THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310598
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
When the North Carolina Board of Transportation meets on Friday, it will approve a mini-contract for a single 66-inch diameter concrete piling that will have a short, noisy life being battered and bumped around in the Chowan River west of Edenton.
Engineers from the Department of Transportation in Raleigh will spend much of the summer mistreating the solitary piling to get the technical information they need to start work next year on a $46.9 million, four-lane, high-rise bridge that will carry U.S. 17 across the Chowan.
``After the piling is driven into the river bottom just south of the present two-lane U.S. 17 swing bridge, we'll determine how much load it can carry and how much damage it can absorb if it is struck, say, by a tugboat or a barge,'' said Jamey Batts, a soil foundation engineer for the DOT.
``When we know the effect of lateral and vertical forces on the piling we can finish designing the new bridge,'' Batts said. ``We'll know how closely we'll have to space the bridge supports.''
Tidewater Construction Co., of Norfolk is expected to get the $375,560 contract to sink the single experimental pile when the Transportation Board hold this week's meeting in Hickory. Tidewater's figure was lowest when the DOT opened the bids on May 16.
``We're on track to let the main $46.9 million contract for the new bridge next year,'' said R.V. Owens III of Manteo, the northeastern representative on the Transportation Board.
Construction of the new Chowan bridge should be be finished at about the same time in 1999 that the remaining two-lane sections of U.S. 17 are widened between Hertford in Perquimans County and Windsor in Bertie County, Owens said. The highway is four-lane from Windsor to Williamston.
``The roadwork on U.S. 17 from Edenton to Windsor will be completed in stages from August 1997 through September of 1999,'' said Don Connor, northeastern district engineer for the DOT in Ahoskie.
The contract for the new bridge will be let next year, Connor said.
So far, DOT estimators think the new bridge and all of the seven miles of approaches, which include four-lane interchanges on each side of the river, will cost an estimated $88.1 million, said William Jones, a DOT spokesman in Raleigh.
The new Chowan span will be a high-rise fixed structure with a 60- to 65-foot clearance for boats, Connor said. All but a few swing-bridges, such as the one remaining in the present Chowan River span, will be gone from main highways over navigable waters in the state by the end of the century, Jones said.
When the new Chowan span is completed, the old bridge will be removed, Jones said.
DOT highway improvement plans for U.S. 17 and U.S. 64 to Raleigh include making U.S. 17 a four-lane from the Virginia border to Williamston by the year 2000, and will include a bypass around Williamston, said Jones.
From Williamston to Raleigh, the main highway follows U.S. 64, via Tarboro and Rocky Mount. Only a short stretch of 64 west of Williamston is still two lanes.
Rapid widening of the U.S. 17-64 expressway to Raleigh in North Carolina is expected to bring increased pressure on Virginia to widen U.S. 17 north of the state line. The road now bottlenecks to two lanes between North Carolina and Portsmouth and Norfolk.
One provision of a recent compact between the two states to allow Virginia Beach to pipe water from Lake Gaston in North Carolina east to the resort community on the ocean includes widening of U.S. 17 in Chesapeake. by CNB