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Groups Call on North Carolina to Build Safer Route after Sea Reclaims Outer Banks Highway

added 8.29.11

Conservation groups today called on the North Carolina Department of Transportation to rethink its plan for replacing Bonner Bridge at its current location and instead build a safer, more reliable access route for Outer Banks residents and tourists after the ocean created multiple new inlets and destroyed sections of N.C. Highway 12 during Hurricane Irene, cutting off the barrier island again right before a holiday weekend. Storms continue to prove the warnings by NCDOT consultants, federal agencies, and university scientists that over wash is inevitable for stretches of N.C. Highway 12 within and near Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Read more in the press release.

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Previous Case Activity

Groups challenge plan to build a new bridge without addressing reliable & safe access

added 7.29.11

The aging bridge to North Carolina’s Hatteras Island should be replaced, and soon, but the route must be safe and reliable. SELC and its partners are challenging the state’s decision to put the span on a hazardous path. Read the complaint here.

The route chosen by the North Carolina Department of Transportation would parallel the current bridge and would make landfall on the unstable northern tip of the barrier island. At that location, the new section of highway (like the current highway) would face the constant threat of shoreline erosion and storm overwash. Moreover, the continual maintenance needed to keep the roadway accessible would endanger habitat for migratory birds and other species in the surrounding Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

“Visitors and residents deserve safe and reliable access to Hatteras Island,” said SELC senior attorney Julie Youngman. “This bridge is simply not a viable or legal solution, and it would undermine the ecological integrity of the fragile wildlife refuge and the sea turtles and birds for which it was created.”

SELC and other conservation groups have long called for the consideration of safer bridge replacement alternatives, including a route that would bypass the ever-shifting tip of the barrier island.
 

Conservation groups react to decision on NC bridge

added 1.6.11

The North Carolina Department of Transportation today made available to the public the Record of Decision (“ROD”) signed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on the plan to replace the deteriorating Herbert C. Bonner Bridge in Dare County, NC, paving the way for construction of a new bridge at the north end of Hatteras Island, NC, parallel to the current bridge. More details are in the press release.

Information on the Pamlico Sound Bridge alternative

added 3.12.10

On March 1, 2010, SELC sent a packet of infomation to President Obama in support of the Pamlico Sound Bridge alternative as approved by all federal and state agencies in 2003. The information supplements N.C. State Senator Basnight’s February 24, 2010 letter to President Obama regarding the Bonner Bridge replacement to the Outer Banks. Documents included in the packet and viewable here are:

     
  • maps of the area,
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  • Merger Team Agreement among all federal and state agencies for the Pamlico Sound Bridge alternative,
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  • project schedule for the Pamlico Sound Bridge alternative,
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  • June 2003 letter from NC Secretary of Transportation Tippett to Dare County Commissioner Judge,
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  • June 2003 letter to citizens of the Outer Banks from Pea Island Refuge Manager Mike Bryant,
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  • Supplemental DEIS and Draft 4(f) Evaluation for replacement of Herbert C. Bonner Bridge,
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  • September 2003 letter from Senator Basnight to Governor Easley,
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  • September 2003 response from Governor Easley to Senator Basnight,
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  • September 2003 letter from NC Secretary of Transportation Tippett to NC Board of Tranportation member Mr. White,
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  • Fall 2009 photographs of the route to the current Bonner Bridge location after a storm, and
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  • Revised Final Section 4(f) Evaluation for the replacement of Bonner Bridge.

Nature Shows the Folly of a Short Bridge to Hatteras Island

added 1.7.10

SELC has long advocated a bridge that bypasses the Pea Island refuge and connects to Highway 12 at a more stable section of Hatteras Island. “The science is clear: Between storm events, global climate change, sea-level rise and the general instability of this type of barrier island, the short bridge replacement plan cannot work,” according to a recent op-ed in the Raleigh News & Observer by Stanley R. Riggs, distinguished research professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at East Carolina University, and Julie Youngman, a senior attorney at SELC.

Groups Call on N. C. to Build Safer Route after Sea Reclaims Outer Banks Highway

added 11.18.09

Six conservation groups today called on the North Carolina Department of Transportation to build a safer, less-exposed emergency route for Outer Banks residents and tourists that is not dependent on the section of Highway 12 in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge which was washed out last week during the remnants of tropical storm Ida. More information is available in the news release.

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