THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070243
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLINGTON ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
For more than a decade, the most heavily traveled secondary road on the Outer Banks has maddened motorists.
More than 2,500 permanent residents live on Colington Island.
An average of 4,400 vehicles travel the two-lane, winding roadway every day.
And this week, while the road was being repaired, motorists sometimes were stopped for half an hour or more. They were not happy.
``We've got cussed at, shouted at, people flicked us the bird all week,'' Department of Transportation maintenance supervisor Paul Hodge said Friday.
``The same folk drive up and down here all day. We're not going to close up both lanes on them. We're trying to make this road safer for the Colington residents. It is an inconvenience. But there's nothing else we can do.''
The current project was scheduled to be completed Friday night - but plans to widen the highway could disrupt traffic until summer.
Colington Road snakes four miles west from the U.S. Route 158 bypass at Kill Devil Hills to the Colington Harbour subdivision. In certain spots, both crumbling lanes flood nearly every time the wind blows. Two new bridges that the N.C. Department of Transportation built this fall have helped. But the pavement itself still desperately needs repairs.
``I'd say Colington Road is in the worst shape of any road in Dare County,'' state Transportation Department maintenance engineer Tommy Tilley said Friday from his Manteo office.
``In the eight years I've been here, Colington Road has been - for the traffic it carries - probably the worst of any road in the entire Albemarle area.
``When we finish working on it, though,'' Tilley said, ``it will be one of the best.''
On Wednesday, highway workers began a $25,000 project replacing three drainpipes that carry overwash beneath the pavement. The old pipes had deteriorated, causing the blacktop to sink.
New pipes are up to 42 inches wide, twice as wide as the old ones. That will allow more water to flow off the road - and into the meandering creeks it crosses.
Hopefully, transportation officials said, larger drainpipes will reduce flooding.
To replace the pipes, workers had to tear up the two-lane pavement and dig a deeper ditch under it.
They cut the roadbed near the Colington Harbour Pawn Shop, A&B Seafood, and at Bridges Seafood.
Workers put a makeshift wooden plank bridge across the gaping hole so cars could still get across. But they had to close one lane at a time as heavy equipment dug out the corroded, old drainpipe.
Flagmen stopped traffic for up to 30 minutes as backhoe operators scooped sludge out of the deepening ditch.
About 16 Transportation Department workers toiled from 8 a.m. until almost 11 p.m. for the past three days to get the job done as quickly as possible. Many of them live in Plymouth, Englehard and Camden - up to a two-hour commute for some.
Most passers-by didn't seem to appreciate the workers' long hours. They resented the back-ups, instead.
The drainpipe replacement project was scheduled to be completed Friday night. That and the new bridges are only part of Colington Road's improvement plan. Within two weeks, contractors will begin widening the roadway on both sides - creating shoulders in some places where there aren't any.
``We're going to widen the road by two to four feet from the first bridge all the way to the end, making it 22 feet wide all the way across,'' Transportation Department engineer Randy Midgett said from his Elizabeth City office Friday.
``Barnhill Construction will handle the $500,000 contract. All the work will be done before Memorial Day.''
In some places, Colington Road is only 18 feet wide now, with the pavement ending in steep muddy slopes. Adding width and shoulders will make the commute on the dead-end road much safer, Tilley said.
Additional grading will alleviate even more flooding.
The road-widening project also will require lane closures. Construction on Colington Road could cause back-ups for several months.
Highway officials will direct drivers through the open lanes, and they promised not to close the road completely. ILLUSTRATION: Temporary bridge slows traffic
DREW C. WILSON
Staff
Traffic moves across a temporary bridge along Colington Road as N.C.
Department of Transportation workers prepare to replace a culvert.
Highway workers are replacing three drainpipes that carry overwash
beneath the pavement. The old pipes had deteriorated, causing the
blacktop to sink.
by CNB