors during an emergency evacuation,” Cook said in a written statement.

“This transportation announcement is a key development for northeastern North Carolina, and I thank Gov. McCrory, Sec. Tata and Malcolm Fearing for their continued leadership on this project,” Cook said.

Fearing, a Manteo resident, is the Division 1 representative on the N.C. Transportation Board.

Nearly 1,100 projects across all transportation modes statewide are fully or partially funded under the Strategic Transportation Investments law, which created the Strategic Mobility Formula in the most recent session of the N.C. General Assembly.

McCrory said the new formula takes the politics out of deciding which roads will be built by using data-driven criteria.

Projects compete for dollars on a statewide level for 40 percent of the budget, a regional level for another 30 percent, and a divisional level for a final 30 percent.

While the Mid-Currituck Bridge is included in the Division 1 list of projects, it was not on the state or regional lists.

“With the structure of STI, projects that are not prioritized on the statewide level can then cascade down to the regional, and then division level,” Garifo said.

Increasing access speed to existing economic centers are a heavily weighted factor. The regional portion for secondary highways is made up of two of the 14 divisions.

Projects are then judged 70 percent on data and 30 percent on local input. Divisional projects are a 50-50 mix of local input and data.

This story was compiled from reports in The Island Free Press and the Outer Banks Voice

RODANTHE — The N.C. Department of Transportation and the Southern Environmental Law Center are working toward a compromise that would allow work to begin on the stalled replacement for the aging Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County.

A joint statement last week from the DOT and the law center was short on details but indicated that the agreement calls for moving ahead with a new bridge parallel to the 50-year-old-span in exchange for a different long-term solution to storm-battered N.C. 12.

Tony Tata

The statement said the confidential discussions were behind the decision two weeks ago to suspend construction of a $79.7 million permanent bridge over the inlet cut by Hurricane Irene in August 2011 in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The News and Observer of Raleigh reported that the law center will agree to the parallel bridge in exchange for abandoning plans to elevate N.C. 12 over hotspots prone to damage from storm surf and breaches. Instead, the road continue south through the northern end of the refuge, then go over the Pamlico sound for seven miles to Rodanthe, the N&O said.

Presumably, that would eliminate plans for the bridge at the new inlet and at the S-Curves just north of Rodanthe.

The new concept is outlined in a PowerPoint presentation that DOT gave when the department met recently with the N.C.12 merger team, comprised of state and federal resource and regulatory agencies, to brief members on the status of the project and solicit feedback.

The new concept is labeled “future extension concept” on a map of the area that is included in the PowerPoint. DOT said it is “under consideration” in the discussions.

On the graphic of the northern Rodanthe area and the options included on page 22 of the PowerPoint  there are two revised options for the northern Rodanthe bridge in new locations, labeled “2014 revised A” and “2014 revised B.”

Both of those options bring the bridge in closer to the island than the 2013 proposal for the bridge to avoid as much as possible the submerged aquatic vegetation out further in the sound. The National Marine Fisheries Service raised the issue of the effect of a bridge in the sound on fisheries because of possible harm to the aquatic vegetation.

Work has been stalled on the Bonner Bridge replacement since the law center mounted a legal challenge after a contract was awarded two years ago. It contended that the bridge and N.C. 12 should have been considered as one project rather than in two phases.

Last month, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of both sides. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said that highway planners had complied with federal policy in their environmental review of the project, affirming much of a ruling last year by a U.S. District Court judge.

Derb Carter

But the appeals panel ordered the judge to take a closer look at her opinion that DOT and the Federal Highway Administration were exempt from certain regulations that would apply to construction along N.C. 12 in the refuge.

The appeals panel said it was not convinced that plans for a public road — N.C. 12 — and the establishment of the refuge in 1938 were “concurrent,” which was the basis of the exemption.

Environmental groups have argued that a 17-mile bridge over the Pamlico Sound bypassing the refuge is the best alternative.

The Bonner Bridge and N.C. 12 are the only route to communities south of Oregon Inlet. The road, however, frequently washes out and has been shut down after storms in recent years, most notably Hurricanes Sandy and Irene.

“Following a complex ruling issued by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, both sides determined that it was best to move forward with confidential discussions to resolve the bridge dispute,” the joint statement said.

“We remain committed to building a new parallel bridge over the Oregon Inlet to ensure the safety of Outer Banks residents and visitors,” said Transportation Secretary Tony Tata. “We have been in conversations with the SELC about the Bonner Bridge project for more than a year and believe these recent proactive discussions are a positive step toward a permanent solution.”

“We are continuing to work together with NCDOT to resolve this matter with a reliable, long-term solution that ensures the safety of the traveling public and avoids the problems that currently threaten N.C. 12,” said Derb Carter, director of the North Carolina offices of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The statement said that no more information would be provided until the issue is resolved.

“We know how crucial N.C. 12 is to connectivity for residents and visitors of the Outer Banks and I applaud our joint negotiations to resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” said Gov. Pat McCrory.

Portions of a story that appeared in the Outer Banks Voice were used in this story.

NAGS HEAD — For Outer Banks residents who pay attention to complicated legal decisions that affect their daily lives, the recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on a lawsuit over the Bonner Bridge replacement project was yet another frustrating turn that had both sides claiming victory but will surely mean more delays in building a new bridge.

The three-judge panel handed down a split decision that upheld the lower court’s ruling that highway planners had complied with federal law when reviewing the possible environmental consequences of the new bridge.

The appeal court, though, also ordered the lower court to take a closer look at her ruling that the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration were exempt from certain regulations that would apply to construction in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Judge James Wynn

Bobby Outten

The appeals panel said it was not convinced that plans for a public road — N.C. 12 — and the establishment of the refuge in 1938 were “concurrent,” which was the basis of the exemption.

“The part that they affirmed is excellent,” said Bobby Outten, the Dare County manager who is also a lawyer. “That’s a big chunk of what (the case) is”

But Outten said it was disappointing that resolution of the lawsuit will take yet more time, especially in light of the poor condition of the bridge over Oregon Inlet and the 25 years of twists and turns in the replacement project.

“We’ve come not to expect anything with regards to the Bonner Bridge,” he said. “And, being a lawyer, I’ve learned that you can’t read into the questions of the justices.”

Lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill didn’t return requests for comments. The center represents the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.

Like Outten, though, the law center found much to be pleased about in the appeals court ruling.

“Today’s court decision affirms that NCDOT must protect national treasures like Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge while it addresses the unreliability of this stretch of N.C. 12,” Julie Youngman, the group’s senior attorney who argued the case in Richmond, said in an Aug. 6 press  release.  “After decades of NCDOT’s single-minded determination to keep throwing taxpayer money into the sea . . . the court’s ruling gives NCDOT an opportunity to . . . provide a safe, reliable route that will serve the state for the next 50 years.”

The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge and N.C. 12 are the only routes to communities south of Oregon Inlet. The road, however, frequently washes out and has been shut down after storms in recent years, most notably hurricanes Sandy and Irene.

Environmental groups argue that a 17-mile bridge over the Pamlico Sound bypassing the refuge is the best alternative.

In the Fourth Circuit ruling on Aug. 6, written by Judge James A. Wynn from Robersonville, the judges affirmed that planning for the Bonner project had met the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, requirements, but reversed U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan’s opinion on an environmental requirement known as  “Section 4(f)” and remanded it back to her court.

In September 2013, Flanagan had issued a 42-page ruling that rejected all claims made by the law center in a 2011 lawsuit challenging construction of the bridge. The law center contended that the state had violated NEPA and other environmental rules by analyzing the project in segments and by choosing to build an alternative that was not the least harmful to Pea Island refuge.

The law center filed an appeal in October against the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, and the oral arguments were heard in May at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative was allowed to intervene on behalf of the defendants because costs of running its transmission lines would be far more expensive under the environmental groups’ preferred alternative.

Joined in the opinion by Judge Allyson K. Duncan from Durham and U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, a designee from South Carolina, Wynn said that the court was deciding whether the defendants had complied with the law, not whether the panel agreed with their policies or preferences.

N.C. 12 runs north from Rodanthe through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

“This has been no easy task, given the tortured decision-making history of this project,” Wynn wrote, “the difficulty of determining exactly what defendants intend to construct, and the extensive administrative record underlying the district court’s decision.”

Currently, DOT is planning to build a short bridge parallel to the existing one, and address places along N.C. 12 threatened by erosion as needed. Already, a permanent bridge over an inlet formed by Hurricane Irene is being built and another is planned near Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. The environmental groups had argued that the two components could not be separated.

Work on the bridge project ceased last year when the groups challenged the state’s permit for the bridge. That matter will be heard by an administrative law judge in the fall.

In upholding Flanagan’s opinion that NEPA was not violated in DOT’s planning, the panel cited case law that permitted a tiered or multi-phased approach with large or complex projects. The transportation agencies made no attempt to circumvent the law, Wynn wrote, and in fact “conducted a full, site-specific analysis.”

But the court’s opinion on the exemption was more complicated. The federal Department of Transportation Act of 1966 includes a special provision — Section 4(f) – that requires DOT to prove it had chosen the most “prudent and feasible alternative” in order to use refuge land.

The state had claimed an exemption to the provision because it said that the original road project was a product of joint planning when the refuge was established. The lower court accepted that argument.

The appeals court, however, took issue with application of the exception, saying that the evidence “was wholly insufficient” to affirm the lower court’s view.  The exception can only be applied, the panel said, if it is determined that N.C. 12, the road running through the refuge, was both formally reserved around the time the refuge was established, and was jointly planned with the refuge.

Based on that reasoning, the court vacated Flanagan’s analysis of the 4(f), and instructed her to review the evidence and determine that the defendants’ complied with the requirements of the law.

Kitty Hawk attorney Norm Shearin, who represents the electric co-op, did not see the court telling Flanagan that she was wrong. “I think the highway folks can claim victory,” he said. “At least it’s historically consistent. There’s been nothing clear about this project.”

What Wynn wanted, Shearin said, is for Flanagan, not his court, to plow through the record to find more information about the 4(f).

“His concern, it was about the procedure employed,” Shearin said. “I think anybody who’s been close to this knows that the highway has always been a joint planning effort between DOT and Interior.”

Although finding further documentation from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s could be a challenge, Shearin said, “I don’t think it’s a mountain that can’t be climbed.”

Common sense, he said, would conclude that a road would not be built through a wildlife refuge without the permission and cooperation of the refuge. And when you come down to practicalities, he added, it is difficult to see an alternative to the road.

Shearin, a partner with Vandeventer Black, said that over his 40-year career, he has witnessed the slow crawl of projects in public lands.

As counsel for the electric cooperative, he acquired the easements needed for transmission lines through the refuge and Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

“When I started, Jimmy Carter was president,” Shearin said. “When we finally obtained those easements, Bill Clinton was president.

“It’s just really difficult to build facilities through the park.”

Bradford Downs leads tours to see the wild horses of Currituck Banks. Photo: Catherine Kozak.

CAROVA — Wild horses on the Currituck Outer Banks are so used to tourists gawking at them, shrieking at the sight of them and rumbling past them in trucks hour after hour, day in and day out for four months straight, that they seem to ignore the constant stream of motorized steel and gaping humanity in their midst.

But the 180 or so year-round residents of once-quiet Carova have noticed all too well.

New rules that the county implemented earlier this year put more limits on horse tours operating in the four-wheel drive area north of Corolla and has helped stem what was becoming a free-for-all, said county manager Dan Scanlon.

“I think the change has been well-received from the community,” he said last week.

