THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504120419
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Dottie Swarm wants the bridge built close enough to be useful, but far enough to keep the traffic away from her house.
Andy Keeney hopes it begins near Waterlily and ends near the Corolla Food Lion.
Robin Harvier says the proposed four-mile span across the Currituck Sound from the mainland to the northern Outer Banks shouldn't be built at all.
``When we bought property here three years ago, we thought this place was a dream getaway,'' said Harvier, a Northern Virginia resident who owns a home in this burgeoning beach resort. ``If they put that bridge in here, it'll just destroy this place. So many more people will come, it won't be a getaway for anyone any more.''
At least a dozen of the more than 200 people attending a Tuesday night North Carolina Transportation Department workshop agreed that the midcounty bridge project should be deep-sixed because of the additional traffic, tourists and development it would bring to the barrier island beaches.
Others insisted that a northern two-lane span is desperately needed to improve emergency evacuation options, summer traffic flow and services for the area's permanent population.
None at the elbow-room only gathering seemed to agree on where to put the bridge - if it is built.
If officials were seeking a consensus, they did not find one at the Currituck County Satellite Office meeting.
``We were hoping just to narrow down the number of options for the bridge location tonight,'' said John Page, midcounty bridge project manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc. of Raleigh. Page's corporation is helping the highway department examine several bridge options.
He will speak at another public meeting in Poplar Branch on the mainland tonight. ``We're here to listen to people's concerns and answer questions. We want to know what the public wants.''
An upscale ocean-to-sound community stretching from Duck to the Virginia border, Currituck County's Outer Banks are home to about 300 permanent residents. In summer months, more than 25,000 people usually are on the 15-mile stretch of sand. Corolla is about a 2 1/2-hour drive - at the best of times, when traffic isn't a factor - from Hampton Roads.
North Carolina transportation officials' plan to build the bridge between Currituck County's mainland and the northern Outer Banks could cut the commute by about 90 minutes. If it is built, an estimated 11,800 vehicles will cross the bridge each day by 2020.
Tuesday night, transportation experts outlined nine options for the bridge's beginning and end. Five prototypes end north of Monteray Shores. Three stop across from Food Lion, a few miles south. The southernmost option connects to the beach at the Currituck Shooting Club, five miles south of the northernmost choice.
Mainland options range from Coinjock to Poplar Branch.
``You don't want it to bring people into the beach too far south. Then you'd get everyone going to Southern Shores and Duck, too,'' said Don Aven, a Kitty Hawk resident who owns a Corolla business.
``I think it should drop off at the Food Lion, because that area's already developed, identified as a state transportation site, and would mean filling less wetlands,'' said Keeney, a Fairfax, Va., resident who has owned a Corolla home for 17 years.
``We absolutely need another bridge to the Outer Banks. We've got to have two ways out of here for emergencies,'' Keeney said, looking at a colorful wall-sized map of the proposed bridge locations. ``It'd also help the people who live on the mainland and have to commute all the way up here for work.''
Cost of the bridge ranges from $49.3 million to $71.3 million, depending on where state officials decide to put it. The legislature already has approved tolls as a financing option, with a $10 cap suggested by some.
To build the bridge, workers will have to fill between 20 and 51 acres of wetlands; displace up to five mainland homes; and affect as many as 42 vacant lots on the northern Outer Banks.
``Our preliminary assessments of the two northernmost and one southernmost option do not look good. But we had to consider everything,'' said Page, wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with a blue bridge and orange sunset.
Page said he expects to return for another meeting or public hearing within a year to discuss bridge options and the impact of construction on the environment, said Page. Construction is not expected to begin before 2001. ILLUSTRATION: Color Staff graphic by Robert D. Voros
Comparison of Bridge location alternatives
Location
Label
Description
Cost
Preliminary Assessment
For copy of graphic, see microfilm.
KEYWORDS: CURRITUCK SOUND PROPOSED BRIDGE by CNB