THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090297
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Too few bidders for a tricky underwater job will delay preliminary work on a new Oregon Inlet bridge that someday will replace the existing white span that carries N.C. 12 to Hatteras Island.
``We'd hoped to start driving test piles this month, but Transportation Secretary Garland Garrett Jr. rejected the only bid we received because it was too high,'' William Jones, a state Department of Transportation spokesman, said Monday in Raleigh.
``DOT engineers estimated the cost of sinking the test pilings at $922,320, but the one bid we got was for $1,425,500 - 54.6 percent over our estimate.
``So Secretary Garrett decided to re-advertise the Oregon Inlet job, and new bids won't be received for another 30 days at least,'' Jones said.
Tidewater Construction Co. of Norfolk was the lone bidder when the Oregon Inlet project was advertised several months ago.
The Board of Transportation, including R.V. Owens III of Manteo, the Dare County member, had expected to approve money this week for the underwater tests at Oregon Inlet.
``The earliest we can get this item back on the agenda - assuming we receive more bids in a hurry - would be in the next month or so,'' Jones added.
The new 3.3-mile span over the turbulent Dare County inlet will eventually replace the bridge built in 1963. The new bridge is expected to cost $90 million, with the Federal Highway Fund paying 80 percent and the state picking up the remaining 20 percent.
The replacement span is expected to be built 200 feet west of the Hatteras Island approaches to the existing structure, named for the late U.S. Rep. Herbert Bonner, a Democrat who died shortly after the bridge was completed.
Oregon Inlet currents have often caused erosion around some of the pilings that support the Bonner Bridge. DOT designers hope that beefed-up plans for the new structure will make it more resistant to the scouring sands.
The test pilings that were supposed to be authorized by the Board of Transportation Friday will eventually be driven as much as 140 feet into the sands of the inlet, the engineers said. At least two of the 56-inch diameter pilings will be connected for load-bearing calculations that will govern the design of the new bridge supports.
In other action, the Board of Transportation at the Friday meeting is expected to release $1,425,000 for widening of N.C. 168 from Barco to Sligo in Currituck County. The money is the 1996 DOT increment of $5,700,000 approved for improving N.C. 168 to the Virginia line.
The highway is the principal route used to get from Hampton Roads to the Outer Banks. by CNB