Plans for replacing the Bonner Bridge are moving forward – for now |
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By IRENE
NOLAN
The planning for replacing the Bonner Bridge moved forward on Monday, Aug. 27, when a review board of high-level officials from two federal and two state agencies decided that the least environmentally damaging and most practical alternative is building a short bridge, parallel to the current bridge, and to address the problems with overwash on Highway 12 with a phased approach of short bridges when they are needed. The next day, two environmental groups challenged that decision, calling for a federal investigation of the legality of the environmental review process. The elation on Hatteras and Ocracoke about the decision to move ahead with the short bridge was tempered with concern the next day, as islanders contemplated whether the challenges to the process would again send the project into a stall. Planning for replacing the 44-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet, the only land link to Hatteras Island, began 16 years ago and has been controversial from the start. Any choice for replacing the bridge has environmental consequences on these fragile barrier islands. And the controversy has only intensified in recent years as various alternatives have been put forward.  The North Carolina Department of Transportation has identified seven alternatives. Two of them involve a 17.5 mile bridge that would bypass the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and overwash-plagued areas of Highway 12 and five 2.7 mile choices that would parallel the present bridge with maintenance options on Highway 12 that would include beach nourishment, road relocation, and a series of short bridges. The state DOT announced in the spring that it favored the short bridge with the phased approach of shorter bridges along Highway 12. Other state and federal agencies also came on board with this choice, mostly because of the high up-front cost of building the 17.5 mile bridge. The construction costs for the short bridge are about $300 million compared to about $930 million for the long bridge. The costs of maintaining the short bridge with a phased approach on the highway are about $1.1 to $1.4 billion through 2060. The cost of the long bridge with maintenance through 2069 is about $1.4 billion. However, the state already has the $300 million allocated for construction of the short bridge, and so far no agency seems to know where the up-front cost of $930 million for the long bridge will come from or when it could be available. County officials and many islanders are willing to accept either option, but they want action now. Last year, the county formed a group to advance that idea, the Citizens Action Committee to Replace the Bonner Bridge. Dare County and many islanders are not happy with the thought that the long bridge would bypass Pea Island, a popular recreational area. They fear that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would not continue to provide the access that folks now have to the refuge. Meanwhile, environmental groups have lined up to oppose the short bridge and phased approach. They say the solutions to the Highway 12 problems through the refuge are environmentally damaging and that the phased approach is short-sighted and does not deal with Highway 12 problems. They favor the 17.5-mile bridge. A merger team of 13 representatives from state and federal agencies was charged with reaching a consensus on which alternative was least damaging to the environment and the most practical approach to the growing concern about the safety of the bridge. It has a sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100, though DOT officials say it is still safe to drive on. Reaching an agreement has been an epic bureaucratic struggle. The merger team couldn’t get there, with USFWS being the most stubborn opponent. The agency has said that the short bridge-phased approach is not compatible with its mission. And that is even though Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, the department under which Fish and Wildlife falls, has endorsed the short bridge for public health and safety reasons. After the merger team couldn’t reach consensus again at an Aug. 15 meeting, the decision was sent to a review board of four higher-level officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state DOT, the Federal Highway Administration, and the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The four officials agreed that the least environmentally damaging and most practical approach would be to build the parallel bridge and later deal with adding shorter bridges over the “hot spots” on Highway 12. They did, however, note that permitting the shorter bridges through the refuge could be “problematic.” Indeed, the very next day, the Southern Environmental Law Center and Audubon North Carolina asked for a federal investigation of the legality of the process. The groups requested the White House Council on Environmental Quality to look into whether the process to reach the consensus violated the National Environmental Policy Act requirements for planning of the project. In a story in The Virginian-Pilot, Stan White, who represents Division 1 on the state Board of Transportation, which includes Dare County, said planning for the short bridge is still on track and that he did not expect a delay from the request for an investigation. “They can’t do it,” White said of the request. He said, and the council’s Web site agrees, that referrals to the council must be made by another federal agency. However, at an Aug. 30 meeting of the Citizens Action Committee to Replace the Bonner Bridge, some members said they would not be surprised to see a federal agency, maybe USFWS, come forward with a request for an investigation. Meanwhile, the process of replacing the bridge will move forward. The state Department of Transportation has already produced a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and a Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. A final Environmental Impact Statement is expected next spring with a public comment period to follow and a Record of Decision by next summer. If that happens, the project will be put out for bids in February of 2009. If all goes well and there are not significant delays by lawsuits or other problems, the soonest the bridge could be completed would be 2013. The citizens’ action committee and others involved with the project anticipate a legal challenge by environmental groups. Lawsuits cannot be filed until there is a Record of Decision. White said lawsuits could delay the project but that he doesn’t expect they could stop it. “This is a chess game now,” said Warren Judge, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners. The citzens’ action committee is turning its attention to Congress and urging residents and visitors to e-mail their senators and representatives in the hope of pressure or legislation that would expedite the permitting process. For more information For more information on replacing the Bonner Bridge or action that you can take, visit the Web site, www.replacethebridgenow.com. Also, read the commentary article by Beth Midgett, chairwoman of the Citizens Action Committee to Replace the Bonner Bridge, on the commentary and letters page of this Web site. For a performance worthy of an Oscar or Emmy Allen Burrus, Hatteras Island’s representative on the Dare County Board of Commissioners, made a passionate plea at the Aug. 6 meeting of the board to state and federal officials who had still not made a decision on replacing the aging Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet. In his straightforward, no-nonsense style, Burrus, who is also vice-chairman of the board, went after federal and state bureaucrats who continue to let the situation languish as the condition of the bridge gets worse. In the wake of the bridge tragedy in Minnesota earlier this summer, he talked about “missed opportunities” and “incompetence.” Watch a video of Burrus’ presentation |