About 120 horses roam a 12-mile long and one-mile wide ocean to sound area that abuts the 4,500-acre Currituck National Wildlife Refuge and encompasses beach, wild marshland and the residential community. Conflict was inevitable. Lines of vehicles filled with tourists snaked through the unpaved sand roads in Carova from sunrise to sunset. People got out frequently to take photographs. The brasher tourists parked on residents’ front lawns and wandered through yards to find horses. In the worst cases, drivers zoomed over dunes and cut donuts in the sand.

Now tours that go west of the dunes into the residential area can only operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and they must led by a tour guide, and the number of tour companies is limited to 10. Each company must pay about $1,000 for an annual license, which will be put toward road and facility maintenance. Next year, each company will be restricted to a maximum of five vehicles.

“I think this ordinance is a good beginning,” said Kimberlee Hoey, a full-time Carova resident since 2001 and board president of the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund. “I think there’s some tweaking that’s going to have to be done.”

Horses graze in the yards of houses in Carova. They mow and fertilize the lawns at the same time, one tour guide quips. Photos: Catherine Kozak

As little as two years ago, she said, tour guides pulled into her driveway to get a better look at the horses, and groups of tours vehicles gunned through yards or stopped right in the road. Consequently, she said, “as silly as it sounds” in such a remote area, there were potholes, gridlock and traffic backups.

“It’s constant,” she said about the tours. “It’s like living in a theme park.”

Hoey said that with the new ordinance in place, the outrageous incidents happened far less frequently this year. But she said there still have been after-hours and trespassing violations, and it’s clear that more enforcement is required.

The community and the horse fund appreciate the importance of the tours to the local economy, Hoey said, but there’s got to be a line. “It’s very, very difficult to balance that type of tourism,” she said, “while respecting the privacy of residents.”

With as many as 3,000 tourists a day taking horse tours, the Corolla wild horses are a marketing success story. Billboards and glossy advertisements that feature scenes of wild horses on the beach have lured millions of tourists to the northern Outer Banks. The horses have become one of the biggest draws for the state and local tourism industry.

Jay Bender, who owns Corolla Outback Adventures with his 80-year-old mother, has seen the horse tour business explode in the last 10 years or so, along with the development of the northern Outer Banks.

A native of Corolla, Bender said that his parents started the guided tour business in Corolla in 1962 as Bender’s Beach Service, which took fishermen, hunters and sightseers on beach trips between Kill Devil Hills and Corolla, when there were no paved roads north of Duck.

When Corolla Outback started about 25 years ago, he said, it was billed as an ecological tour. With the increased interest in the wild horses in recent years, the tour has evolved to include them more. But Bender insists his tours are still 75 percent focused on the unique ecology, history and natural environment of Corolla.

Bender’s family has donated more than 60 acres as a wild horse sanctuary, which is accessed as part of his business’s tour.

According to the website of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, which was established in 1989 to protect the horses, the animals are descendents of Spanish mustangs that were stranded on the barrier islands nearly 500 years ago. The Corolla horses have access to about 7,544 acres, 3,000 of them in the Currituck refuge. Two thirds of the land available to the horses is privately owned, and only eight horses live on the public land.

In the late 1990s into the 2000s, the fund struggled to keep the horses safe behind a fence north of Corolla, but they kept coming around the fence. For a number of years, the horses mingled with tourists in the village. But reports of horses being sighted on the decks of houses – one persistent story says a pony or two even entered Food Lion through the automated front door – and of people trying to pet them or feed them or even ride them made conditions too dangerous. Several horses had also been struck by vehicles and even shot. Eventually, the horses were contained successfully between Corolla and Virginia.

Called “Big Sexy” by one tour guide, this stallion leads a herd of several mares. Photo: Catherine Kozak

“Once the horses were restricted to that area there, it was a matter of seconds before people started asking ‘How can we see the horses?’” Bender said.

Every year since, there have been more people taking more tours to see the iconic creatures.

Bender said that the number of vehicles operating next year will be about half of what it had been. Bus tours are already banned. When vehicles are within 300 feet of any of the wild horses, they can drive no faster than15 miles an hour, and people must stay at least 50 feet from a wild horse.

Operators who are cited for multiple violations within 30 days will be subject to license suspension or revocation. At an average fee of $35 to $50 per tour per adult, the hit to a violator’s income could be considerable.

By and large, Bender said, the new ordinance has been effective.

“I was one of the proponents of it,” he said. “Some of us who have been around a long time were in favor of it. I know it’s a cliché – it’s about sustainability. I want to be around in 50 years. The last thing I want to see is it getting too big and getting to be a carnival atmosphere. I think pretty much everybody realizes it’s going to help the industry.”

Bradford Downs, a 22-year-old graduate of The College of William and Mary, has been doing tours for Bender for two years, and he said that adults and children alike love to hear the stories about the history of the northern Outer Banks and to see the views of the sound and marshes that he shows them. But there’s no doubt that the wild horses are the stars of the 25-mile tour.

In a recent tour, Downs, driving a truck with open-air seating in the back, entered the off-road area over the cattle gate at the end of the paved road in Corolla, and zipped along the beach past the black stumps of Wash Woods. In the summer, the center part of the beach would be wall-to-wall vehicles.

A tour truck takes tourists to see the horses. Photo: Corolla Guides

Turning left behind the dunes into the Swan Beach subdivision about two miles north of Corolla, he pointed out Lewarks Hill and Penny’s Hill, two significant sand dunes.

As the truck rounded a bend, a magnificent bay stallion with a white blaze on his face, who Downs dubbed “Big Sexy,” was grazing in the shrubs in front of a few houses. Nearby, several mares in his herd were also grazing. None of them even flicked their ears in acknowledgement of the human intruders.

After a moment, the stallion casually walked down the sand road, and one-by-one, each mare followed him.

As Downs wound through the sand roads, horses from other small herds could be seen munching on grasses in several yards of residents. “I always tell them ‘You can get your lawn mowed AND fertilized,” he joked.

In the summer, the horses can often be found on a large area of Bender’s land called the “pasture.” Sometimes in the summer, groups of them can be found cooling down near the ocean.

“It’s very, very rare that you’ll see a herd running down the beach,” Downs said, dismissing the favorite movie image of horses.

Even though the wild horses don’t react to the commotion, they are not oblivious, said Hoey, with the Wild Horse Fund.

“They’ve learned to tolerate it,” she said. “They’re very much aware of people. The horses used to gravitate to the beach to avoid the flies. Now we’ve noticed they’re going to the marsh and staying there.”

ALLIGATOR — Against all odds, it appears that two small communities along the proposed U.S. 64 widening project in northeastern North Carolina will get the route they wanted, while sparing thousands of wildlife from becoming road kill.

Even more unlikely, nearly everyone is happy that the project leaves East Lake intact but curves into federal wildlife refuge land.

The news was met with joy when it was announced last week at a state Department of Transportation meeting at the community center in East Lake: the chosen alternative, instead of taking 12 homes, historic cemeteries, churches and a 1936 fire tower, would go around them.

“Everybody is thrilled about it,” said Rosemarie Doshier, a 40-year resident of East Lake. “It saves our community.”

In the draft environmental impact statement released last April, the proposed U.S. 64 expansion to four lanes between Columbia and Manns Harbor was planning to go right through East Lake, wiping out most of the historic community on the edge of the swampy Dare County mainland, and cross right over five houses in tiny Alligator, on the Tyrrell County side of the Alligator River.

As it turns out, the owners of four flood-prone homes in Alligator opted to be bought out, with only one of those affected in Tyrrell County objecting to taking by the DOT.

Scott Lanier

Dennis Stewart

But in a compromise that rarely happens, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to the route that East Lake residents have wanted for years: a southern bypass that loops to the side beyond the houses and churches, crossing Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge – and leaving the pre-Civil War community where it stands.

A study done by Virginia Tech showing the shocking number of animals struck by vehicles convinced the refuge of the value of the wildlife crossings DOT planned to include in the project.  Most of the 27.3-miles of roadway in the project bisects thick forest and undeveloped swamps. There is little lighting other than vehicle headlights to spot animals in the road at night.

“This ultimately will make the highway better for people and it will make it better for wildlife,” said Scott Lanier, the refuge’s deputy manager. “I think this can be a win-win, and it’s a credit to DOT to take these measures.”

The department will also mitigate the loss of wetlands, in part with habitat enhancements. About 100 acres of refuge will be impacted, he said.

Lanier said that DOT agreed to fund the study and incorporate its recommendations to construct numerous different -sized wildlife passages that allow animals to cross safely – and drivers to avoid collisions.

“You pick up a 400- 450-pound bear carcass off the side of the road, and you see pieces of the truck that hit it,” he said, “and you realize what the impact can do.”

Lanier said that it is fortunate that there have been no human fatalities that he is aware of in the refuge from bear strikes.

The refuge is home to one of the largest populations of black bear on the East Coast, and the only wild population of red wolves in the nation.

According to the Dec. 2011 final report of the Virginia Tech study, 890 black bear crossings were identified through hair samples caught on barbed wire from March 2009 to March 2011; GPS collars on 49 bears found that 15 bears crossed 99 times. Photos also captured 170 white-tailed deer, 200 bobcats and raccoons and an additional 260 bear.

Surveys of road kill from Nov. 2008 to July 2011 found eight deer killed. With the inclusion of historical data, between Jan. 1993 to July 2011, there were 63 bear, 75 bats, 82 small mammals, 134 mid-sized mammals, 1,153 birds, 4,014 reptiles and 7,498 amphibians.

Last year, there were 11 bear struck in the 147,432-acre refuge, most of them on U.S. 64, said refuge biologist Dennis Stewart.  He said that doesn’t include an unknown number of bear that are hit by a vehicle and run off into the woods to die.

“From a human or a motorist safety view point, a bear-vehicle collision is not a pretty site,” Stewart said. “It’s just important for everyone to understand, that by moving these animals into a situation where they have to go under the highway, that makes it a lot safer for humans.”

Four wildlife crossings that were installed off U.S. 64 built between Columbia and Plymouth have been shown to be about 90 percent effective, Stewart said. The crossings are designed to stop wildlife with 6- to 8-foot fence at the edge of the road and on both sides of the opening, with the fence corralling the animal toward underpasses, culverts or a bridge above the road.

Every critter, from toads to red wolves to bear, he said, will be helped by the crossings.

“As far as which species is going to benefit the most, I’m going to say humans — and I’m not being sarcastic,” Stewart said. “Because it’s going to get animals off the highway.”

The drawing shows the design of one of the large animal crossing under the widened U.S. 64. Drawing: NCDOT

The $392 million project includes replacement of the 53-year-old Lindsey C. Warren Bridge, a three-mile swing span over the Alligator River that connects Tyrrell and Dare counties.

On the Tyrrell County side of the project, the highway by the Columbia side would be widened to the north, then transition to the south for a short distance, and then back to the north, bypassing the marina. Under that scenario, five houses — four in Alligator, one near Columbia — would be displaced and 75 to 99 acres of wetlands would be affected.

At a DOT meeting at St. John’s Baptist Church in Alligator, with the meeting room filled to capacity, project manager Ted Devens assured the 40 or so attendees that the department would work with residents to find the best access routes to the highway from driveways – usually with medians and U-turns – and around wildlife crossings.

Residents whose homes will be taken will be paid fair market value and relocation costs.

Mabel Davenport said she was very upset about the prospect of losing her house.

“You knew you were going to take my home,” she told Devens. “Did you have enough consideration to come talk to me? No! You want my land and my home and you got it.”

After the meeting, Davenport, 66, said that her husband is very ill with emphysema and Alzheimer’s disease.

“For us to pack up and find another place – it’s hard,” she said. “I am an elderly woman. I worked and paid the house off and now I have to give it up.”

Devens said that he and the department will do whatever is possible to help Davenport, but there is no way that the project can avoid her house.

