THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190627
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
R.V. Owens III wants to straighten ``Dead Man's Curve.''
Now, there are three big curves in the two-lane state Route 345 to Wanchese. In the past six months, at least two people have been killed in car accidents on that portion of the dead-end road. Since 1987, more than 93 traffic accidents have occurred in the mile-long stretch of that blacktop which locals call ``Dead Man's Curve.''
Owens, who represents the Albemarle area on the state's transportation board, said it's time North Carolina highway officials straighten out the problem.
``Nobody's ever done anything to that road,'' Owens said Thursday from his Nags Head office. ``They built it to curve around the high-ground hammocks. But it's been that way for 50 years.
``It's so windy there, if you just look down for a second you'll end up in the other lane,'' said Owens. ``What happened along that road in Wanchese was tragic. It's something I want to fix.''
In November, a seven-year-old Wanchese boy was killed and five other people were injured when the truck he was riding in struck another vehicle. That incident - and a similar one in almost the same spot a half-year earlier - prompted residents to request improvements to the only road into their fishing village.
The speed limit on N.C. Route 345 is 55 miles per hour in most places. Although the road is slightly wider than other two-lane highways, deep ditches line both shoulders, separating the road from wetlands. So if drivers need to swerve, there is nowhere for them to go except off the road.
About 700 people live in Wanchese year-round. Transportation officials say an average of 4,000 vehicles traverse Route 345 daily. More than one-fourth of the accidents that happen on that road occur at night.
On Thursday, Owens asked state transportation officials to put the Wanchese road straightening project on their Transportation Improvement Plan. He is scheduled to make a formal request during a Feb. 1 meeting in Raleigh.State highway employees will revise the seven-year plan in July.
``It's really a wish list. But we're going to try to build a new road in Wanchese,'' said Owens. ``It'll be a top priority for this area. I'll move some other projects around to make sure of that. But I think it's going to take a while to move that little stretch of road.''
Widening the Wanchese road and softening some of the curves would cost about $300,000, Owens said. Straightening out the most dangerous one-mile stretch of blacktop would cost about $1.5 million. ``For that difference,'' Owens asked, ``why not just straighten it out and correct the problem area?''
Preliminary plans call for state highway workers to widen the 22-foot Wanchese roadbed to 26 feet, transportation engineer Don Conner said.
District engineer Jerry Jennings explained that if motorists are heading into Wanchese on Route 345, the straightening project would start just before the road begins its first curve to the left - past Skyco. The road would be moved to the right side of its current location, cutting off all three curves. The new portion would end just after the third place the highway curves to the left.
``Basically, we'd eliminate three big curves and create one gradual one,'' Jennings said. ``We'd be getting rid of Dead Man's Curve.''
Because the road will have to be moved into a needle rush marsh, the project will require an Environmental Impact Statement - which could take up to two years. Transportation officials also will have to agree to mitigate other wetlands to compensate for the area they'll have to fill to build the roadbed. Right-of-way acquisition and wetlands mitigation will account for about half of the final $1.5 million price tag, Conner said.
``More than likely, a project that's currently funded will have to be moved back if you're going to straighten out that road to Wanchese,'' said Conner. ``This project obviously has a lot of interest, though, because of that little boy who got killed there.''
The earliest an environmental impact study could begin would be after the project is put on the state's transportation improvement plan, Conner said - sometime after July.
``It's a bad road,'' said Wanchese native Ted Hayes, who has been driving Route 345 since 1949. ``It'd probably be better in the long run if they straightened it out. But other than someone else not driving it properly, that road's never really given me any problems. I drive it every day. And, quite frankly, it's never really bothered me at all.'' by CNB