THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270632
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ATLANTIC BEACH LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A proposal to move a section of N.C. 12 out of reach of dangerous ocean overwash that has often closed the Outer Banks highway in recent years was approved Thursday by a state panel that regulates coastal development.
The state Department of Transportation plan calls for moving a 3.3-mile section of the road about 350 feet west of its current location, routing it through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Hatteras Island, four to seven miles south of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.
The state Coastal Resources Commission voted unanimously to approve the plan.
Commission action was required because the new highway route does not meet setback requirements from the water.
Officials with the Division of Coastal Management, however, urged the commission to approve the plan because the proposed route would do less damage to wetlands than a road that met the agency's setback requirements.
Relocating the highway is just a temporary solution to the problem of overwash along the two-lane road linking Hatteras Island to the mainland, said Douglas Huggett, environmental specialist with the DOT's highway division.
DOT engineers estimate the newly relocated road will last about 15 years before it is threatened by ocean overwash - enough time for a task force composed of Dare County, state and federal officials to develop a long-term solution to the erosion that is threatening the highway, Huggett said.``This is a medium-term solution,'' he said. ``We're not saying that there's never, ever going to be sand or water washing over this road. . . but it's a matter of degrees.''
The DOT proposed moving the highway, expected to cost $3 million, as a less expensive alternative to the continuous maintenance now required to keep the road open, he said.
Maintenance work on the 3.3-mile section of roadway now costs about $1.5 million a year.
The project still needs approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must give DOT permission to build the road through wetlands that are part of the national refuge. by CNB