But Mary Rhym, 73, is fine with relocating, as long as DOT pays her enough.  A big reason is that the area around her one-story ranch is often flooded, a condition DOT attributes to clogged drainage ditches in Alligator and sea-level rise in the last 50 years.

“Nothing works well, even the phone,” said Rhym, a native of Alligator who moved back 14 years ago. “At my age, if I’ve got to relocate, I might as well buy a condo somewhere.”

The story is different in East Lake, whose 150 residents have been fighting for the southern alternative for years. In February 2012, they sent a resolution to DOT asking the agency to choose that option because, except for a fairly new crematorium and one residence, it would avoid impacts to businesses and homes in the community.

“We said, ‘We agree with you –we think that’s a good idea’,” Devens said.  “This time we were truly able to give them what they asked for. How cool is that?”

Replacing the Lindsey C. Warren Bridge across the Alligator River is part of the U.S. 64 project. Photo: NCDOT

The chosen alternative will build a 1.5-mile stretch of highway about 200 yards to the south of the community.

Devens said that DOT had met several times with Alligator and East Lake to discuss the effects of the alternatives. When the draft EIS was released last spring, there were a total of 17 alternatives, with different combinations of north-south for each section.

Even before the EIS was completed, Devens said, the southern bridge alignments had been removed because refuge officials were opposed to a highway on the south side of East Lake. But residents kept pushing and lobbying for the southern bypass.

“They embarked as a community on trying to get the refuge to lighten up,” he said, “and they were really pleading for the refuge to be a good neighbor.”

In November, when refuge officials heard about the plans for the wildlife crossings, they softened.

“I think that was when the refuge saw that DOT was coming to them in earnest and we wanted to do the right thing,” Devens said. “I think that was the turning point.”

There are still significant unresolved issues with endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and where the project will fall in DOT’s new Strategic Mobility Formula, a funding prioritization plan that is supposed to be completed in 2015. As it is now, the design-build contract for the bridge is slated to be let in 2016, with construction completed in three to four years. Construction of both ends of the highway is targeted to start in 2018.

As the last leg of U.S. 64 from Raleigh to Manteo to be four-laned, the project is defended as necessary for hurricane evacuation and driver safety. Yet frequent travelers on the two-lane section say it never has traffic backups, even during hurricane evacuations, and some of questioned whether it’s worth millions of taxpayer dollars.

Rhett White, the town manager of Columbia, said there is a practical reason to support the widening: the opportunity may not be available when traffic is heavier.

“The day is coming. In the next decade and a half, it’ll be backed up just like Currituck County,” he said, referring to the hours-long line of traffic to Corolla. ‘The 2-lane road can easily handle the traffic now, but we’re seeing the traffic increasing through Columbia every year.”

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

NAGS HEAD — A permit to build the replacement for a controversial bridge over Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks will likely be put on hold after a Wake County Superior Court judge apparently agreed recently to allow environmental groups to challenge the key state permit for the new bridge.

“The judge indicated that he would rule in favor of the SELC (the plaintiffs),” said Michele Walker, spokesperson for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “However, that’s not an official decision because we do not have the order.”

Once the judge’s signed order is received by the state, a formal stop work order on the project to replace the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge will be issued, she said.

“It’s kind of a moot point,” she said. “It was stayed pending the outcome of this hearing.”

Work was to begin on the replacement for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge at the end of the year, though the state still needs federal permits. The CAMA permit challenge will also likely complicate the schedule. Photo: NCDOT

A spokesman for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association in the challenge, said the plaintiffs wouldn’t comment on the judge’s action until the order is signed.

It is not known whether the state attorney general’s office intends to appeal the ruling, Walker said. Without an appeal, the permit challenge would be heard by a judge in the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts.  That judge’s ruling is final but can be reviewed in state Superior Court.

The 2.5-mile Bonner Bridge, over the notoriously wild waters of Oregon Inlet, was opened in 1963 and is about 20 years overdue for replacement. The N.C. Department of Transportation plans to replace the bridge and related approaches with a new 2.8-mile, two-lane bridge that will be built parallel and just to the west of the existing bridge. DOT awarded a $215 million contract for the new bridge in July 2011.

As the only link to Hatteras Island, many locals consider the span crucial to the tourism-dependent economy on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands and to the more than 5,000 residents who live year-round on the islands.

After the state Coastal Resources Commission issued a major Coastal Area Management Act permit in September to allow the project to begin, the law center filed a third-party hearing request to appeal the case to an administrative law judge.

In his decision to deny the request, Robert Emory , the commission’s chairman, said in October that the law center  failed to meet the required criteria to challenge the permit, which had been issued after a 30-day public comment period and reviews by four federal and 10 state agencies.

In late November, the SELC filed a petition for judicial review of the CRC’s decision in Wake County Superior Court.  The case that was heard in late June.

The petitioners said that the high erosion rate at hot spots on Pea island at the bridge’s southern end, coupled with growing risks from sea-level rise and climate change, make the proposed bridge a costly, wasteful and impractical option. Instead, they favor a previously planned 17.5-mile bridge that would bypass Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge or, alternately, using high-speed ferries to transport vehicles and people.

The environmental groups also challenged the project’s federal environmental impact statement in federal court in New Bern. In that complaint, the groups charge that the Federal Highway Administration and DOT violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided to build the parallel bridge.  A decision in that case is expected soon.

The most recent estimate for completion of the Bonner Bridge replacement was 2016 or 2017, including demolition of the old bridge. Construction had been expected to begin early this year. But DOT still needs federal permits and easements from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coast Guard, the National Park Service and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The temporary bridge spanning NC 12. Photo: Sam Bland 

First of a two-part series

RODANTHE– Leave the bustle and bedlam of summer traffic on the northern Outer Banks and take a drive south on N.C. 12, probably the most written-about and ever-changing road on the East Coast. Get a glimpse of climate change at work and peek into the future of North Carolina’s barrier islands.

Start at Whalebone Junction in Nags Head and head south. The beach expands, the salt marsh appears and the unbroken line of beachfront homes gradually subsides. The next 25 miles encompass the most dynamic stretch of roadway in North Carolina.

Before crossing over Oregon Inlet to Pea Island, a stop at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center is elemental to the trip south. Built in 1953, the marina is the center of the local sportfishing industry. During the summer months, the marina’s docks are animated with one of the greatest traditions in the region – swapping fishing truths and tales. Enjoy the center’s famous hot dogs and observe one of the best recreational fishing fleets in the world heave their day’s catch from boat to dock.

Turn right out of the fishing center and cross the 2.5-mile-long Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet. The inlet and the bridge are key chapters in the N.C. 12 story. To know why, you need to understand just one thing: The inlet moves and the bridge does not.

This house at the S-curves in Rodanthe demonstrates the precariousness of life on a moving island. Photo: Sam Bland

As do other inlets along the N.C. coast, Oregon Inlet has steadily crept southward. Scientists estimate it has moved two miles since it opened in a storm in 1846. If you could walk across the fishing catwalks on the side of the bridge, you’d notice that much of the catwalk on the northern end of the bridge now spans dry land. It didn’t when the bridge opened in 1963.

The moving inlet has been more than just an inconvenience to fishermen. To ensure safe passage to the sea, the boat channel through the inlet must pass under the bridge’s highest spans. That hasn’t been easy since the inlet moves and the bridge doesn’t. The state has had to constantly dredge the channel to keep it in place and deep enough for the commercial fishing boats that use it. The job has become increasingly more difficult and expensive in recent years. One reason is that the sea is rising faster than it has in the past because of global warming.

Stop at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge at the south end of the bridge to stand on the other reason. The refuge is known for its crystal waters and vibrant bird populations. But walk out to the beach and you can stand on the big rock wall that the state built in the early 1990s to protect the southern approach to the Bonner Bridge. The so-called terminal groin did its job and kept the land here from migrating away from the bridge. But the island on the other side of the inlet keeps coming south, squeezing the channel and making the difficult job of keeping it in place almost impossible.

Maybe this will all be solved when the state builds a new bridge across the inlet. The debate about where to put the replacement bridge has raged for several years now. Some environmental groups and scientists urged the state to avoid the inlet altogether and build a causeway into Pamlico Sound to connect the two islands. The state opted instead to build the new bridge about where the current one sits. The environmental groups sued, and the courts will decide the matter, though bridge construction is scheduled to begin next year.

Construction equipment is now a seemingly permanent part of the landscape on NC12. Photo: Sam Bland

Driving south through Pea Island you can’t help but notice the new “normal” of N.C. 12. Bright yellow bulldozers sling sand that the ocean dumps on the abused roadway with every storm tide, while lines of dump trucks transport load after load to build dunes in a herculean effort to halt the encroaching ocean. Rows of sand bags, some as big as houses, hold power poles in place at Mirlo Beach, while a piecemeal bridge supports traffic at the “new” New Inlet that Hurricane Irene cut a couple a years ago. This is now the new standard as the state battles to keep the road open in the face of a rising sea.

While the tenuous system will continue to flounder in the face of the next coastal storm, the beaches lining N.C. 12 are worth the extra look. Stand beneath the temporary bridge of the “new” New Inlet, or float from sound to ocean. Count the paces from Mirlo Beach’s sandbags to the ocean’s edge, or name the drab houses pasted with condemnation notices, tottering precariously over the surf, as if one pin prick would send them reeling to the sea.

The fragility of the system is unmatched. Sure, it may not have been what you had in mind, but I’ll bet you’ll remember exploration of these oddities better than that nap on the beach. Crystal clear waters and sweltering beach days will most likely always be a part of Outer Banks summers. Will N.C. 12?

Part Two, Thursday, June 13: A Walk on the Beach at Pea Island

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

RODANTHE– A project to widen the beach to protect beleaguered and battered N.C. 12 on the north end of this town on Hatteras Island will not be ready for construction for months, despite some public perception that it would be completed before hurricane season.

“It was misinformation that we were going to be pumping this spring,” said Bob Keistler, project manager for the Corps of Engineers. “We’re working with all the resource agencies. It’s going to be more like a late summer/early fall placement.”

Meanwhile, the state Department of Transportation will be keeping a close eye on the vulnerable area of road between S-curves at the south end of Pea Island and the Rodanthe pier.

“We will do the best we can to clear the sand and water off the road if we do have overwash,” said Jerry Jennings, a DOT division engineer. “There’s really nothing else we can do. We do have that significant sandbag system that was put in place to protect the highway.”

Department of Transportation crews work to clear N.C. 12 near Rodanthe after a storm in March. Photo: NCDOT

Engineers are providing bi-weekly updates to state leadership in several departments, he said.

On March 19, Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for the Rodanthe area and ordered all state and local government agencies to cooperate in implementing short- and long-term measures to protect the road. A similar federal declaration was issued on April 8.

Some islanders said that statements sent out after a meeting in Manteo with the governor and the Transportation Secretary led them to believe that the work would be done before June 1.

“To begin this process after the hurricane season is well under way is pathetic to say the least,” said Jett Ferebee, owner of Camp Hatteras, in an e-mail to Jennings.  “One marginal storm will destroy all of your work.  This then opens us all up to the criticism that we are wasting money rebuilding this road.

“We truly are wasting money if we are not going to protect the road.”

The nourishment is intended as a temporary measure until the long-term alternative in Rodanthe is completed.

Beth Smyre, DOT project engineer for the Bonner Bridge replacement project, said that three public hearings planned for input on the environmental assessment detailing two proposed long-term alternatives at the Rodanthe breach have been moved back to August, when the document is expected to be released. The department, she said, has had to turn more of its focus on the Pea Island bridge that will be constructed to replace the temporary bridge now in place.

Despite the fact that the Pea Island Inlet is currently dry beach under the bridge, she said that the project is still considered necessary because of the vulnerability at that hot spot.

