DATE: Friday, October 10, 1997              TAG: 9710100664

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: COROLLA                           LENGTH:   95 lines

BRIDGE PLAN'S COSTS MAY OUTWEIGH ITS BENEFITS SPAN WOULD SPEED OUTER BANKS JAUNTS, BUT IT ALSO WOULD BRING MORE TRAFFIC

A bridge linking Currituck County's mainland with the Outer Banks will speed trips to the northern barrier island beaches and help Corolla residents during hurricane evacuations.

But a mid-county span also will bring thousands of additional visitors to the isolated area.

Those two conflicting outcomes have delayed a public hearing on the $82 million project for almost two years.

Transportation officials say they still hope to begin construction by fall 2001, and open the bridge about three years later.

And they've decided that the western end of the two-lane, 5-mile-long span will be near Aydlett while the eastern end will be close to Corolla's Food Lion.

But they are having trouble justifying the need for the bridge.

``Part of our original plan was to alleviate traffic. But with new development the bridge will bring, it actually will create more traffic,'' said Cindy Sharer, the state Department of Transportation's planning engineer for the mid-county bridge project. ``So it might counteract the very benefits it was designed to bring.

``We're now rewording the purpose-and-need part of our environmental impact statement and leaving out all references to hurricane evacuations and improved traffic conditions,'' Shearer said Thursday from her Raleigh office. ``We're just focusing on making it a shorter trip to get from the mainland to Currituck's Outer Banks.''

The barrier islands between Duck and the Virginia line are home to about 300 permanent residents. In summer months, more than 25,000 people occupy the skinny 15-mile-long stretch of sand. Corolla is about a 2 1/2-hour drive - without traffic problems - from Hampton Roads.

Once the new bridge is built, it will cut driving time from Tidewater to Corolla to under an hour - and could carry as many as 10,000 cars daily during the peak tourist season.

The highway department received an environmental impact statement about the mid-county bridge project in April 1996. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the document's purpose statement, saying the span would bring as much traffic as it would relieve. Until the federal agency signs the statement, state officials can't proceed with public hearings or any other final planning stages.

In the meantime, Corolla is growing on its own - without the bridge. Since January 1996, Currituck County's Corolla office has issued permits for 308 new houses valued at more than $80 million and 27 commercial building permits - all for properties on the Outer Banks. This week, officials also acknowledged that a three-story, 80-room hotel is coming to Corolla. ``We were anticipating this sort of thing in our traffic projections,'' Shearer said. ``But I'm surprised it's happening so soon.''

The availability of drinking water for Currituck's Outer Banks has concerned some developers. But a recent agreement that allows Dare County to provide water for its northern neighbors during emergency situations may have relieved some of those fears.

``Currituck also wants to use the mid-county bridge to hang water lines from,'' Shearer said - so water might be pumped from the mainland to beach communities.

Currituck's residents have mixed emotions about the mid-county bridge.

It would link their population - bringing barrier island children closer to Currituck's schools and homeowners closer to medical and social services. But it also would bring thousands of additional people to Corolla, it could slice Aydlett's soundfront village in half and would cut through the center of Maple Swamp - one of the largest undisturbed swamps in northeastern North Carolina and home to dozens of varieties of protected wildlife.

Previous plans cited five options for the western end of the bridge: near Waterlily; three areas around Aydlett; and near Poplar Branch.

Shearer said Thursday, however, that only the Aydlett options remain.

``It will be south of Elliott Road, on the south side of Aydlett; south of Lighthouse View Road on the north side of Aydlett; or in central Aydlett, just south of Soundview Road,'' she said.

In 1995, legislators approved a state Bridge Authority that can charge tolls of up to $10 per vehicle to cross the planned Corolla span. The mid-county bridge could be the first toll bridge in North Carolina. And it probably will have controlled access, so drivers won't be able to access or exit the span except from U.S. 158 on the western end and N.C. 12 on the eastern end.

``We're planning on putting the bridge over the local streets in Aydlett. But no matter what you do, the people of Aydlett will feel the noise and visual effects from this project without getting any of its advantages,'' Shearer said.

``I understand why they might be upset.''

The eastern end of the bridge also remains an uncertainty. In February 1996, state officials spent $1.04 million purchasing a 1.7-acre tract just north of TimBuck II shopping center, across from Corolla's Food Lion. Shearer said, however, that officials still could decide to locate the eastern end of the bridge a half-mile north - at the northern edge of Monteray Shores.

``We're holding that tract by the Food Lion, just in case,'' Shearer said.

``We can always sell it if the other site is selected.''

State officials plan to start purchasing land for the mid-county bridge's right-of-way in June 1999. ILLUSTRATION: Map

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