NCTA Answers County's Assumptions

A follow-up article has been printed in the Daily Advance addressing some of the County Commissioners assumption that the NCTA is caving to environmental pressures. Below is the article for the Daily Advance's Toby Tate:

Engineer: No deal on span plan

By Toby Tate
Staff Writer

Saturday, October 24, 2009

While the negative public reaction to an option for the Mid-Currituck Bridge project wasn’t unexpected, a state official says it’s not true the option represents a “deal” to appease environmentalists’ concerns about the bridge project.

Jennifer Harris, an engineer with the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, in fact says the plan, referred to as “Option B,” is not being pushed by environmentalists, even though it addresses an existing environmental issue — the division of Maple Swamp.

“We meet with environmentalists very regularly,” Harris said. “The idea about us striking a deal — I don’t know where that came from. We met with resource and regulatory environmental agencies and discussed the benefits and disadvantages of this opportunity and they didn’t object to us studying it.”

Harris was responding to a recent news report that the Turnpike Authority had struck a deal with environmentalists by proposing Option B for the mid-county bridge project.

In addition, Currituck Commissioner Barry Nelms said at a recent Currituck commissioners meeting that Option B was proposed to “appease” environmentalists. Nelms and the other six members of the Board of Commissioners have adopted a resolution formally opposing the option because they say it will negatively affect the Aydlett community.

Under Option B — one of three options for the bridge project — most of the existing Aydlett Road that now serves the Aydlett community would be removed. A new road north of the community would be constructed. Traffic bound for both Aydlett and the mid-county bridge would use the new road, which would include exits for Aydlett residents. The new road would also contain toll booths for the bridge.

Turnpike officials have touted Option B, saying it would both save money — taking $60 million off the bridge’s $660 million cost — and make improvements to the natural environment in Aydlett.

“We’ve been studying this project for a few years and doing the engineering work under a few parameters and a few assumptions,” Harris said at an Oct. 12 meeting in Currituck. “(This option) could save the project a considerable amount of money and help the project be more financially feasible as well as from a natural environment standpoint provide some improvements.”

The chief improvement removing Aydlett Road would make is that it would reconnect Maple Swamp, Harris said.

“Aydlett Road is essentially a dam in between two parts of Maple Swamp,” she said during the Oct. 12 meeting. “It keeps the swamp from being a continuous natural feature.”

Many Aydlett residents, however, oppose the option because they say it will increase traffic in their community and disrupt their rural quality of life. In their resolution, Currituck commissioners endorsed a plan that keeps Aydlett Road and puts the toll booths for the bridge closer to U.S. Highway 158.

Harris said the reaction from Currituck residents and officials wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“I can’t say that I didn’t expect that reaction,” she said. “(Option B) does have different effects on the community. How that (option) relates to the community is different from (how) ‘Option A’ (affects the community) and that’s why we went” to the Oct. 12 meeting.

Harris said no final decisions have been made about which option will be selected for the bridge plan. And despite commissioners and residents’ opposition, she believes Option B is a viable plan that should be considered.

“I think the component that preserves a large portion of Maple Swamp is a key component” of the bridge plan, Harris said. “We’re looking at trying to minimize the impact with something that is financially feasible. You can do a project that avoids and minimizes impacts at a cost or you can minimize cost at an impact to the human and natural environment. We’re looking at a plan that doesn’t have detrimental effects but is also financially feasible.”

The purpose for the new bridge, according to the Turnpike Authority, is to improve traffic flow between U.S. 158 and N.C. Highway 12, reduce the travel time for those traveling between the Currituck mainland and the Outer Banks and speed up evacuation of the Outer Banks during hurricanes.

The Turnpike Authority is currently studying the proposed bridge’s impact on the environment. Once that study is complete, the Turnpike Authority will release it for comment to federal and state agencies as well as the public.

Regardless of which option is chosen, Harris believes the bridge project will go forward. Not building the bridge won’t solve the problem of ever-increasing traffic headed to the Outer Banks.

“The alternative to do nothing is an option that wouldn’t address transportation needs,” she said. “You have different users and you have to listen to all perspectives. We have to have an understanding that there are some people there all year long and some who visit, so it’s a unique dynamic.”