“It’s an area that has obviously been breached before,” she said. “If it happens there again, we’ve already covered it.”

A bridge contract is expected to be awarded in July, when DOT will apply for necessary contracts. Barring any delays from weather or legal challenges, Smyre said, construction will start in the fall and be completed in 2 to 2.5 years.

The Army Corps and the DOT have an agreement for the Corps to design and construct a beach-widening project at S-curves that would last three years. The 60- to 90-day project would be about two miles long. The proposed width has not been determined.

Crews bury huge sandbags to protect N.C. 12. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

Keistler said that contractors are in the process of surveying the beach profile and the offshore bar area to identify the amount and type of sand available.

“The question we have,” he said, “is we have to have a borrow source that has enough sand and the right quality and quantity of sand.”

Three areas are being targeted for the approximate two million cubic yards of sand that will be needed, he said. Two are at or near Wimble Shoals, located between 2 miles and 3.5 miles offshore. Area A is about 1 mile by 2 miles in size. Area B is about ½ mile by 2 miles in size.

The other potential dredge site is Oregon Inlet, which would necessitate pumping the sand through 12 to 15 miles of pipeline, which – in an effort to avoid effects to the beach and protected species – would likely run along the highway in the right of way.

Both locations have their pluses and minuses, Keistler said. Wimble Shoals sand, analyzed years ago by the U.S. Geological Survey, could be suitable, although some of the data is 20 years old. There is also the concern that offshore cultural or historic resources could be affected.

“It’s the Graveyard of the Atlantic, so the chances of finding something are pretty good,” he said.

Oregon Inlet, as the Corps knows all too well, has plenty of sand, and it is would be good match in quality. The stickler is cost and engineering challenges.

“The further you pump,” Keistler said, “the more expensive it is.”

Dredging and pumping sand 15 miles down the road is conceivable, Keistler said, yet it’s beyond the distance contractors usually deal with in such projects. The department is about to put out an industry inquiry to gauge the feasibility, he said.

But another advantage, he said, is that because the Corps already has so much data about the sand, the Oregon Inlet option would allow pumping to begin as soon as July.

“If we have to get a permit to go offshore,” he said, “we have a lot more boxes to check.”

A state Coastal Area Management Act permit for the project has been obtained, according to DOT. The department has also applied for a special use permit from the National Park Service and from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and is awaiting final approval.

Once the sand sample surveys are completed, the DOT will apply for permits from the state Division of Water Quality. When the environmental assessment is completed, the document will be sent to the Federal Highways Administration for approval. At that point, the Corps will be able to issue its final permit, which would be followed by artifact data submitted by the state Department of Cultural Resources. Then a contractor can be hired and the project construction can begin.

According to Corps estimates, about 1.7 million cubic yards of sand –equal to 170,000 dump truck loads – will be needed.

The DOT is expected to decide on the sand source for the project by mid-month.

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

Superstorm Sandy last year buckled N.C. 12 near Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. Photo: Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

NAGS HEAD — Beach erosion and ocean overwash are hardly the only headaches the state Department of Transportation has with the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge replacement project.

The public comment period on the proposed bridge over Pea Island Inlet closed last week, and transportation officials will review input from agencies and the public to determine if the project warrants further environmental study. If not, construction could begin this summer on a permanent bridge to replace a temporary one that DOT built to span an inlet created by Hurricane Irene in 2011.

But two pending legal challenges have the potential to hinder or even stop progress on that bridge, a new bridge over Oregon Inlet and permanent fixes to N.C. 12.  The main road on the Outer Banks has been battered by storms in recent years, particularly the section just south of the inlet.

“The construction on the bridge will not be able to begin until the legal matter is resolved,” Jerry Jennings, a DOT division engineer, said of the new bridge over Oregon Inlet. “We will continue to make repairs to the existing bridge as needed until we can start construction.”

Jennings said that work on a test pile is currently being done on the northern end of the 50-year-old bridge, and scour at the base of three piles is also being addressed.

A ruling on a lawsuit filed in July 2011 in U.S. District Court in New Bern by environmental groups opposed to the project is expected any time, said Victor Barbour, DOT technical services administrator.

“All of the information is in the judge’s hands,” he said. “She’s had it several months. We’re at the mercy of the judge right now.”

The state plans to replace a temporary bridge that it built after Hurricane Irene in 2011 opened a new inlet on Pea Island with a permanent structure. Photo: NCDOT

Judge Louise Flanagan will be making a summary judgment based on her review of reams of documents submitted to her by both sides.

Any ruling against DOT will likely also affect the construction of the 2.1-mile bridge in Pea Island, said Beth Smyre, the DOT project manager. The legal challenge includes the permanent fixes for breaches in N.C. 12 on Pea Island and Rodanthe during Hurricane Irene.

The Pea Island alternative was chosen to replace the temporary bridge on the south end of the refuge. The preferred alternative for the Rodanthe location will be announced by summer.

Plaintiffs Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, represented by Chapel Hill-based Southern Environmental Law Center, contend that DOT and the Federal Highway Administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not adequately addressing all alternatives for replacing the Bonner Bridge and maintaining N.C 12.

The groups favor building a 17.5-mile bridge that bypasses Oregon Inlet or use of high-speed ferries.The so-called causeway bridge or ferries, the plaintiffs say, will provide more reliable access to Hatteras Island.

Both options, DOT responded, are not viable, largely because of high initial costs. The agency’s most recent study of ferries also concluded that the required dredging would be extensive and environmentally damaging and that no high-speed ferry currently exists that could safely transport vehicles in heavily-shoaled Outer Banks inlets.

A letter-writing campaign against the project launched last week by Defenders of Wildlife again proposed ferries as a transportation solution for Hatteras Island.

Whether the judge rules in favor of DOT or the environmental groups, the losing side is expected to appeal, Barbour said.  The judge could then allow the project to continue pending the outcome of the appeal, suspend the project or parts of it, put conditions on it or issue whatever order she chooses.

There is currently no injunction on the project and it is not clear why DOT is waiting for the ruling before construction begins. When the lawsuit was first filed, the agency had indicated it would continue until the court ordered otherwise.

“Initially, the plan was to start earlier this year,” Jennings said. “All along they’ve known the issues were ongoing.”

A visualization of the new bridge over Oregon Inlet. Photo: NCDOT

The contractor for the Oregon Inlet bridge, he said, can start anytime now. DOT awarded the $215.8 million contract in July 2011 to design-build team PCL Civil Constructors Inc. and HDR Engineering Inc. of the Carolinas.

“They’ll be ready to react when they have the decision on the lawsuit,” Jennings said.

Another legal matter could also gum up the works.

In November, the Southern Environmental Law Center asked a judge to review its challenge to the project’s Major CAMA Permit that was issued in September. Simply put, the state permit allows construction of the Bonner replacement.

The chairman of the state Coastal Resources Commission, Bob Emory, in October had denied the group’s request for a third-party hearing on the permit.

Attorneys have recently filed briefs on the matter in Wake County Superior Court, said CRC spokeswoman Michele Walker.

Meanwhile, Barbour said the CAMA permit is still in place. The DOT is awaiting approval of a wetlands permit and the Coast Guard permit for the Oregon Inlet bridge.

He said the three-year project continues to have support from legislators and the governor, and he expects it will be able to be completed by 2016 or 2017, including demolition of the old Bonner Bridge.

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

MANTEO — They came, they saw, they listened.

That’s the story in a nutshell about Monday’s visit to the Outer Banks by Gov. Pat McCrory and Tony Tata, the recently-appointed N.C. Department of Transportation secretary.

McCrory and Tata toured N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island to get a first-hand look at the continuing overwash that has frequently forced closure of the road since Hurricane Sandy blew through in late October. Following the hurricane, traffic was re-routed via ferry from Rodanthe on north Hatteras Island to the mainland for several weeks while the road near Mirlo was rebuilt and lined with sandbags to protect it.

Since that time, other storms bringing overwash have frequently caused traffic to be halted for hours or even days at a time while sand is removed and/or the road is repaired. The road, in fact, was closed for hours Monday because of heavy surf from a coastal storm. Hatteras Island residents who wanted to attend the meeting in Manteo had to be prepared to spend the night because the road wouldn’t open again until yesterday morning.

Tony Tata, left, the state transportation secretary, and Gov. Pat McCrory field questions at a meeting in Manteo about N.C. 12. Photo: Rob Morris, Outer Banks Voice

During opening comments, Tata lightened the mood by explaining how the governor became part of the entourage.The original plan for the N.C. 12 tour and the town hall meeting included only Tata, who mentioned his trip during a cabinet meeting with McCrory Monday morning. Tata said that McCrory responded, “That is an issue – do you mind if I come?”

“I said, ‘Hey, it’s your plane.’” Tata reported.

McCrory said that there is no way to envision the scope of the problem without visiting the area.

“Until you see it, you can’t believe it,” he said. “And we saw it before high tide.”

Whatever solutions are chosen, it will not be a state-only endeavor, said McCrory. Instead, it has to be a partnership between the state, federal and county governments.

He noted that identifying the long-term solution is going to be tough.  “We need short-term solutions and also long-term solutions that will stand more than two years – should be decades.”

When the meeting opened up for comments, several Hatteras Island residents expressed their frustrations, concerns and opinions about possible solutions. They also wondered aloud if they would be able to go home via N.C. 12 following the meeting.

Dave Dawson of the Hatteras Island Business Association said that there has been no beach since Hurricane Sandy. And, now, he said, the overwash isn’t just from storms but also tides.

Concerns about the declining economy because of visitors’ fears of not being able to access the island were echoed throughout the hour-long meeting. And the need for prompt beach nourishment also was a frequent topic.

Moving tourists on and off the island isn’t the only concern of local residents.

“There is the critical issue of access to medical care,” said Cliff Parker, a retired physician who has been a charter boat captain for 15 years. “It is going to take bold leadership [to find solutions] but when you have shortness of breath or chest pains, you don’t want to be on Hatteras Island.”

The governor made no bones about his priorities. “Public safety is the number one consideration and then economic impact,” he said. “No interest group is going to block us.”

N.C. 12 at Mirlo Beach Sunday morning. Photo: NCDOT

Hatteras Island resident John Head offered support. “We are pretty much in favor of helping you help us. We are open to tolls and are willing to step up to the plate,” he said. “The Realtors are having to make deep discounts to get people here. We need nearshore reefs in place to protect us…”

Closing the meeting, McCrory told the crowd that the state can’t do anything about storms or tides and doesn’t want to give false expectations. “We will be very direct, very pragmatic and we will take action…we are not deferring, not accusing,” he said. The state will look for the best course of action, McCrory said.

Other public meetings on the future of N.C. 12 were scheduled for yesterday at the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Center in Rodanthe and for today at the Ocracoke Community Center. They start at 4 p.m.

Those meetings will be in the eye of the storm, so to speak. A coastal storm that brought high winds and soundside flooding to Hatteras last week is long gone, but waves and swells — as high as 10 to 15 feet – pounded the island, closing N.C. 12 for hours at high tide, for the past six days. Heavy seas could continue to close the road at high tide – perhaps into today.

There was ocean overwash over N.C.  12 in Kitty Hawk, at the Pea Island Inlet Bridge, the S-curves near Rodanthe and Mirlo Beach, north Buxton and on the northern end of Ocracoke.  There were also reports of some overwash east of Hatteras village on Saturday night.

As much as seven feet of sand covered the S-turns Sunday morning. Almost all of the sand dumped on top of the sandbags at the S-curves has been washed away, but the bags have held up and more sand will be trucked into the area when the overwash stops.

About the only good news about the highway has been that the roadbed is apparently not seriously damaged or compromised.

