The folks on Ocracoke Island were probably very happy today to hear that they will have the ferry to and from Hatteras back, probably late next week.
According to a media release from the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last weekend identified an alternate channel that can be used while dredging continues in the shoaled up Rollinson Channel in Hatteras Inlet.
The alternate route is longer ? about an hour and 25 minutes compared to 40 minutes ? but it?s still faster and more convenient than a 2 ?-hour ferry to Swan Quarter and then a long drive for shopping or medical appointments on the northern Outer Banks or other points.
And it will mean that suppliers and vendors will save time getting to and from the island also. For these folks, time is money.
Ocracokers have been living without the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry for almost a month ? since Jan. 18 when the ferry channel finally became impassable. For weeks before that, ferry service was sporadic, usually running only at high tide.
Islanders have been coping with the inconveniences and public safety issues, and a few have even been frustrated or angry that it came to having to just shut down the Hatteras ferry.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not satisfactorily answered questions about why ?or if –the contract with Cottrell Contracting, owner of the pipeline dredge Richmond, called for the dredge to go to Silver Lake and areas just outside Ocracoke village before it went to the much more seriously shoaled Hatteras Inlet.
The Rollinson Channel in Hatteras Inlet has had shoaling problems off and on, but especially since Hurricane Irene in August of 2011. The shoaling became more serious after Hurricane Sandy in late October.
The Richmond arrived at Silver Lake last summer and was held up by Sandy?s passage off the Outer Banks.
It never got to Hatteras Inlet until December, and it has been dredging since then, sometimes plagued by equipment failure and bad weather.
Two weeks ago, the Corps reported that the dredging was 65 percent complete. According to the Ferry Division?s media release today, the Corps still says the dredging is 65 percent complete.
Furthermore, this alternate channel was known to all parties to the dredging and local watermen weeks ago. But it was apparently not until this week that the Corps finally ?identified? the alternate channel and asked the U.S. Coast Guard to mark it with aids of navigation.
The reason why it took so long to begin using the alternate route are, at this point, unclear.
Allen Burrus of Hatteras village, a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, said that the Corps checked out the channel this past weekend at the request of the Dare board.
All of this makes a person wonder where the Hyde County Board of Commissioners have been and why its members were apparently doing nothing to help the situation.
Of course, the Hyde board now mainly consists of Barry Swindell, who is the chairman and the acting county manager and chief financial officer. Maybe he?s just too busy to worry about ferries to and from Ocracoke, the county?s cash cow.
Weather permitting, the Coast Guard will place navigational aids on the alternate route and it will be up and running sometime next week.
Meanwhile, spring and the new tourist season are fast approaching. Easter this year is on March 31, the same date that the contractors are to be finished with the dredging of the main ferry channel.
For the folks on Ocracoke, especially the owners of businesses, that?s just a little too close for comfort.
There has been a lot of other news in the past week:
If you haven?t already, check out my blog from last week, which is an interview with Barclay Trimble, the new superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Also, the National Park Service has released its 2012 resource reports on protected species and species of state concern on the seashore.
You will probably be interested in an interview with the new secretary of the N.C. Department of Transportation Tony Tata by reporter Catherine Kozak. Turns out the new secretary has ties to our area and is familiar with our transportation woes.
Hatteras Island real estate columnist Tom Hranicka reports on the 2013 state of the market on the island.
And, lastly, you can read about some surprises we found on the winter beaches this week.
There could also be a winter surprise in store for islanders this weekend. Will it snow tomorrow night?
Stay tuned.
