THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290469
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: POPLAR BRANCH LENGTH: 78 lines
A state highway official said Tuesday that his office has completed a preliminary study that was prompted by complaints of dangerous conditions along U.S. 158 in lower Currituck County.
The county set up a hearing Monday because it wants the state to put a priority on repaving and improving drainage on U.S. 158 from Coinjock to the Wright Memorial Bridge.
``What we're getting today are the preliminary findings. We're going to hear the good, the bad and the ugly today,'' said Donald R. Conner, division engineer with the state Department of Transportation office in Edenton, who did not attend the hearing.
However, the findings - which include a physical analysis of the road and an accident history - are not ready to be released publicly, Conner added.
But the study's completion should bring some comfort to the 30 people who attended the hearing at Griggs Elementary School in Poplar Branch.
Currituck County commissioners had hoped that by setting up the meeting, someone from DOT would come to hear residents concerns about the large puddles on the heavily traveled highway that links Virginia with the Outer Banks.
Some in the audience were concerned that the state would ignore what they see as a serious problem with water pooling on the road during heavy rains.
Not true, countered Conner. ``We're not stalling. We're trying to start with facts.''
It was to deal strictly with facts, and not emotions, that prompted Conner to notify the county that his department would not be present Monday.
Forum participants also asked about the absence of R.V. Owens III, the outgoing Eastern District representative on the state's Highway Transportation Board.
Owens said on Tuesday that he never was invited. ``I have not had anybody from Currituck County call me at all,'' he said.
``Almost since the completion of the highway, there has been concern about these ruts,'' said County Manager Bill Richardson in detailing the history of the 6-year-old expanded road.
Bob Henley, who served on the county's highway corridor committee, said an earlier study predicted summer traffic on U.S. 158 would increase from the current 32,000 daily vehicles to 60,000 by 2005.
Among the recurring themes at the hearing was the fact that U.S. 158 cannot be avoided.
``This is the only road we have. We're not like the other parts of eastern North Carolina,'' said Dave Hoppe of Harbinger.
With no alternate routes, ``we're literally trapped and have no way out,'' Hoppe said.
Said Bill Robbins: ``For it to go on further from here borders on criminal negligence.''
Not all of the people complaining Monday came from Currituck.
``The highway is in Currituck. It's our ingress and regress. Please request that something be done,'' said Lowell Spivey, the fire chief in Kitty Hawk.
Susan Harris, who works for a Kitty Hawk construction company that does business in Currituck, submitted a petition with more than 400 signatures. Circulated by Citizens for Improvements to U.S. Highway 158, the petition asks for action on standing water during heavy downpours on the highway south of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Several fatalities have occurred on that stretch of road during the past several years, the most recent was in November involving a Currituck County man and a Kitty Hawk firefighter.
It was that traffic accident that apparently prompted the latest Currituck County campaign to have the road repaved.
In 1993, the Currituck County Board of Commissioners asked the state to look into fixing water pooling on the highway.
A year later, an eight-mile section from Coinjock to Grandy was resurfaced at a cost of almost $500,000.
Former county commissioner Jerry Wright of Jarvisburg noted that that action shows the state will respond when a problem is present.
``It was terrible, terrible before,'' Wright said of the Coinjock-to-Grandy stretch. ``It's a lot better than it used to be.''
Among the suggestions made at Monday's meeting were posting signs to warn of slippery roads. Billboards with similar warnings also were discussed briefly.
``I think we would be remiss if we didn't take every single step to warn people,'' Bill Robbins said.