According to DOT and Dare County officials, there is slight damage to the asphalt on the south side of Pea Island Bridge.  At that point, traffic has been one lane.  However, the repair is not expected to take long once the overwash stops.

The main headache for travelers has been that DOT crews have had to close the highway to clean sand and water off the pavement after every high tide since last Thursday.

The coastal low that moved offshore of the Virginia-North Carolina border last Wednesday was a slow mover as it headed northeast.  Meanwhile, a high pressure over the Great Lakes kept North Carolina sandwiched in a pressure gradient with high winds.

The National Weather Service’s high surf advisory, which forecasters have kept extending, ended yesterday, but an approaching cold front with strong southerly winds of 20 to 25 knots and seas will continue at about at 7 to 9 feet until at least today.

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

HATTERAS — No high-speed ferry exists today that could safely carry millions of vehicles a year across the heavily shoaled Oregon Inlet and Pamlico Sound, according to a new transportation report released late last month.

And even if engineering a shallow-draft, high-capacity ferry were possible, it said, the cost would be prohibitive.

The Federal Highway Administration and the state Department of Transportation took a new look at the feasibility of using ferries rather than a bridge to carry vehicles and people across Oregon Inlet in Dare County.  Their report was a response to renewed public questions about a ferry alternative to the replacing the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge at the inlet.

“The problem is two-fold,” said Jed Dixon, the state Ferry Division deputy director. “Unless you have a vessel that doesn’t displace water, like a hovercraft, the draft is a major concern. Then there’s the environmentals and maintenance of that channel.”

The hovercraft Princess Margaret, top, leaves Calais, France, in 1998 for a trip across the English Channel. The famous hovercraft ferries that crossed the channel were retired in 2000 and replaced with high-speed catamarans, bottom. Neither type of vessel,according to a recent state report, are suitable for the coastal waters of the Outer Banks.

After Hurricane Irene in 2011 blew an inlet through Pea Island, flattened dunes and severely damaged the road at the S-curves in northern Rodanthe, some environmental groups and coastal scientists have suggested that ferries could be a better long-term solution than a bridge to providing access to Hatteras Island.

But in reviewing available options and the cost involved, the report concluded that ferries remain “an unreasonable transportation alternative” for the island. And there is no high-speed ferry on the horizon that could operate in shallow Outer Banks waterways.

“We’re up against a lot of challenges just running conventional ferries,” Dixon said. “There would have to be a whole lot of money spent dredging and maintaining that channel.”

Every year, a total of about 2 million vehicles cross Bonner Bridge, averaging about 5,400 per day, said the report, which was signed on Jan. 31.   As those who regularly cross the bridge know, traffic, mostly from tourists, increases vastly in the summer.

But the bridge, the only land route to Hatteras Island, also provides critical year-round access to the island for Outer Banks residents and for emergency personnel. It also is vital for carrying supply and service trucks, as well as telephone and electric wires across Oregon Inlet.

If a ferry system operated between Bodie Island and Rodanthe, the range of the Bonner project, about 420 acres would have to be dredged to create an 18-mile channel, removing about 10.8 million cubic yards of material.  About 38 river class ferries would be needed, twice the number of vessels currently in use by the division.

Total costs to operate and maintain the system for 50 years at the current traffic levels are estimated at $6.3 billion, substantially more than any other option.

River class ferries cost $12 million each and can travel at 12 mph. The vessels hold 38 vehicles and have a 4.5-foot to 5.5-foot draft, the report said, the shallowest of any known standard ferry in operation.  As it is, the channel depth required is 10- to 12-feet, which has been nearly impossible to maintain this winter in Oregon Inlet and Pamlico Sound.

Hovercraft and catamarans, which skim the top of water, can carry about 80 vehicles and travel up to 50 mph. The down side is there is no offsite maintenance facility available, and the high speeds could be dangerous in Outer Banks conditions.

Even if an air-cushion vessel could be built specially for the Outer Banks, according to input from a British representative of a hovercraft company, “It is doubtful that custom-manufactured vessels would be cost effective, even taking into account the amount of dredging required,” the report said.

“I’m not going to say that it’s impossible,” Dixon said, “but it’s going to come with a huge expense. We would have to dig a whole new channel.”

Other high-speed ferries used successfully overseas for both passenger and vehicular traffic have drafts that are too deep to operate here safely, Dixon said. Channels routinely shift and shoal up, often in the course of hours.

“It’s not safe when you’re running that kind of speed — 40 knots,” he said. “Because if it runs aground, you’re talking major damage. It could potentially damage the hull.”

The use of ferries over Oregon Inlet was first considered in 1991 as part of NCDOT’s feasibility study of bridge replacement options, and the study was among the alternatives discussed in the project’s 1993 draft environmental impact study.  Ferry transport on a three-mile route across Oregon Inlet was then deemed impractical because of high cost, decreased service and increased natural impacts from dredging.

Further study of a ferry alternative was done in subsequent project reports, with equally unsatisfactory results. Findings included an increase of conflicts with other vessels; limited capability to transport traffic; dramatic increase in hurricane evacuation times; loss of bird habitat and negative impact on benthic life and fisheries; docking facilities being located in a national seashore; instability of the channel; difficulty transporting goods and services; the need to create an alternate system for telephone and electric transmission; and isolation of the Hatteras Island community.

Privately-run ferry service, another suggestion from the public, would have to charge $126 round-trip to be profitable, the report said.

More Information

• Groups challenge Bonner Bridge permit
• Geologist offers a new vision for the coast

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

NAGS HEAD — The project to replace the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge is again on track, with a denial yesterday of a legal challenge that had briefly suspended a state permit.

Robert Emory, the chairman of the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission, ruled that the Southern Environmental Law Center did not meet the necessary criteria to be granted a third-party hearing to challenge the major CAMA permit issued in September by the state Division of Coastal Management.

Bob Emory

The petitioner, representing the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, was required to show that the decision to grant the permit violated state Coastal Area Management Act rules or regulations, that they were directly affected, and that the request was not frivolous. Emory said the first two criteria were met, but not the third.

In the request to the CRC, Julie Youngman, SELC senior attorney, had claimed, in part, that the permit should have been denied because the project would damage cultural, historic and natural resources; it violated CAMA wetland, oceanfront setback and variance rules; and cumulative effects and additional alternatives were not properly studied.

Emory’s 27-page response addressed both federal and state regulatory issues in the project, which has been planned for more than 20 years and involves about 14 state and federal agencies.

In his denial, the chairman also said it would be a “waste of judicial resources as well as frivolous” to hear the groups’ complaint about purported violations of federal regulations.

Last July, the environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration to stop the project, largely based on what they contend are violations of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The case is currently being litigated in federal court in New Bern.

“The provisions of (North Carolina law) do not authorize petitioners to re-litigate their challenge under a federal statute in a state-level challenge,” Emory wrote.

The CAMA permit had allowed the state Department of Transportation to begin construction of the bridge over Oregon Inlet. When the law center made the hearing request on Oct. 8, the permit was put on hold pending Emory’s ruling.

“The permit is considered to be active again,” Michele Walker, division spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

Walker said that since construction had not begun, no delays in the project had resulted from the suspension.

The law center has 30 days to petition for judicial review of Emory’s denial in state Superior Court in Dare or Wake counties.

Youngman, the SELC attorney, did not respond to several attempts yesterday for reaction to the denial.

Planning and permitting for the replacement of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge should continue despite the challenge of the CAMA permit.

NAGS HEAD — Even as a federal lawsuit challenging a proposed replacement for the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge in Dare County is churning its way through a federal court, another legal action has suspended the state permit allowing construction of the bridge to begin.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, last week filed a petition with the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission for a hearing to appeal the major CAMA permit issued on Sept. 20.

By law, the project has been stopped until the matter is resolved, but related tasks can continue.

“This does not impact any of the work that we’re doing now,” Greer Beaty, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, said Monday.

Beaty said that several permits from federal agencies are pending, and the $216 million project is on target to start construction in early 2013.

“We’re at a point in our work where we’re still finishing up design and testing and things of that sort,” she said. “This does not change our timetable at all. We’re going to keep working.”

The 2.5-mile Bonner Bridge, situated in the notoriously wild waters of Oregon Inlet, was opened in 1963 and is about 20 years overdue for replacement. DOT inspects and repairs it regularly and says it is safe to cross. As the only link to Hatteras Island, the span is crucial to the tourism-dependent economy on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands and to the more than 5,000 residents who live year-round on the islands.

Bobby Outten

Julia Youngman

The commission’s chairman, Robert Emory, must respond to the request by Oct. 23. If he decides that a hearing is not warranted — petitioners must prove that the permit decision violated a law or rule; that they are directly affected; and that their request is not frivolous — then the law center can petition for judicial review in state Superior Court in Dare or Wake counties.

If Emory agrees to grant the hearing, the law center must file a petition for a contested case hearing with the state Office of Administrative Hearings. The case would be heard by an administrative law judge, whose ruling is final but can be reviewed in state Superior Court.

It is not unusual to see such requests in controversial projects, said Michele Walker, CRC spokeswoman. “We were not surprised,” she said.

Considering the continued complexity and challenging nature of the project, Walker said that the commission has taken pains to ensure that regulatory requirements have been met.

“We were able to work with DOT and other agencies upfront in planning,” she said.

Bobby Outten, Dare County manager and attorney, said that he has been assured all along that DOT has done everything possible to comply with rules and regulations, especially in anticipation of a lawsuit being filed — as happened —-after the final step in the planning process was completed.

“We expect that the Southern Environmental Law Center will exhaust every avenue that they can,” Outten said, “to slow down or stop construction of that bridge.”

After more than 20 years of countless inter-agency meetings and heated public hearings, intermittent designing, planning and redesigning, not to mention behind-the-curtain political head-butting and arm-twisting, DOT finally awarded a $215.8 million contract in July 2011 to design-build team PCL Civil Constructors Inc. and HDR Engineering Inc. of the Carolinas. Completion is targeted for 2016, and demolition of the old bridge would begin the next year, with only a small portion left in place to use as a fishing pier.

The Coastal Area Management Act permit was issued last month after a 30-day public comment period and reviews by four federal and 10 state agencies.

Walker, with the CRC, said of the three public comments received, two were in favor, and one, from SELC, was opposed.

The petitioners said that the high erosion rate at hot spots on the island, coupled with growing risks from sea-level rise and climate change, make the proposed bridge a costly, wasteful and impractical option. Instead, they favor a previously planned 17.5-mile bridge that would bypass Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, or alternately, using high-speed ferries to transport vehicles and people.

In July 2011, the law center and the other groups sued NCDOT and the Federal Highways Administration to stop the project.Progress on the project has not been affected. The matter is expected to be heard in the near future in federal court in New Bern.

In the recent request for a hearing, Julia Youngman, SELC’s senior attorney, contends, in part, that the permit should have been denied because the bridge project could harm water quality in Pamlico Sound and wildlife habitat in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, as well as historic and cultural resources. Youngman also said that the state exaggerated the cost of the rejected 17.5-mile bridge and didn’t bother to seriously study the use of fast, shallow-draft ferries.

Hurricane Irene blew two inlets through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge south of the Bonner bridge, highlighting the vulnerability of N.C. 12. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Youngman also contends that one of DOT’s more “egregious” violations of federal environmental laws is the way the project has been segmented. The CAMA permit only covers the first phase of the project — construction of a new bridge adjacent to the existing one. But, she argues, the effects of the maintenance of the road through Pea Island to Rodanthe, maintaining the rock groin on the south end of the bridge and the two bridges that will be constructed to repair damage in 2011 from Hurricane Irene should have been evaluated along with bridge construction.

In an e-mail, Youngman said that the group is “hoping to secure NCDOT’s compliance with federal and state laws, including CAMA,” but declined to say whether it wants the agency to change the project.

