THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070479
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEA ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
By dark today, cars should be cruising along both lanes of the Outer Banks' newest highway.
Workers were stenciling stripes along the freshly paved portion of North Carolina Route 12 on Pea Island late Wednesday afternoon. A seeding crew was to plant grass along the sandy shoulders this morning. And by 10 a.m. today, state transportation officials said, the northbound lane of the road's new western stretch will be open to traffic.
``They've got to finish putting asphalt along the tie-ins at both ends of that road. And they'll be done marking the lines by mid-morning,'' North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Early said at dusk Wednesday, as he walked behind a paving truck completing a final perusal of the new highway. ``There shouldn't be any problem getting both lanes open by Thursday evening.''
A two-lane blacktop that winds from Corolla through Ocracoke Island, N.C. Route 12 is the only land link between Hatteras Island and the rest of the world. The road parallels the Atlantic Ocean - and runs precariously close to the shoreline in several spots. At high tides during storms, big blows and full moons, saltwater and sand often spill across the pavement, blocking the road.
State officials had to shut down the southern stretch of the highway at least three times in 1994 and once in 1995 - keeping tourists out of Hatteras Island and cutting off all access for the area's 5,000 permanent residents.
To keep the road clear and provide a more permanent pathway through the Outer Banks, transportation engineers decided to re-route the most threatened portion of the pavement away from the ocean.
A crew from Barnhill Contractors began clearing a new roadbed from the Pea Island Visitor Center to just past the maintenance area at the southern end of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in June. The new stretch of Route 12 is about three miles long and connects with the existing road at both ends. It cost taxpayers $3 million and is about the same elevation as the existing highway. The new route sits about 300 feet west of the current road, across from a stack of sandbags holding back the tides.
For the past five months, between 10 and 30 men worked daily from dawn to dusk building the road.
``You get a little better view of the refuge from the new route. You can see the ponds and wildlife better and it gives you a more open feeling because you don't have dunes on both sides of that western road,'' North Carolina Department of Transportation Engineer Bob Capehart said from his Williamston office Wednesday.
``It feels good to get this done,'' said Capehart. ``We survived all the summer storms and fall stuff pretty good. We wanted to have the new road open before the winter weather really sets in.''
Since 1990, state transportation officials have spent more than $31 million trying to keep Route 12 open. They invested another $18 million in routine maintenance on the road. Special efforts have included a $1.8 million beach nourishment project to pump sand back on the beach and $920,000 worth of sandbags stacked along the shore.
To get a permit from the state Coastal Resources Commission, transportation officials had to agree to remove the existing portion of Route 12 and the sandbags after opening the new stretch of road.
The old highway probably will be broken and carted off in trucks by February, Capehart said.
Dare County's Board of Commissioners has threatened to sue state and federal agencies in an attempt to keep the sandbags in place.
If his employees do have to remove the sandbags, Capehart said, they hope to secure a separate permit that would allow them to build a secondary dune system along the western edge of the old Route 12 - protecting the eastern edge of the new highway from the sea.
``We're creating 37 acres of wetlands about three miles south of the new road's end,'' said Capehart. ``We've stockpiled material from that mitigation site and will place that sand along the shoulders of the old road. If we get the proper permits, we'll use that material to shore up the dune line after we remove the sandbags.
``Right now, the situation looks very favorable for us being able to build a secondary dune system and trying to protect this new portion of the road from the tides.'' ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON/ The Virginian-Pilot
Marking technicians Mason Brooks, right, and Ricky Beck set up a
section of Route 12 at Pea Island for the painting of roadlines.
by CNB