THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080503
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLINGTON ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Along the north shoulder of State Route 1217, about three miles west of Kill Devil Hills, across from bulldozers, cement trucks and construction trailers lining an old wooden bridge, reputedly is the best place to catch blue crabs on the entire Outer Banks.
Locals have dangled string-tied chicken necks into shallow ``Dividing Creek'' for centuries.
Tourists spending vacation time on the Outer Banks have driven dozens of miles to snare the clawing creatures.
And an average of 10,950 vehicles per day have whizzed along the winding roadway - behind the often startled crabbers.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation is making the gravel-covered bulkhead better.
By the end of October, workers will have added 15 parking spaces and a 500-foot paved walkway to the crabbers' hangout. Instead of having to park alongside the state's most heavily traveled secondary road or try to run across the two-lane highway, recreational watermen will be able to move their cars out of harm's way - and continue crabbing off their old outpost.
``I think that's the best idea those guys've had,'' said Bob Allen, 61, who was crabbing off the bulkhead with his wife Wednesday afternoon. The retirees from Lewisburg, W.Va., have been coming to Colington campground for 13 years. Crabbing is a highlight of their annual vacation.
``We come here all the time. Catch buckets of keeper crabs. But it's a real dangerous place right now,'' Allen said as a delivery truck roared by about six feet from his head. ``You have to pull off that road so quick and park on the bulkhead. Or else park on the road and take your chances. I think giving the people a save place to park would be the best thing those transportation folks could do.''
This summer, an average of two dozen cars parked along the wooden bridge each afternoon. On weekends, 20 or more vehicles often squeezed onto the street's slender shoulders. Some license plates were from as far away as Alaska and Canada.
Many locals also join the crowded crabbing convention.
``It's one of the only places around here where anyone can go and be sure to catch crabs,'' said Colington Island Deputy Fire Chief Kim Piddington, whose station is across the intersection from the proposed parking lot. ``I hope they do create some spaces and get these people off the road.''
``It'd surely give us more peace of mind if we had somewhere safe to park,'' Allen's wife, Flo, said as she flung a tiny crab from her dip net. ``And it'd give more people the incentive to come down here.''
In October 1992, the state awarded a $3 million construction contract to replace both of Colington Island's bridges and improve the highway approach routes. The longer Colington Creek bridge, which crosses the waterway that divides Colington Island from the Outer Banks, was completed in July. Work on the shorter, second bridge by the fire station began last month.
Original plans called for erecting the two-lane replacement structure south of the existing smaller bridge and rerouting the road at either end. About 1,000 feet of the old highway was to be demolished. Wetlands were to be created in its place.
The larger bridge project, however, allowed workers to create more wetlands than they had planned. So about two weeks ago, transportation officials decided they might be able to save some of the old roadway by the second span - and improve the crabbers' access at the same time.
``We're only going to be losing about four one-hundredths of an acre of wetlands altogether. And we'll give at least 15 vehicles a well-paved, well-marked place to park,'' N.C. Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Tommy Brite said Wednesday. ``The old road will become a 5-foot-wide walkway leading from the parking lot to the bulkhead. Cars will park at a 90-degree angle to the road. There will be bumper guards by every space.
``And, of course, the bulkhead will still be there for people to crab from,'' Brite said. ``Only now they won't have to cross the road to get there.''
The new steel and concrete bridge will still stretch 165 feet across the creek connecting Kitty Hawk Bay to the Roanoke Sound. The span still will sit south of the existing wooden structure. The project still will be completed by its late October deadline. Clearance beneath the bridge will remain 12 feet. And the changes won't cost taxpayers much.
``Money we would've used to remove the pavement now will be used to create that parking lot,'' Brite said. ``It's not adding much cost at all.'' Probably less than ``a couple thousand dollars.''
Although Brite designed the parking area and walkway, he credits Board of Transportation member R.V. Owens III with the plan. Owens and N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, pushed to save the bulkhead and help the crabbers, Brite said. Owens said preserving such an historic recreational site was only right.
``It needed to be enhanced. Areas like that need to be all over Dare County. Those places are what we're all about,'' Owens said Wednesday. ``We're also going to try to fix the shoulder along the road by the firehouse and fill it in with some gravel so overflow people can park along that road, too.
``We want crabbers to keep coming to Chicken Neck Creek.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, Staff
Crabbers tend their chicken necks along the shoulder of Route 1217,
a traffic hotspot on Colington Island. As traffic has risen, parking
spaces and a paved walkway are being added to reduce hazards to
crabbers. by CNB