THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010388
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
A proposal to create the state's first toll bridge - across Currituck Sound in northeastern North Carolina - cleared a major hurdle in the state House on Thursday afternoon and could become law within the next two days.
The House Finance Committee overwhelmingly approved a bill that would allow the Department of Transportation to charge a toll for vehicles using an eight-mile bridge that would link the Currituck County mainland with Corolla and northern Currituck County beach communities.
The bill was one of about 110 bills legislators hoped to debate in the House late Thursday night in an effort to end this year's General Assembly session by 4 p.m. today. If the House approves the bill, the Senate must agree with changes made to it during debate in House committees before it becomes law.
The House version gives the Transportation Department the authority to levy a toll of up to $10 for a round-trip over the bridge or $500 for an annual pass for a vehicle. It also requires the department to report annually to the Joint legislative Transportation Oversight Committee for that panel to review any tolls approved for the bridge.
The Senate version, approved last year, establishes a North Carolina Bridge Authority that would be charged with studying ways to speed up construction of the bridge - including levying tolls. The authority would be charged with establishing fees for travel across the bridge.
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. 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 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, now estimated to cost abut $48.4 million, 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 guideline for highway construction projects statewide.
Bridge proponents say that allowing travelers to cross Currituck Sound directly to Corolla from a site on the mainland would speed evacuation of the Outer Banks in emergencies. And they say the bridge will also serve as a model for future toll bridge or road construction in the state.
``This particular bridge is a unique situation with respect to the number of out-of-state users,'' Rep. William T. Culpepper III, D-Chowan, told the finance committee. ``If we're going to experiment with tolls, this would be the perfect area to experiment with.''
The finance committee approved the bill over earlier objections by the N.C. Sierra Club and other environmental groups that 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.
Of the alternatives considered by the Transportation Department for additional connections between the mainland and the northern Outer Banks, a bridge between the Currituck County mainland and Corolla would be expected to be the most expensive alternative and cause the most damage to the environment, according to a finance committee report. Expanding the Wright Memorial Bridge to six lanes was the preferred alternative to traffic congestion when cost and environmental protection are considered, according to the report.
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.
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, according to local officials. by CNB