THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 TAG: 9604230371
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
By fall, workers could begin building a life preserver for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released plans to construct a fourth groin south of the nation's tallest brick beacon.
The 800-foot steel structure won't save the tower from the sea, engineers said Monday. But the $1.7 million project could act as a Band-Aid, helping to temporarily stave off erosion from around the lighthouse's octagonal base.
By building a buffer of beach, another groin could help protect the black-and-white spiral-striped beacon that has saved thousands of ships from grounding on shoals since its light first illuminated the Atlantic in 1870.
``We're doing everything we can possibly do with the money that we have to protect that lighthouse,'' National Park Service engineer Charlie Snow said Monday from his office at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore headquarters on Roanoke Island.
``A fourth groin will help protect the lighthouse from flanking - when waves cut away the beach from behind the base. That new structure will collect sand and fill pockets of the shore. It should add several hundred feet of width to the beach.''
Sand around the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been eroding since the beacon was built. The most recent Corps of Engineers report says an average of 12.8 feet of beach wash away annually in that area.
``The construction of the fourth groin would, in essence, shift the current erosion problem area from the lighthouse southward beyond the new structure,'' says the half-inch-thick report.
When the tower was built, about 2,000 feet of shoreline buffered the beacon's base from the tides. Today, a skinny strip of sand - less than 125 feet - separates the lighthouse from the ocean. One severe storm could send the entire structure tumbling into the sea.
More than 150,000 people take free tours of the tower each year.
In 1989, National Park Service officials accepted the National Academy of Sciences' recommendation to move the lighthouse inland, away from the encroaching tides. Plans call for sliding the 208-foot tower a half-mile southwest by lifting it on hydraulic jacks and placing it on a rail system similar to that used in transporting the NASA space shuttles. But federal officials haven't found the $12 million needed to move the beacon back.
``Money to actually move the lighthouse has not been formally requested yet,'' Snow said. ``That will be soon. But right now, we gotta get that groin built. The park superintendent is requesting special, emergency money from the Department of the Interior to construct the groin as an interim method of protecting the lighthouse.''
In 1970, the Navy erected three concrete and steel structures perpendicular to the shore in front of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to save a Buxton military housing complex from erosion. These groins trap sand as it slides down the beach, building up the shoreline between the hardened walls. The fourth groin is to be built 650 feet south of the three existing ones - and is expected to allow about 10 acres of sand to accumulate in front of the lighthouse.
That same steel structure, however, will cause beach areas south of the lighthouse to erode at accelerated rates.
``All of the additional erosion would take place on Park Service property, in uninhabited and unused areas north of the Cape Point campground,'' said Snow. ``That area's eroding anyway. But the fourth groin will speed it up there for about five years. Then, the beach should catch back up to normal erosion levels.
``That's the price we have to pay to protect the lighthouse.''
The Corps of Engineers' report says about 10 additional acres of beach will wash away south of the lighthouse if the fourth groin is built. The fourth groin will take about eight months to build. It is designed to last 25 to 30 years.
``We expect to have enough money to move the lighthouse in about 15 years,'' Snow said.
If the lighthouse is moved, the fourth groin is scheduled to be removed.
A new groin is one of three projects Park Service officials are undertaking as short-term measures to save the lighthouse. In January 1995, workers completed more than $350,000 worth of repairs on the third groin - the southernmost of the solid structures jutting into the sea in front of the tower. By June, crews hope to begin stacking an additional 350 sandbags atop the thousands of sandbags that already line the lighthouse's brick base.
The Corps of Engineers' studies - which covered all three repair projects - cost taxpayers $283,700.
``This most recent report is the last piece of the puzzle,'' Snow said. ``As soon as the public gets to comment on our plans - and approves them - we'll begin building that fourth groin.''
How many years will the additional groin add to the lighthouse's life?
``That's anybody's guess,'' Snow said. ``A bad enough storm could still wipe the whole thing out.'' MEMO: PUBLIC COMMENTS SOUGHT
At 7 p.m., May 7, officials with the National Park Service will hold
a public hearing on plans to build a fourth groin south of the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse. The hearing will take place at the Hatteras Civic
Center in Hatteras Village. Everyone is welcome to attend this
informational session and comment on the proposal.
To obtain a copy of the report, or comment via telephone, call Chuck
Wilson at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: (910) 251-4746.
TOURING THE LIGHTHOUSE
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is open daily from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.
Free tours are offered by National Park Service volunteers. Donations
are welcome.
Surfing, swimming and windsurfing are permitted in the ocean near the
lighthouse. A museum and a bookstore are located at the nearby former
keeper's quarters. Free parking is available.
For more information, call (919) 995-4474.
ABOUT THE CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE
Nation's tallest lighthouse, 208 feet tall.
Built 1870 for $150,000.
Has 268 spiraling stairs.
Stands 125 feet from the Atlantic in Buxton, on the Outer Banks.
Black and white spiral stripes are a daytime navigation aid.
Two 1,000-watt lamps, visible 20 miles offshore, blink every 7 1/2
seconds.
Each year, more than 150,000 people tour the tower.
The beacon contains 1.25 million bricks.
Its base is octagonal, set on two layers of 6-foot-by-12-foot yellow
pine timbers that were placed cross-ways below the water table.
by CNB