THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210533
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH AND LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: PEA ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
When workers finish moving three vulnerable miles of state Route 12 away from the ocean, state permits require them to remove the sandbags that have saved the skinny stretch of highway from storms since 1992.
But Dare County commissioners want the sandbags to stay. The 700-bag wall needs to remain to protect the new pavement, they say. And they're willing to fight for the right to keep their small seawall.
``I have an awful big problem when it comes to moving those sandbags,'' Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. said at Monday's Board of Commissioners' meeting in Manteo. ``It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.
``We're charged as commissioners to do anything we can to keep the buffer in place to protect the roadway. We owe it to our friends, neighbors and constituents on Hatteras Island to see that the buffer stays in place,'' Owens said.
``I, personally, don't see why they have to be moved.''
According to North Carolina Division of Coastal Management officials, the sandbags were installed as a temporary buffer to save the two-lane highway that links Hatteras Island with the rest of the Outer Banks.
Although the project cost taxpayers $1 million, the sandbags were never meant to provide permanent protection. When some other means of saving the road became available, the sandbags had to go.
``Part of the original permit for those sandbags required that once the new section of road was completed, the sandbags had to be removed,'' state Division of Coastal Management spokesman Steve Gabriel said Tuesday from his Elizabeth City office.
``Sandbags are temporary protective devices,'' Gabriel said. ``After the threat has passed, they have to be removed - regardless of what protection they may have previously provided.''
This month, crews began clearing land on Pea Island National Wildlife refuge, about 300 feet west of state Route 12 - where the new road will be built. By October, they hope to have completed the $2.5 million project. The new section of highway will run from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pea Island Visitor Center to the maintenance area at the south end of the refuge - almost directly west of the sandbags.
That stretch of pavement has been especially vulnerable during the past three years. Saltwater and sand spill over it during high tides in storms. Last year, officials had to close the highway at least three times - keeping tourists out of Hatteras Island and eliminating all access for the area's 5,000 permanent residents.
Owens acknowledged that the sandbags are a ``band-aid'' approach to protecting the roadway. But removing the bags would be a mistake, he said. Even with the more westward route, he predicted, the pavement - and people who depend on it - will still be in great danger during storms.
In an effort to protect the sandbags, Owens said the county should explore legal action to block their removal.
``We're really trying to figure out who the parties responsible for this are,'' Dare County Attorney H. Al Cole said Tuesday. ``We've been told that the Division of Coastal Management is involved, that the U.S. Department of Commerce has an interest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is involved. We've been getting the royal run-around.
``We may,'' the lawyer said, ``just name them all (as defendants in a law suit) and let them sort it out.''
Cole said no timetable has been set for when a legal complaint may be filed.
Gabriel said the N.C. Department of Transportation has six months to remove the sandbags from the time the road-relocating project began. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Sandbags that line 4,000 feet of state Route 12 in Pea Island
National Wildlife Refuge have become the subject of concern.
by CNB