THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509080494
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Members of the North Carolina Board of Transportation are expected to approve planning costs today at a meeting in New Bern for a $92.8 million replacement span for the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County.
R.V. Owens III, Dare County's representative on the board, said Thursday he was sure the group would quickly approve the funding.
``If it's on our agenda, it'll pass, and we made sure it would be on the agenda for this week's New Bern meeting,'' said Owens, of Manteo.
The board will consider a final $1,123,316 contract for Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, a Raleigh engineering firm, that will include money for ``additional archeological studies and revisions to update an environmental impact statement.''
The company won the contract to participate in designs for the new bridge after the Department of Transportation decided the firm's expertise was necessary to augment the department's in-house planning.
Parsons Brinckerhoff was originally awarded $963,827 for the bridge planning, but the department decided to ask the Transportation Board to approve another $159,316 for additional ecological research at Oregon Inlet.
``There's still a lot of design and environmental work that will have to be done, but we hope there'll be a new bridge in place across the inlet within five years,'' state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said from his Manteo office Thursday.
Basnight has been pushing for a new Oregon Inlet bridge since he first was elected to the General Assembly as a state senator in 1984.
When designs for the new bridge are completed, they will include improvements to the state Route 12 highway approaches.
Basnight, president pro tem of the state Senate, said federal funds would provide 80 percent of the costs for the new span, and state highway funds would provide the remaining 20 percent, or about $18.5 million.
The existing two-lane Bonner Bridge has experienced erosion from swift tidal currents around some of the southern pilings and other damage since it was build in the mid-1960s.
Transportation board members are also expected to approve additional private engineering costs for a $23.5 million widening of U.S. 17 between Windsor in Bertie County and the U.S. 17 Chowan River bridge.
Transportation Department officials will ask the board to approve a $20,378.21 supplemental engineering fee for the Maximum Engineering Co., which earlier won a $263,841 contract to develop the plans for the widening.
KEYWORDS: BONNER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT OREGON INLET BRIDGE by CNB