THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300551
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: Medium
A bill creating a North Carolina Bridge Authority and boosting construction of a $39 million bridge to link the Currituck County mainland with Corolla and northern Currituck County beach communities was on the calendar for consideration late today by the House Finance Committee.
{REST} But debate over the bill has already been postponed by the committee twice this week as the panel cleared its calendars to consider other measures.
Mollie Diggins, the Sierra Club's state leader, has asked the finance committee to defer action on the bill until the Department of Transportation determines whether the bridge can be built without harming the environment.
In a letter last week to Reps. Joe Hackney, D-Orange, and George Miller, D-Durham, Diggins said that establishing a toll authority and creating a funding mechanism for the bridge effectively puts the cart before the horse by presuming the bridge will be built.
To comply with federal regulations, the state has to consider the option of not building the bridge, a process that could be hampered if the state has already established the means to build it, Diggins said in an interview Wednesday from Winston-Salem.
``Creating a funding mechanism first . . . tends to stack the deck in favor of the project,'' she said. ``I would have concerns about how seriously the `no build' option would be considered if the toll authority is in place.''
Currently, visitors from Chesapeake must follow a long horseshoe route south through the Currituck County mainland, east across the Wright Memorial Bridge into Dare County and north on two-lane N.C. Route 12 about 25 miles through Duck to reach resort areas around Corolla.
The bill to create the toll authority is backed by Senate leader Marc D. Basnight, D-Dare, and received a boost earlier this month when it was endorsed by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. and Transportation Secretary Sam Hunt.
Its backers say that by building a toll bridge in Currituck County, the state could speed construction of the project by paying for most of its construction with tolls and without delaying other area construction projects included in the state's Transportation Improvement Plan, the timeline for highway construction projects statewide.
If North Carolina pays for the project under its current system of distributing funds for new projects, the bridge would not be built until 2010.
But the bridge could be built by the year 2000 if it is constructed as a toll bridge, local officials say.
Transportation Department officials have said that environmental studies related to the bridge should take at least a year, perhaps longer if a more detailed environmental study is conducted.
They say all environmental studies will be done before any construction can begin.
by CNB