THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505200329
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KITTY HAWK LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
Politicians predict it will improve trade between Virginia and the Outer Banks.
Tourism officials say it will increase summer visitation to North Carolina's barrier island beaches.
Leah Porter has less grandiose expectations for the new span of the Wright Memorial Bridge. But summer motorists should agree with the fourth-grader, who said the opening Friday of two additional lanes will ``mean I have to spend less time sitting in the car.''
``I think it will be easier to drive across - and get to - that bridge now,'' said Leah, 9, of Kill Devil Hills. She attended a storm-shortened opening of the new span.
``I've sat in an awful lot of back-ups in the summers. Now, there should be not so much traffic,'' she said, smiling. ``That's very good.''
At least 250 adults and 100 other children in the Kitty Hawk Elementary School auditorium agreed. The crowd had hoped to stand on the east end of the new span as about a dozen elected officials cut a ribbon, opening the two new lanes between Point Harbor and Kitty Hawk.
About 10 minutes before the scheduled 11 a.m. ceremony, black clouds blanketed the Currituck Sound - and rain poured down.
State troopers, donning plastic ponchos, directed drivers back to the school.
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., who was supposed to dedicate the new bridge, was stalled in a Raleigh airport because of the sudden storm. State Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, stood in the governor's stead - taking the stage just as the sun returned.
``Today, we open up another opportunity for all these children,'' Basnight said from behind a wooden podium, gesturing toward students from Kitty Hawk and W.T. Griggs elementary schools who sat quietly on bleachers in the back of the room.
``Today, we make another connection between Northeastern North Carolina and Hampton Roads.''
The 2.8-mile-long bridge, which is parallel to the existing span and a few feet north, opened earlier than expected. Transportation officials had hoped to have the new lanes completed by Memorial Day.
``We'll have some guys underneath the new span, finishing off a fender system below the bridge for the next few weeks,'' the builder, Sam Hunter, said. ``But we will not be stopping traffic. It's open now. As far as we're concerned, it's gonna stay that way.''
Hunter, president of T.A. Loving, the company that built the span, said the new bridge cost taxpayers about $20 million. His Goldsboro-based company also built the old Wright Memorial Bridge. It was completed in 1966 and carried a $3 million price tag.
When the first two lanes of the bridge opened 29 years ago, 11-year-old Pam Griggs of Currituck cut the ribbon.
On Friday, her 11-year-old daughter, Kelsie, helped officials slice a three-inch wide, red satin sash draped across the school stage. Mother and daughter stood side by side.
``I feel real honored we can both be here,'' Pam Griggs Ballance said. Kelsie Ballance beamed when she accepted the official scissors. ``I'm just happy and proud,'' said the Griggs Elementary School fifth-grader.
About four feet taller and 12 feet wider than the original span, the new bridge will carry motorists off the Outer Banks. Travelers will still enter the barrier islands on the old bridge. Head-on accidents should be eliminated, as traffic on each span will only travel in one direction.
Primarily, politicians said, the new lanes were needed for safety and evacuation. The new lanes will benefit everyone who travels to the Outer Banks because twice as many cars now will be able to cross the Currituck Sound at once. Summer trips from Hampton Roads - trips that often included 12-mile bottlenecks - could be cut by as much as an hour.
``Nobody is happier than I am that these traffic problems will start to be alleviated,'' said R.V. Owens III, a board member of the N.C. Department of Transportation. ``This new bridge is certainly the best step I can think of to solve those back-ups.''
Last year, an average of 12,800 cars crossed the two-lane Wright Memorial Bridge every day. Summer traffic counts swelled to a daily average of 24,000 vehicles. On Saturday, July 30, a total of 58,476 drivers used the span.
Some reported sitting in traffic for more than three hours as they waited to get across.
The new bridge has been on state planning books for five years. More than 80 workers have spent the past two and a half years erecting the concrete and steel connector. Pilings were sunk as deep as 90 feet into the Currituck Sound's silty bottom.
Until 1930, visitors took private ferries or rode steamer ships to the Outer Banks. Then, a group of Elizabeth City investors financed a wooden drawbridge across the wide waterway. Cars could commute between Currituck County and the Dare County beaches for $1 each way. The state paid $150,000 for that bridge in 1935 - and eliminated North Carolina's only toll road.
The wooden bridge remained in place until T.A. Loving workers tore it down to build the first two lanes of the Wright Memorial Bridge.
Both sections of the span are free to all travelers.
Officials said the new bridge should last at least 50 years. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Paul Aiken
Traffic speeds across two new lanes of Wright memorial Bridge
connecting the Outer Banks with the North Carolina mainland.
Duane Taylor of the Department of Transportation covers chairs on
the new span. Minutes before the 11 a.m. ceremony opening the new
bridge Friday, black clouds blanketed Currituck Sound - and rain
poured down.
Graphic
Staff Map
For copy of Graphic, see microfilm
ABOUT THE WRIGHT MEMORIAL BRIDGE
The two-lane addition to the Wright Memorial Bridge across the
Currituck Sound opened Friday - just in time for summer beach
traffic. The new span is parallel to the other bridge and a few feet
north. Travelers will come into the Outer Banks on the old bridge
and leave on the new span.
THE TWO NEW LANES< Cost about $20 million
Are about 2.8 miles long
Contain more than 55,000 tons of concrete
Contain more than 2,500 tons of steel
Have 1,533 concrete pilings
Contain 74,000 feet of concrete girders
Sit in 9-foot-deep sound water
Traffic on Bridge
Averages 12,800 cars per day annually; 24,000 vehicles daily
during the summer
Swelled to an all-time high of 58,476 motorists on Saturday, July
30, 1994
Is expected to increase to an annual average of 39,300 vehicles
per day by 2004
Source: state Department of Transportation
by CNB