“Yet again,” she wrote,” NCDOT has asked a fellow agency to approve its plan by considering only a small part of the entire Bonner Bridge replacement project and turning a blind eye to the enormous problems with the remainder of the project that, if NCDOT acknowledged them, would likely preclude the permit from being issued.”

Many Outer Bankers objected to the long bridge because of safety concerns, but mainly because it cuts off access to unspoiled Pea Island, where surfing, birding, beachcombing and swimming are favorite activities for locals and visitors.

Hatteras resident Beth Midgett, chairwoman of the Citizens Action Committee to Replace the Bonner Bridge, said that the bottom line is that the nearly 50-year-old Bonner Bridge is running out of time. If the project is delayed much more, she said, it will become hazardous to cross. And if load restrictions are put in place because of structural deterioration, the daily and financial hardship, she said, would be significant.

“This will shortly be a public safety issue,” she said. “We are pouring money into this thing. In the off-season, it’s been in a fairly constant state of repair.”

Midgett mocked Youngman’s “pie-in-the-sky” ideas about using ferries to transport the nearly 3 million people who travel annually through Pea Island

“Perhaps even better would be jet packs from the mainland,” she said.

But for residents, Midgett said, the bridge is the only land route to the rest of the world. It represents their livelihoods, their lifestyles and their independence.

“This isn’t an expansion project,” she said. “This is our existence — and there’s a huge difference.”

Reprinted from The Island Free Press

Construction to replace the 50-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge is scheduled to begin early next year, pending several federal permits or easements and the outcome of a lawsuit.

MOREHEAD CITY — The N.C. Division of Coastal Management yesterday issued a Coastal Area Management Act major permit to the state Department of Transportation to build a replacement for the 50-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge in Dare County and to demolish the existing bridge after the new structure is completed.

The permit was issued following a 30-day public comment period, and reviews by four federal and 10 state agencies.

The division has worked closely with DOT and other state agencies throughout the planning and development process for this project.

DOT plans to replace the existing 2.4-mile, two-lane bridge over the Oregon Inlet and related approaches with a new 2.8-mile two-lane bridge that will be built parallel and just to the west of the existing bridge.  DOT awarded a $215 million contract for the new bridge in July 2011.

Over the next four months, DOT anticipates receiving federal permits and easements from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coast Guard, the National Park Service and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Upon receiving these permits and easements, DOT hopes to start construction in early 2013, pending the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit. Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a lawsuit in July 2011 to stop the construction of a parallel bridge.

They claim in the lawsuit that DOT’s bridge plans fail to include how the state will maintain a safe access route to the bridge through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. N.C. 12, the only road to the bridge, is exposed through the refuge and frequently washes out. The groups say the road is expected to become increasingly eroded over coming years. By ignoring the problem inherent in the plan, DOT traps the state and its residents into hidden costs and environmentally damaging methods, including nourishing the beach, building dunes and phasing in and continually repairing a series of additional bridges and road segments through the refuge, the groups note.

Hurricane Isabel highlighted the vulnerability of N.C. 12 through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge by blowing the road out in two places.

They prefer a 17-mile bridge out into the Pamlico Sound, which would come ashore in northern Rodanthe.

In their complaint, the groups charge that the Federal Highway Administration and DOT violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided to build the parallel bridge. The lawsuit is in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and has been assigned to Judge Louise Flanagan in New Bern.

This is a multi-phase project that includes replacing the existing bridge over Oregon Inlet and providing for the long-term retention of N.C. 12 between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe.

The first phase of the project will build the new bridge just west of where the Bonner Bridge currently stands. The second phase includes implementing long-term solutions for the major breaches on Pea Island and Rodanthe caused by Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

The exact plan for implementing future phases will be determined, based on the department’s active coastal monitoring program. This helps NCDOT decide where and when to make improvements to N.C. 12 from the south end of the Bonner Bridge to Rodanthe. Any of the alternatives (beach nourishment, road relocation and bridging) previously studied as part of the project’s original environmental analysis could be considered for future phases.

The earliest the bridge would be completed is 2015. Much of the existing bridge is scheduled to be demolished, but a portion will remain as a fishing pier.

SOUTHPORT — More than 600 acres of old farming fields and woodlands stretching 4,000 feet along the Cape Fear River was just what the N.C. State Ports Authority needed to begin fulfilling the vision of a mega-port in southeastern North Carolina for large container ships.

The land was the right size and location.

Tom Eagar

So, when word got to Tom Eagar, the authority’s chief executive officer at the time, that pharmaceutical-giant Pfizer put the land up for sale, he wasted no time setting in motion plans to buy the property.

Much has changed during the six years since the authority borrowed $30 million to buy the land near Southport in Brunswick County.

The N.C. International Terminal is now a pipe dream, and the land now isn’t worth anything near what the state paid for it.

Eagar, the mega-port’s biggest advocate, was relieved of his position in January by the head of the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Staunch opposition from residents and politicians have ultimately halted the proposed $2 billion project, leaving the authority with land some say wasn’t worth the price and may not be environmentally suitable for the type of industrial development being considered.

After acquiring land along the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County in the early 1970s, Pfizer built a citric acid plant on the property in 1976.

When citric acid, a natural preservative, was made, it produced a yeast-cream slurry, which was applied to the land.

The state issued Pfizer a non-discharge permit to apply up to 40,000 gallons per-day of the sludge onto the land, according to an assessment of the site. The assessment process is intended to determine the environmental characteristics of a piece of commercial real estate, giving a potential buyer the most basic details about a property.

An environmental assessment or a more in-depth environmental impact statement are meant to determine how development may affect the environment. The studies are required by law when a government entity plans a major development, but only before construction begins. However, if land purchases are made to build major new infrastructure then an environmental review or impact statement is normally prepared. But neither was done for the port site.

The authority hired Catlin Engineers and Scientists in Wilmington to conduct the site assessment in 2005. The firm’s report was based solely on a paper trail of state documents, photographs and interviews of locals and former Pfizer employees familiar with the land.

The 600-acre tract that the N.C. State Ports Authority bought for a proposed new container port may no longer be worth what the state paid for it.

Caitlin was not granted physical access to the property. In the assessment, the engineering firm recommended the authority conduct a second assessment for “visual site and vicinity reconnaissance.”

How the authority followed-up on that recommendation remains unclear.

An authority spokesperson did not respond to requests for interviews.

The Caitlin report describes the acreage as generally flat. Four ponds are on the property. Wetlands cover the eastern portion of the land. The rest is undeveloped woodlands.

The report notes that there’s a “potential for environmental concern” because of the sludge generated from the citric acid production.

The land was broken into two parcels, the first of which spans a little more than 227 acres. At the time of the study, its tax value was $3.23 million. The second and larger parcel with 402 acres carried a value of $1.63 million, according to Brunswick County tax records.

Those figures have led to questions about why the authority agreed to pay $30 million for the property.

When the authority purchased the land in 2006, it was at the height of the real estate boom.

Hansen Matthews, a commercial real estate broker and co-founder of The Maus, Warick Matthews & Co. Team in Wilmington, was not involved in the authority’s purchase of the land, but he is familiar with the real estate market in Brunswick County.

“The market crested around 2006,” Matthews said. “Almost any price paid at the time was top-dollar.”

The Pfizer tract was the only one of that size available along the Cape Fear River at that time, Matthews said.

“It’s hard to get 20 acres of river frontage in Brunswick County,” he said. “Either they bought that one or just give up on the idea.”

The property’s tax value has increased to $12.7 million, but, if the authority put the land on the market today, it would not likely recoup enough money to pay its debt on the land.

The market for raw land in Brunswick County has plummeted since the mid-2000s, Matthews said.

To get an indication of just how far the market has dropped, Matthews’ firm is handling the sale of a 583-acre tract between Bolivia and N.C. 211 in Brunswick County. That parcel sold for $9 million at the height of the market in 2006. It’s up for sale today with an asking price of $1.3 million.

Another tract, this one more than 400 acres of partially developed land at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Cumbee Road, sold for $8 million in 2006. It’s on the market for $1.75 million.

“We’re on the bottom of the market,” Matthews said. “We’ve been bumping the bottom all year long. If [the authority] takes that land to the market now they’re going to be creamed.”

Plans for the land remain up in the air. The authority may use the site to build a container port, an option noted in the N.C. Maritime Strategy Final Report. Save the Cape, a volunteer group in Wilmington, would like to see the land become part of a national seashore in the lower Cape Fear River.

The authority has not publicly discussed the report since its release in June.

Related Story

• Maritime Study: What It Will Take to Stay Competitive

SOUTHPORT — Staying competitive in the maritime import and export business will cost billions in transportation improvements and construction at North Carolina’s ports, a state study suggests.

The N.C. Maritime Strategy final report calls for intricate roadway and rail additions throughout the state, more facilities in and near the ports of Morehead City and Wilmington, and dredging projects to make way for massive sea vessels known as super post-panamax ships, which will be able to travel through the Panama Canal once it is widened by 2014.

Post pana-max ship  Photo credit: U.S. Department of Transportation

It’s a multi-billion, multi-year ports project proponents say will be an economic boon for the state, one that will create jobs and give North Carolina a legs-up against other East Coast ports vying for maritime business.

But for others, those living in the small, coastal communities pinpointed in the study, the more than 200-page report paints an alarming picture of grandiose ideas that are too big, too expensive and ultimately a threat to the state’s natural coastal habitat.

Among the major concerns residents, business owners and environmentalists expressed during a series of public meetings the state held before releasing the final report – air and water quality impacts, truck traffic, and adverse affects created by dredging.

More than 300 signatures for “Support the Port” and “Future Development Port of Morehead City” were turned over to the state. A petition opposing port development in Southport, a town nestled on the lower Cape Fear River opening into the Atlantic Ocean, garnered more than 700 signatures.

Mike Rice, the man behind Save the Cape, Inc., a nonprofit group that seeks to preserve the lower Cape Fear River, has for the past few years been part of the fight against the proposed N.C. International Terminal, a mega-port that would be built on 600 acres near his Southport home.

Containers at the Port of Wilmington Photo credit: N.C. Ports Authority

Speculation that plans for the mega-port have died because of lack of support has gained traction during the past several months. Good news, Rice said, but not assurance that Southport will not see port development in the future.

The maritime strategy report suggests the state’s future container needs could be met by expanding the Port of Wilmington terminal or building a new greenfield container port at one of three locations: River Road in Wilmington, Southport or Radio Island in Morehead City.

In order to expand container sites at the Port of Wilmington, the state would need to deepen more than 20 miles of the Cape Fear River that stretches from the port to the Atlantic Ocean.

Construction of a container port in Southport would require a turning basin to accommodate post-panamax ships, a new access channel from the main channel and dredging.

“Establishing this site would mean industrialization of an area that, because of the massive scale they have in mind, it would just change the character of Southport,” Rice said.

Such a facility would require more roadways since the nearest four-lane highway is 17 miles away. The railroad nearest the proposed site is owned by the U.S. Department of Defense and serves Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, the nation’s largest munitions terminal.

The proposed Southport container site is not only close to the terminal, it’s near the Brunswick County Nuclear Plant, which is cooled by water from the Cape Fear River.

“That can’t be interrupted in any way,” Rice said. “It’s an awkward, difficult site. We don’t want this around here. It’s trying to counteract geography. We’re terrified of the effects, from air pollution to dredging, it would have here.”

Similar sentiments are shared among Beaufort residents who fear the wrong kind of port-related construction on Radio Island would hurt, not help that area.

