The Bonner Bridge spans Oregon Inlet, linking the northern Outer Banks with Pea Island and Hatteras. It is an aging bridge, put into service in 1963 with an expected life span of 40 years.
Beginning in 1993, NCDOT in cooperation with the Federal Highway Authority (FWHA) began studying how to replace the bridge. The plans have been mired in controversy since the first Environmental Impact Statement was issued and even with a final determination about how to proceed, controversy and legal actions continue to dog the project.
At the heart of the debate over how to replace the bridge are environmental concerns, access to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and cost.
Although a number of proposals were examined, two competing views of how to connect Hatteras Island with the rest of the world emerged. The plan favored by environmental groups, would create a new bridge corridor paralleling Pea Island in the Pamlico Sound. The bridge would be 17.5 miles in length and would completely bypass Pea Island, making landfall on the north end of Rodanthe.
NCDOT, however, chose a phased approach that would first replace the aging Bonner Bridge with a parallel span about a quarter mile to the west and then make adjustments and changes as needed to the existing road as it goes through Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Neither option is a perfect solution. Pea Island is an extraordinarily dynamic stretch of shoreline, prone to constant over wash and ever shifting sands. As an example, the road just north of Rodanthe–the “S” curves–has been an inlet in the past and will be an inlet again. The fazed approach, in fact, includes plans to bridge to build a bridge over the area that will become an inlet and allow nature to take its course.
One of the problems with the phased approach is that the road must remain within the existing right of way. Pea Island is administered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and by law, Fish and Wildlife is not permitted to grant a new right of way. There are some circumstances under which they may be able to do so, but there is no guarantee that would be the case.
The 17.5 mile bridge would certainly answer concerns about Refuge right of way and the dynamic nature of Pea Island. However, access to the wildlife refuge would be severely limited. State Route 12 (the highway that goes through the refuge) is maintained solely because it is a transportation corridor. If it is no longer needed to connect Hatteras Island with the northern Outer Banks, it will not be maintained.
The biggest problem, though, with the 17.5 mile bridge is the cost. At approximately $1.5 billion over the next seven years no agency or government body could see how the project could be financed. That decision was made a year ago, and government treasuries have become even more restricted since then.
Nonetheless, the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of a number of environmental groups, filed suit to stop the parallel bridge with phased approach from going forward. According to the legal brief, NCDOT failed to properly study how access through Pea Island would be maintained. The suit was filed as NCDOT was putting the project out for bids.
NCDOT, in a statement concerning the suit, indicated the project would go forward as the courts decided the fate of the bridge. According to their statement, “(NCDOT) finds that the information presented has already been studied and addressed numerous times over the past 20 years . . .”
Let’s hope this time we will see actionable progress for this long overdue project that is so vital to Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks as a whole.
