THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030402
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
The state Department of Transportation would like to start work as early as October on a new Chowan River Bridge to carry a widened U.S. 17 as part of a planned expressway linking Norfolk and Raleigh.
``We're ready to go as soon as the required permits are approved for this $88.1 million project in Chowan and Bertie counties,'' said William Jones, a spokesman for the DOT in Raleigh.
The Army Corps of Engineers in Wilmington last week asked for comments on a request by the DOT to fill about 15 acres of wetlands and a quarter of an acre of open water where the new bridge and approaches will be built.
The multiple-lane, high-rise bridge will replace the existing two-lane span and swing bridge, Jones said.
Before work can begin, the corps must issue permits that would allow the DOT to fill ``forested riverine wetlands'' on each side of the Chowan River as well as in open near-shore waters.
``Wetlands adjacent to the Chowan River . . . are of very high quality and a total of 11.08 of the 14.92 acres of forested riverine acres (will) be destroyed,'' the corps said in reviewing the DOT request.
In the request, the DOT said it wants make 9.3 miles of improvements to Route 17, including the new Chowan River span. Route 17 will be widened to four lanes from the Route 17-Business east of Edenton to a point half a mile beyond the western shore of the river. A new bridge would also be built across Pembroke Creek on the Edenton side of the river.
In a complicated trade-off to balance the loss of wetlands, the DOT proposes to ``mitigate'' the destruction by ``debiting wetland acres from the Dismal Swamp Mitigation Site currently under construction'' in Gates, Perquimans and Bertie counties.
Altogether, the DOT said, the ``mitigation'' would in effect return 83.10 acres of wetlands to replace the approximately 15 acres filled or modified to build the new bridge and highway.
Marty VanDuyen, chief of public relations at the Wilmington Engineer District headquarters, said hearings on the DOT request and further reviews by several environmental agencies will be required.
The corps said that if any civilian agency of the state denies the permits, the corps will do likewise.
Jones, the DOT spokesman, said that even if all of the permits are received by August, work on the 24-month to 36-month bridge-highway project would not start until October at the earliest.
The Norfolk-Raleigh expressway idea began nearly 10 years ago when then U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford, D-N.C., earmarked about $40 million in federal highway funds to start an ``interstate-style'' highway across Northeastern North Carolina.
After several hearings in Albemarle communities, it was decided to use the money to improve Route 17 rather than build a new highway. This dovetailed with existing plans of the DOT, and North Carolina road builders are hurrying to widen a few remaining two-lane sections of Route 17 and the U.S. 64 highway link to Raleigh.
Much of Route 17 from the Virginia line to Norfolk is still two lanes. Except for a few short stretches, Route 17 in North Carolina is four lanes all the way to Williamston. Interconnecting U.S. 64 has likewise been widened from Tarboro to Raleigh. by CNB