THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150253
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATERLILY LENGTH: 92 lines
The view of Currituck Sound from two-lane Waterlily Road, which hugs the shoreline of Churches Island, is among the prettiest in the Albemarle.
It's also among the most dangerous, according to people who use it.
``Along here, there's not much road at all,'' says resident Leslie Collier III, referring to one particular stretch along the 3 1/2-mile asphalt path. ``You run off the road here, you run into the sound.''
Collier, 66, stood on the guardrail-less shoulder which drops off dramatically just a few feet away.
There are other stretches like it along State Road 1142, which Collier and 235 of his neighbors have petitioned the governor to save. It is their only road in and out of Churches Island.
``We've got an excellent road built out there now, and it would be a shame to replace it,'' said Collier, a retired tugboat captain who repeatedly has asked for state intervention to stop the sound from swallowing up the shoreline.
``The state owns the sound, and it's the state's waters that are washing the banks away,'' Collier explained while motoring around in his 1977 Chevy pickup.
The 30-year island resident plans to renew his appeal for help at Monday night's Currituck County Board of Commissioners meeting.
He wants the state to consider bulkheading the shoreline and building back certain areas, just as he did years ago on his own waterfront property. The alternative, he says, is to move the road.
``We're trying to save the state money, really, because to let the road wash away is going to cost them more,'' Collier said.
For decades, rough weather and boaters' wakes have eroded what is the northbound shoulder of a 16-foot-wide asphalt road, built in 1956.
Wooden pilings from an abandoned bulkhead indicate where the shoreline extended in the 1930s. But the structure wasn't tied back, Collier said, and gave in to time and pressure. The posts are now several feet in the water.
Even in some of the wider spots, the shoulder may be in danger of being undermined by rodent tunnels or storm erosion.
Collier and a friend recently videotaped the shoreline from the water, and saw numerous barren spots, sagging trees and dangling root systems. In one area, a mound of oyster and clam shells believed to have been buried by ancient Native Americans has been exposed.
``It used to be the erosion was measured in two or three or four inches a year. But recently, in some places, it's been a foot to 15 inches a year,'' Collier said. ``So it isn't long before there's going to be a total collapse of the road somewhere.''
His wife, Jackie, recalled coming back from a shopping trip one day and thinking something wasn't quite right.
``Then I figured it out. It was a tree that had disappeared from the side of the road,'' she said.
Jackie Collier said she wasn't sure if the tree had fallen into the sound or, like others, just sunk out of view.
Both have been happening, she added..
In 1970, about four years after the Colliers and their two sons moved to Churches Island, a Superior Court ruling declared the road ``unsafe'' and ordered a police escort for school buses.
That same year, then-Gov. Bob Scott visited the site to inspect the road. He, too, questioned the road's safety and asked the Highway Commission to fill in shoulders with rock and dirt to prevent further erosion.
The state also, under the governor's direction, relocated the southern portion of the road from the bank of the Intracoastal Waterway to its present location through a marsh.
Chunks of concrete and rock were put along the shoreline in some northern sections in 1985 after a particularly severe storm.
``The state's used Band-Aids, but that's it. It's gotten to the point where we're going to need major surgery,'' Collier said.
``Bulkheading is the only thing that's going to save it,'' he said.
Collier has made almost annual appearances before state transportation officials to appeal for help at Currituck County's secondary roads meeting.
But other state-maintained roads have been given a priority, Collier said.
Earlier last week, division engineer Don Conner said that North Carolina, which has the largest state-maintained highway system in the nation, has a $269 million maintenance backlog.
Collier and most of the 300 residents of Churches Island say more is needed - and now - to save the road and, possibly, the lives of some people who travel it.
Two school buses make daily passes through the island, although they no longer are escorted. Hundreds of recreation vehicles visit the Hampton Lodge Campground each summer.
The road can not always accommodate two wide vehicles passing in opposite directions, which means someone must move onto the shoulders.
``We're just so worried that one of these days somebody's going to force a school bus off the road, or there's going to be a cave-in,'' Jackie said.
Leslie Collier is determined to fight on.
``I'm going to keep after them because we plan to spend the rest of our days here, and if we get sick, they're not going to be able to get to us by ambulance. They'll have to send a helicopter,'' he said.