Beaufort resident Nelson Owens began to understand what he believes will be negative economic and environmental impacts in the area if DOT moves forward with plans to build a fixed-span bridge across Gallants Channel to replace the current drawbridge. The Southern Law Environmental Law Center says that construction of the proposed bridge is a segment of the Super 70 corridor linking Raleigh to Morehead City, tying directly into future port operations, a claim N.C. DOT denies.

Owens served on a committee that studied the potential economic impacts of the Gallants Channel bridge, a proposed 65-foot-high fixed-span bridge. He and other opponents of the bridge say the design and location of the bridge would have significant impacts on the local economy and maritime safety. The state Department of Commerce agrees, citing that a fixed-span bridge will, “negatively impact current and future business operations.”

“It’s definitely not going to be a good impact for Beaufort because of the way it affects the property and the town of Beaufort,” Owens said.

The bridge would change the face of Beaufort, which would see freight hauled to and from the port with little economic benefit, Owens argues.

The maritime strategy study includes plans for a dry sulfur-handling facility at the Port of Morehead City as well as a potential container port on Radio Island. If the state develops a container port there, the existing berth area would have to be dredged and a larger turning basin would need to be created to accommodate post-panamax vessels.

Owens said he does not support port development on Radio Island because of its proximity to surrounding natural, protected habitats such as the Rachel Carson Reserve, Shackelford Island, Cape Lookout National Seashore and Fort Macon State Park.

“I don’t understand,” Owens said. “All these states expending and spending billions of dollars on the ports and all this business might not be there.”

Doug Doubleday, a Beaufort resident also opposed to the proposed fixed-span bridge over Gallants Channel, said he is concerned about the dredging proposed in the maritime study.

Aerial photo of Radio Island  Photo credit: N.C. Ports Authority

Beaches have actually benefited from port-related dredging projects, where quality sand has been pumped onto eroded shorelines beaten by storms.

But dredging to the scale discussed in the maritime report may cause erosion along area beaches, Doubleday said.

Still, he is not opposed to expansion at the Port of Morehead City.

“Development on Radio Island – I’d rather see tourism-related things developed there,” he said. “But, the port does own some land there. If they develop responsibly, it shouldn’t be a problem. I just want them to be very, very sensitive and careful with the environment.”

Traffic can get heavy in the summer along the 11-mile section of beach leading to Carova. Some wonder what it would be like if a new bridge is built over Currituck Sound.

CAROVA — At 6 a.m. on a July day last year, volunteers posted themselves near the entrance to the unpaved area on the northern tip of the Currituck County Outer Banks and started counting.

There were vehicles with North Carolina tags. Vehicles with Virginia tags.  Open “cattle trucks” with groups of tourists.  Rented Jeeps. Guided tour vehicles.

All day and into the night, they kept coming. By 8:30 p.m., the numbers were impressive: A total of 1,136 vehicles —207 of them related to tours — holding 3,663 people. All driving along 11 miles of sand road in Carova.

“Can you imagine the impact that the Mid-Currituck Bridge would have on these numbers?” Lynne Wilson, a Carova resident, said in an e-mail. “The safety of beachgoers is threatened now and will be disproportionately threatened if bridge traffic turns north, which of course, it will.”

As the state approaches the final step in the planning process to build the seven-mile toll bridge from mainland Currituck County to Corolla, many residents of Corolla and the unincorporated off-road community, where 136 wild horses famously roam, are cringing at the prospect that it may actually happen.

“It’s going to bring significantly more people,” said John Grattan, a semi-retired environmental attorney who lives in Corolla.

And when the weather makes beach-going impossible, he said, all those vacationers, en masse, will head south. “Once they’re here, the first rainy Thursday is going to be the biggest nightmare you ever saw.”

The preferred route  has the bridge anchored off U.S. 158 north of Aydlett and landing between the Corolla Bay and Monteray Shores subdivisions, at least 300 feet from houses and lots on N.C. 12.  Source: N.C. Department of Transportation.

At the same time, the $660 million project, which was first proposed about 20 years ago, is strongly favored by Currituck and Dare counties and the towns of Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores and Duck, which have suffered through hours-long traffic backups on U.S. 158 and N.C. 12 every summer for years. At the height of the season, it can take four hours on a Saturday to reach Corolla from Moyock, normally 1.5-hour trip.

The bridge would shave about an hour off the drive from Virginia and decrease the volume of heavy traffic. Proponents also say the bridge would make hurricane evacuation time faster, increase employment opportunities on both sides of the bridge and decrease commuting time for seasonal workers.

“There is a congestion problem, I agree, on certain weekends,” Grattan said. “But the proposed bridge solution is a ridiculously expensive and environmentally damaging option (that’s) solving the congestion problem at the expense of Corolla.”

In the project’s final environmental impact statement released in January, the preferred alternative has the bridge anchored off U.S. 158 north of Aydlett and landing between the Corolla Bay and Monteray Shores subdivisions, at least 300 feet from houses and lots on N.C. 12.

In just a short drive to the north, the asphalt ends and the land of wild horses and beach driving begins.

Wilson said that tourism promotion of the off-road beaches, featuring photographs of the wild horses on the edge of the surf, has been wildly successful. “The results are evident,” she said. “Tourists are flocking to Currituck’s off-road beaches. And the outcome might very well be self-defeating: overcrowding and unsafe beaches are not a destination of choice.”

As the numbers of day-trippers have increased, so has development. But many of the 180 or so year-round residents in Carova are concerned that infrastructure is already being strained, and it’s only 20 percent built-out. There are no restaurants, bathrooms or gas stations. The only public parking is on the beach, where trucks bounce along just a few feet from sunbathers. Sometimes, wild horses join the fray, strolling down to the water to cool off.

“Each year, more and more traffic comes up here,” said Jerry Gillet, the secretary of the Carova Beach Volunteer Fire Department. “Sometimes the beach is very, very difficult to negotiate because of the traffic and the horse tours. Sometimes we have a hard time negotiating our emergency vehicles.”

Driving to Carova is tricky.

Driving in sand is tricky, and often day visitors are inexperienced. Consequently, they don’t let the air out of their tires, causing their vehicles to get stuck or their tires to spin, leaving behind ruts.

“When you multiply that by hundreds of vehicles over 11 miles, it creates a washboard effect,” said J.P. Peron, owner of The Outer Banks Real Estate Co. in Carova.

Peron, a member of the volunteer fire department, said that the department analyzed their calls between 2000 and 2010 and found that five times more calls were responding to vehicle fires — caused by people overheating their transmissions while trying to get unstuck — than house fires.

Until about 2005, Carova was truly remote and isolated. Gillet said that for years after moving to the community in 1998, his North Swan Beach house was the only one within a quarter-mile in either direction.

“When the building boom happened,” he said, “I’m guessing in the general vicinity, there must have been 30 houses put up.”

Originally, in the late 1970s, the area was platted for commercial use, with developers counting on a highway being built from Sandbridge, Va, said Ben Woody, Currituck County planning director. But in subsequent years, part of the land was acquired for False Cape State Park. Then the federal government designated the entire off-road area as a COBRA zone, precluding the purchase of federal flood insurance and restricting certain infrastructure.

“When they platted it, I don’t think they intended there would be no roads there,” Woody said.

Currituck County later zoned Carova — the name blends Carolina and Virginia — as single-family residential with a minimum lot size of three acres.

The wild horses of the northern Outer Banks compete with SUVs on the beach.

The developer of a proposed 37-acre commercial development in Swan Beach, the northern-most subdivision, sued Currituck County in early July over the county’s rejection of a request for a conditional zoning change from residential to commercial. The proposal includes plans for an inn with 32 suites, a fishing pier, retail shops and restaurants.

Woody said that, as of 2011, a total of 3,150 lots were platted in the 12,000-acre off-road area. Of them, 665 have been permitted, and 2,526 are vacant lots. And many of those were grandfathered when the current three-acre zoning was implemented.

“We have thousands of one-third- and half-acre lots that can be built upon,” he said.

There are no restrictions on the number of bedrooms in a house, he said, as long as the parcel is big enough to provide septic. So far, the largest house in Carova is 23 bedrooms, and there are numerous houses with 10 to 18 bedrooms.

Yet, with no central water or wastewater system in Carova — it’s all wells and septic tanks — and a high water table, Woody said, there are legitimate concerns about how much capacity remains for growth.

A Beach Driving committee last year recommended that the county hire a consultant to conduct a study on establishing a permit system for off-road vehicles. It also recommended that numerous improvements be provided, including educational signs, a bathhouse, air stations and better ramp maintenance. Some recommendations have been implemented, but the permit system is not one of them.

Currituck County recognizes the value of an infrastructure study in Carova to determine what must be addressed as the community continues to accommodate more visitors and more development, Woody said. But so far, he agreed that issues have mostly been dealt with in a piecemeal, as- needed, basis.

“We haven’t stepped back,” he said, “and really looked at that area comprehensively to project into the future the need for planning.”

If the Mid-Currituck Bridge is built, whether more people come or not, Carova will become more accessible.

But the bridge is not necessarily a done deal. In addition to stiff opposition from a substantial number of northern beach residents, the bridge is vulnerable to cuts in the state budget and to lawsuits. Although the project would be partially funded by user tolls, it is also dependent on millions of tax dollars toward payments on revenue bonds.

So-called “gap funding” appropriations for the bridge and another toll project in Gaston County were cut from this year’s budget because they were not expected to be needed until June 30, 2013, said Greer Beaty, a state Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

The Currituck project’s record of decision, the last step required before construction can begin, is expected any time now, Beaty said. After that  issued, those objecting to the project have 180 days to file a lawsuit.

Barring legal action, Beaty said that DOT has “other resources that we can and will use” to move the project forward if the $28 million in gap funding is not restored.

Bridge opponent Jen Symonds, an Aydlett resident and a founder of No Mid-Currituck Bridge, however, said she believes the Currituck bridge may be doomed by a combined loss of political support and lack of money. It’s difficult to defend, she said, spending $660 million — and charging a $28 toll each way — to save tourists an hour of driving about 26 days a year.

“My understanding is that the GOP leadership does not think this is a viable project,” Symonds said. “I don’t think it’s going to get the funding. I think the days of mega-projects for powerful politicians are gone. The state can’t afford it.”

EAST LAKE  — Sitting on worn wooden benches in the community building, their faces expressionless, members of this modest community on the mainland of Dare County quietly listened on Tuesday as a representative for the state Department of Transportation explained a road project to expand U.S. 64 that may force them off their property and out of their homes.

But it’s one thing to be moved off the land you inherited from your great grandparents. Yet, some said, it’s even worse to think about moving your great-grandparents from their final resting place.

For the first time that night, the more than 60 people — unusually polite for a meeting about such a consequential project — broke out in applause.“Would you really relocate our cemetery and dig up our bodies?” resident Rosemarie Doshier asked Jamille Robbins, the DOT moderator. “That’s not acceptable to us.”

“That’s unethical to me,” said Michelle Perrot, who moved to East Lake 12 years ago. “You can’t do that. These people have buried their loved ones once. Don’t make them do it again.”

The public hearing was held to give residents the opportunity to discuss their concerns about the 17 alternatives detailed in the draft environmental impact statement released last month for the U.S. 64 widening project — especially the one that goes right through their working-class community built in the middle of swamps and surrounded by wild lands.

The proposed 27.3-mile project between Columbia and Manns Harbor is the final section of 200 miles of the highway from Raleigh to the Outer Banks that is slated to be four-laned.  The project, estimated to cost $356 million to $400 million, includes replacing the 52-year-old Lindsey C. Warren Bridge, a three-mile swing span over the Alligator River.

The bridge replacement itself is not controversial, nor is much of the Tyrrell County half of the project. On the Dare County side, however, great conflicts exist between the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the road’s south side and this tiny pre-Civil War community on the north side. East Lake residents sent a resolution to DOT in February asking the agency to build the southern alternative that would bypass 12 homes and historic cemeteries, churches, buildings and the 1936 fire tower. The northern alternative is more expensive and would impact a larger portion of the refuge’s 147,432 acres.

