It’s been nine months this week — 276 days — since the North Carolina Department of Transportation announced that it was stopping work on the permanent bridge over Pea Island Inlet and entering into negotiations with the Southern Environmental Law Center to end the legal wrangling over replacing the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet and bridging overwash-prone areas along Highway 12.
At the time, NCDOT released this statement:
“Because of the confidential nature of these discussions, no additional statements will be released on this issue from NCDOT or conservation groups until conversations are complete and the issue is resolved.”
And, true to their word, neither DOT nor the environmental groups have had one word to say about what’s being negotiated — totally out of public view.
Most Hatteras islanders are not happy that they have been totally shut out of the process and know nothing of what’s on the table. We are, after all, the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on the outcome of this secret process. And it’s become clear that the lack of a clear-cut path to a new bridge and reliable highway is a drag on the island’s economy.
Most of us thought the negotiations might go on a few months, maybe to the end of the year. Then we thought that maybe there would be some announcement after the first of the year.
But then in February, the negotiating parties went back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and asked to be allowed to enter into mediation with a court-appointed mediator.
Apparently, just trying to work out a solution on their own wasn’t working out too well.
The court agreed, and we thought that maybe this spring there would be an announcement that a resolution had been reached — or not.
But spring has just about come and gone, and still the parties are silent on what’s going on around the negotiating table.
On Hatteras Island, the sound of silence is deafening.
Meanwhile, the construction site of the new permanent bridge over the inlet opened by Hurricane Irene in 2011 is a mess.
The road is torn up. It’s an eyesore as the new tourist season gets underway.
There are temporary traveling lanes for traffic with lots of twists and turns, directional arrows, and practically no shoulder. If nothing else, the area has got to be a public safety hazard.
Three huge cranes sit idle beside the road, and equipment and supplies are being stored inside an enclosure surrounded by a chain-link fence.
The contractor on the permanent bridge project is Parsons Construction Group of Greenville, S.C. Parsons was awarded the $79 million contract to build the bridge in November 2013.
Work began at the site in March 2014, and continued for six months until the company got a stop-work order from DOT on Sept. 10. The permanent bridge was to have been completed in the spring of next year.
As the months have passed, the unhappiness at being shut out of the deliberations about the future has expanded to anger at what this eyesore of an idle construction site is costing taxpayers.
Island Free Press readers have posted comments and questions on the site and have e-mailed me directly, demanding to know what the cost of doing nothing has been.
For months, I thought the question would be answered when an end to the negotiations came — with or without a settlement.
However, since the negotiation/mediation is dragging on and on, I decided a few weeks ago to ask NCDOT directly how much Parsons Construction has been paid since Sept. 10.
Jennifer Heiss, the communication officer for Division One, said she would find out the answer.
On May 29, she answered by e-mail:
“So regarding Bonner, as you know, legally there is a very real limit to how much can be discussed. Due to federal rules, the general counsel?s office still has to keep everything confidential, including the type of information you are requesting. It took me a while to respond to you because I wanted to double check with our general counsel and confirm that this was still the case. I just got that confirmation. I?m sorry, but I cannot discuss anything outside of the statement the department issued in September.”
I disagree with the DOT general counsel that payments to Parsons are confidential and asked Heiss to whom I could appeal the denial of the request.
Then I got this e-mail:
“I apologize for taking a while to respond to your email from last week. I was able to double check with our general counsel yesterday. She informed me that the reason why we cannot share the information you requested at this time is because we are in the federal mediation process. While in this process, federal local rule 33 says that everything involved is confidential and cannot be shared with those outside of the mediation program participants. Therefore, we have to follow the federal rule and cannot share the information you requested.”
Federal Local Rule 33 of the mediation process addresses, among other things, confidentiality. It says that information disclosed in mediation “shall be kept confidential and not be disclosed to the judges deciding the appeal or to any other person outside the mediation program participants.”
I get that part.
However, Parsons Contracting Group is being paid — something. Now, the amount they eventually get paid may depend on the negotiations and the settlement — if there is one. A settlement could affect whether or not the project continues — or even is altered.
However, the checks that have been written to Parsons since Sept. 10 can’t be part of the mediation or the negotiations or whatever since those payments have already been made.
Therefore, by law, the payments should be public.
I sent another e-mail to Heiss for her to forward to the DOT general counsel, setting out why I thought the payments should be made public. Heiss said this week that she had forwarded that e-mail but had not received a response.
Meanwhile, I made a formal public records request to NCDOT for the total of payments to Parsons and for all documents, correspondence, and e-mails about payments between DOT and the company between Sept. 10 and June 10.
I received an e-mail that my request is being processed, but I am not holding my breath for a speedy reply — or that the reply will be substantially different from the one I already have.
I also tried a public records request to the state Department of Administration for copies of the checks to Parsons since Sept. 10 but was told that the department was not the “custodian” of those records. I was referred to NCDOT.
I also tried calling Parsons Construction Group to ask the company directly how much it had been paid. After being transferred to employees around the county, the vice-president for corporate relations e-mailed that the company contract requires all media inquiries be referred to the customer, NCDOT.
Although NCDOT claims the payments to Parsons are confidential, there is plenty of speculation out there about what that number is.
We know that Parsons still has an office in the tri-villages, and the best guess by some locals is that there are about a dozen employees still buzzing around in four or five white trucks, keeping an eye on the construction site.
Some locals say they have been told by an employee what the company is being paid — the most often repeated numbers are between $25,000 and $30,000 a day.
If you assume the lower number, that would mean that Parsons is receiving $750,000 a month, which would total about $6.75 million since Sept. 10.
That’s probably a small price to pay for a settlement if it means we finally get a replacement for the decrepit Bonner Bridge and a reliable highway.
But, since we haven’t been privy to the discussions, we have no idea whether there will be a settlement and whether it will be a good one for Hatteras Island.
