Officials hold meeting for Design ideas for Mid-Currituck Bridge

See the article below from the Daily Advance regarind a meeting being held to discuss some design elements for the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge.

Locals discuss bridge design

By Cindy Beamon

The Daily Advance

Sunday, September 18, 2011

CURRITUCK — Business people and local leaders were recently part of an “idea gathering meeting” for the design of a mid-county bridge in Currituck.

The meeting, hosted earlier this month by the N.C. Turnpike Authority in Currituck, focused mostly on what the bridge may look like. The type of materials — tile, brick, concrete — were among the options discussed for the eight-mile span from Currituck’s mainland across Currituck Sound to the Outer Banks.

Plans for the bridge have it crossing the sound with landing points near Aydlett and Corolla.

The group discussed if the bridge should look modern or traditional. Or if the toll plaza should resemble the Whalehead Club or the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

“It appears to me that they are trying to incorporate things that are important to Currituck’s history into the design,” Currituck Commissioner Paul O’Neal, who attended the meeting, said in a phone interview.

O’Neal said the group leaned toward a low-profile bridge to reduce interference with ducks and other waterfowl. Most liked a non-intrusive design with low lighting to minimize the impact on Aydlett and surrounding areas, he said.

The groups also discussed how quickly the N.C. Turnpike Authority was moving toward construction, said Commissioner Butch Petrey, who also attended the meeting.

The project still needs official approval from the N.C. Department of Transportation, although plans for financing and design of the $660 million span have been advancing over the past year. The Turnpike Authority is expected to release its environmental impact statement this month and make its final decision on the project this fall.

According to Turnpike Authority, construction is tentatively scheduled to begin on the bridge in either late summer-early fall of next year and the span is slated to open to traffic in the fall-winter 2017.

Several in the group were concerned that plans for the bridge were moving too slowly, Petrey said.

State Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, was among those pushing for the project to move faster.

“We need to get it under construction as soon as possible,” said Owens, noting the bridge almost lost funding during budget deliberations in the General Assembly this year. Legislation to build the bridge passed in 1996, but the more time that lapses, the more difficult it becomes to ensure funding, Owens said in a telephone interview.

Financing for the bridge is expected to come from a mix of state and private dollars. The state agreed to pay $15 million a year for three years and $28 million thereafter for up to 50 years to keep the cost of tolls down. Construction and financing for the bridge would come from private investors who plan to recoup their investment by charging tolls, estimated to range from $6 to $12 one way. A recent study said one-way tolls could go as high as $28 during peak days of the tourist season.

The Turnpike Authority plans to use ideas from the meeting to develop design plans for the bridge, said Greer Beaty, communications director for the N.C. Department of Transportation.

A public meeting on the bridge’s design will be scheduled later, she said.