Minnie Spruill, 89, and the community’s oldest resident, told DOT she wants the road to be built behind the village on the south side and reattached to the highway at Buffalo City.

“I can’t understand why you would tear up a neighborhood,” she said, “when all that land is right there.”

Although DOT’s main rationale for widening the road is to prevent accidents and speed hurricane evacuations, East Lake residents say neither reason is based on the reality they know. Crashes are infrequent and backups are few, even during evacuations.

“I’ve lived here since 1973, and we’ve stayed through every hurricane,” said Steve Doshier, Rosemarie’s husband. “Anybody who’s lived here for any time knows that the main evacuation point is north.”

Big sheets of paper illustrating each of the proposed alternatives lined one side of the community building, which earlier in the 20th century had been East Lake’s school house — the blackboard is still covering the rear wall.  Most of the folks who attended — nearly half of East Lake’s total population — appeared older than 50.

According to the DOT report, a total of about 140 people live in the community’s 60 or so houses, and the median household income is about $27,500.  Additional information on City-Data.com, DOT’s cited source, said that East Lake had 61 houses built between 1960 and 1989 and 16 built between 1995 and 2000. Most of the homes are 3-bedroom owner-occupied structures, and a number of them are mobile homes.

Jamille Robbins of DOT explains the route alternatives to residents of East Lake.

The 1887 East Lake Methodist Church and its cemetery, on 1.69 acres along U.S. 64, are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, the report said.  The cemetery behind the church has more than 175 head stones, some dating back to the late 1800s, and a number of graves that are capped with tablets. The church is still active, and many members are descendants of the original congregation.

Eugene Smith, a Chesapeake resident who works at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, said after the meeting that he plans to return to East Lake when he retires next year. Smith said he owns a house on six acres, and he still has a number of family members living in the community.

A 1960 graduate of Manteo High School, Smith said that his grandmother, his brother’s wife, his great-grandfather, his father and his sister are buried at the Methodist Church cemetery, and “if I died tomorrow, I would be planted there, too.”

“They’re all in the cemetery they’re talking about moving,” he said after the meeting. “I don’t like that at all. That hurts more than moving a house.”

A smaller cemetery would also be affected if the northern alternative is chosen.

Crystal Creef Basnight, an East Lake native, said in a later interview that the community hopes that DOT keeps their promise to listen to them and take their concerns seriously.

Basnight said she and her husband live on her mother’s land, which falls within the proposed northern section. If DOT chooses that route, she said it would take not only her grandfather’s old homestead, but also her mother’s house and her neighbor’s brand new house.

“It would be horrible — perfectly terrible,” she said. “It would just be devastating, because I have nowhere to go.”

Comments will be accepted through May 24. Email comments to Robbins.

• Our two-part series on the U.S. 64 project

• Todd Miller: Is this road really needed?

Last of two parts

MANNS HARBOR — Back in1995, then-Gov. Jim Hunt reiterated his earlier promise to four-lane U.S 64 from Raleigh to Manteo by 2005. All of it has been done except the last 28 miles between Columbia and this community perched on edge of mainland Dare County.

Even so, the once 6-hour slog from the beach to the state capitol now averages a breezy 3.5 hours.

The N.C. Department of Transportation plans on fulfilling Hunt’s pledge and shaving a few more minutes off the trip by completing that last section of U.S. 64. The agency says that the road must be expanded to four lanes to prevent accidents and make hurricane evacuation faster. A draft environmental impact statement was released last month.

The study includes 19 different alternatives and outlines numerous conflicts and tradeoffs.

In Tyrrell County, for instance, northern alternatives would result in fewer relocations of homes and businesses, but going to the south would avoid the Alligator community and create less impact to natural resources. Other concerns include impacts to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, J. Morgan Futch Gamelands and other managed lands, and to wetlands, Outstanding Resource Waters and other natural resources protected by federal or state laws.

“We are encountering complex and seemingly competing environmental laws,” said Ted Devens, DOT’s project manager. “I think one of our challenges is to bring all the stakeholders to the table and seek an appropriate balance that reflects the least environmentally damaging and practical alternative.”

From Columbia to the Alligator River bridge, Devens said, most of the conflicts are less complicated and more manageable. But on the Dare side of the river, it seems nearly every conflict imaginable comes into play.

There are issue pitting federal and private property rights and conflicts with historic and cultural features. In East Lake, DOT may have to contend with the Environmental Justice Act, a federal law meant to lessen a project’s environmental effects on poor and minority communities, and the National Register of Historic Places, which protect historic buildings.

There are red wolves and red-cockaded woodpeckers that are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. There are protected wetlands in nearly every direction. Depending on the alternative chosen, the widening could affect as few as 40 acres of wetlands to as many as 100 acres.

And as hard as it is to contemplate, there are deep, mucky canals that will have to be relocated. That means the canals lining the road, which are essential for drainage, will be have to be dammed, pumped out, mucked out, filled and re-dug alongside whatever new road configuration is built.

But that’s not all.

“Construction will be difficult,” Devens said, not surprisingly. “We are considering sea- level rise with this design. So the new highway will be at least four feet higher than the existing highway.”

And that means, he said, that while the new highway is being built up, largely from the muck pumped out of the canals, the still-open old highway will be four feet lower in elevation. Temporary barriers will have to be placed between the old and new roads.

New wildlife crossings, small tunnels to large openings, will be installed that allow animals to pass under the highway, rather than risk an unfortunate encounter with speeding tires.  The design has been effective in Washington County, Devens said.

Two earlier academic studies had determined animal activity along the road. Dead animals struck by vehicles numbered in the thousands every year in both counties, including deer, bear, fox, bobcat, raccoon, wild turkey, snakes, frogs, turtles and “a surprising number of birds of prey,” Devens said.  One red wolf was found dead last year. Just in Tyrrell County alone, for example, seven bear, 885 turtles and 25,000 amphibians — and many equally unlucky snakes apparently in pursuit — were killed on the 55-mph road over a 2-year period.

“Right now, the highway has no permeability for wildlife,” he said. “We feel that if we do this right, this road will represent an enhancement over the existing conditions.”

But the main purpose for the road widening is hurricane evacuation, Devens said. The project has been designed to allow 18 hours, night or day, from the first car to the last car, a timeline that is legislatively mandated.

Construction of the 3.1-mile Lindsey C. Warren Bridge over the Alligator River is targeted to begin in 2014 and be completed in about two years, Devens said. The Tyrrell County half of the road is expected to start in 2016 and the Dare County half should start in 2018.  Both ends of the highway will each take about two years to complete.

When the bridge is completed, it will look a lot like the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge, with its high span, but it will have a wider bike lane.

East Lake residents just hope their community will still be there at the foot of the new bridge.

“I tell you, my home — I don’t worship it,” said Minnie Spruill, who is just shy of 89 and East Lake’s oldest resident.  “But my home is priceless to me as long as I’m here. My home is for the family. I said, ‘They can’t give me enough money.’”

Open houses on the draft environmental study will be held April 23 at Columbia High School auditorium and on April 24 at East Lake Community Building from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., with a formal presentation at 7 p.m.

• Are those evacuation numbers for real? See Todd Miller’s blog, Sounder.

Source: N.C. Department of Transportation

First of two parts

EAST LAKE — As the residents of this little community see it, the last leg of the proposed U.S 64 widening  project is threatening to all but wipe them off the map, and they say there’s not even a good reason for it.

The tiny working-class community on the western end of the rural Dare County mainland sits on swampy land that since 1984 has been surrounded by Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The two-lane strip of asphalt fronting East Lake was built decades ago, but more than a century after the pre- Civil War community was founded.

Now East Lake residents fear for their future. If the road is widened to the north, it will affect fragile wetlands and refuge land, a proposal the refuge doesn’t favor.  But if it’s widened to the south, it will decimate numerous houses and historic buildings in East Lake, where families like the Cahoons, Sawyers and Twifords have lived for generations.

“They’re very upset,” said resident Rosemarie Doshier, a Dare County Realtor. “They feel like nobody cares about us.”

The N.C. Department of Transportation says that the road must be expanded to four lanes to prevent accidents and make hurricane evacuation faster. A draft environmental impact statement was released last month for the 27.3-mile project,  the final section of 200 miles of U.S. 64 from the state capitol to the Outer Banks that’s slated for widening.

But East Lake residents question why such an expensive, disruptive project is necessary, or if traffic is a problem in the first place.

“No, never — even during hurricanes, ” Doshier said. “That traffic does not back up there. The only time is when there’s a wreck or the when the bridge is open.”

Replacement of the 52-year-old Lindsey C. Warren Bridge, a 3-mile swing-span over the Alligator River that opens for boat access, is a welcomed part of the proposed project, which is estimated to total $356 million to $400 million. Stretching between Columbia and Manns Harbor, half in Tyrrell and half in Dare counties, the proposed project would widen the road to the north or the south, or if necessary, it could zigzag either direction to avoid conflicts. Most of it will include a 46-foot median, except for a section in Dare that will be 23 feet, the minimum required.

But the need to determine the route of bridge corridors through environmentally and culturally sensitive areas in both counties has resulted a dizzying array of confusing and complicated options. Divided into sections that are often layered or crisscrossed, numerous maps detailing the 17 possible alternatives mixed and matched in various combinations illustrate the hundreds of pages in the 3-inch thick document.

In a resolution sent to DOT in February, East Lake residents asked the agency to build the so-called southern bypass alternative in order to spare their community the loss of 12 of the community’s 62 residences and its historic churches, community center and fire tower. The northern alternative, which is more costly, would impact about 23 acres of refuge land.

Doshier said that East Lake people are mostly blue collar folks who could never afford to be relocated. The community, which has no cable TV and just recently got Internet access, is one of the poorest in the county.  But it’s got deep roots and tight family connections.

“You love it,” she said, “or you just don’t live there.”In Tyrrell County, widening to the north would result in fewer relocations of homes and businesses, but going to the south would avoid the Alligator community and create less impact to wetlands and other natural resources.  Additional concerns include impacts to J. Morgan Futch Gamelands and other managed lands, and to natural resources protected under the state Coastal Area Management Act.

By law, the refuge manager must determine whether a project that affects Alligator River refuge is compatible with the mission of the 154,000-acre refuge before a permit is issued.

Scott Lanier, deputy refuge manager, said that the refuge would need to see exactly how much DOT would stray from its right of way before a determination can be made. Consideration would also be given to whether certain conditions and mitigation can compensate for the land use.

“There is a means that they can do that,” he said. “These have to be minor modifications that are essential to safety.”

Minnie Spruill, who is one month shy of 89 and East Lake’s oldest resident, said that DOT should do what was done a little further west in Creswell, where the highway bypassed businesses and homes.

If not, she worries that she would be forced to sell her home to the government.

“It’s all about the animals,” she said, speaking in a thick native coastal Carolina accent. “But wherever they lay down is their home. We only have one house. It seems like the animals matter more than the people. It’s the truth.

“I just don’t understand why they’d want to tear down people’s homes with as much land as they have.”

But Lanier said that it is not clear what DOT is planning, and the refuge can’t respond to a proposal until more is known. It appears, he said, that about 100 to 130 acres of refuge property could be affected by the project.

“In a nutshell,” he said, “we need more detail — exactly where do you want to put it? DOT needs to demonstrate to us that they’re using their right of way to the fullest extent possible.”

Thursday: The project’s other potential effects

• Are those evacuation numbers for real? See Todd Miller’s blog, Sounder.

These options would require relocating two churches and the community center in East Lake as well as almost 20 percent of its houses.