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Bonner Bridge



The 17-mile alternative will not make dredging of the
Oregon Inlet any less expensive unless they put in a
ferry.  However, I know that even ferry routes are
routinely dredged in NC.  You just can't get around
that unless you fly.  

The 17-mile elevated bridge will probably only be
about 10 feet off the ground for 16 miles.  It will
reduce mitigation requirements (very expensive) for
wetland impacts.  It will also end the high
maintenance costs associated with NC 12.  

The locals will be the ones who will put up a fight
about access.  Anything that slightly changes the
local economy there usually becomes a huge factor with
public projects. (If you did not know it, there is a
LOT of money and power there).  If you want to read a
local news article pertaining to this, go to
http://obsentinel.com/articles/2003/07/01/politics/bridge.txt

Access will be considered a high priority to the local
economy.  However, most don't realize the special
opportunities (business and recreational) that limited
access would provide.  For example, Cape Lookout
supports a vibrant small ferry operator business
community and there is no bridge to that island!

I find it rather sardonic that most business people,
supposedly capitalists and competitors, don't know how
to make lemonade from lemons!!!!!

Kendrick Weeks
Fuquay Varina

Kendrick Weeks

My impression was that one of the non-environmental
reasons why plan 4
(the 17-mile, bypass-PI plan) was a good idea was that
it would end the
really, really expensive dredging and maintenance of
Oregon Inlet,
required for the continued safe use of Bonner Bridge.
Of course, we're
talking geological processes here; the bridge could
remain safe for 
auto
traffic until we're all dead and gone, and for foot
traffic even longer
than that. So my pondering about a ferry or other
access to PI was 
looking
ahead to that point in time. I mean, after all, our
great-grandkids 
might
be birders too, right? And I kinda imagine that
keeping that bridge 
safe
must cost a heck of a lot more than your average NWR
wildlife drive,
because building the alternative is sure going to!
Optimist that I am, 
I
can't convince myself that NCDOT would consider a
bypass if it weren't 
at
least in the same price-tag ballpark as maintaining
the current
configuration...

GOod birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/




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