Finally, OBX To Get A Mid-Currituck Bridge!
February 23, 2008
Finally, after years and years of talk and no real solid plans, it looks as if the Outer Banks is finally going to get the long-debated Mid-Currituck Bridge! If you’ve ever been to the Outer Banks during the peak Summer season, you’ve no doubt been stuck in endless traffic coming over the Wright Memorial Bridge into Kitty Hawk. There has been much debate about whether to construct a second bridge farther north, or simply widen Route 12 (NC-12 is the road that stretches from north of Corolla southward to Cape Hatteras and is known as the Beach Road where it parallels Highway 158 in the more commercial stretch of the Outer Banks).
Those in support of the bridge opposed the only alternative, which would have been to widen NC-12 from two to four lanes from Kitty Hawk to Corolla, in turn destroying the character of the northern Outer Banks, especially in quaint villages such as Duck.
The Outer Banks is pretty much my second home. I go there all the time with family and friends. For the most part, I stay in either Corolla or Duck (or somewhere in between), both of which are a good 45 minutes north of the Wright Memorial Bridge, and that’s without traffic backups. The Mid-Currituck Bridge would not only alleviate congestion, but also shave a lot of time off travel for people like myself that stay on that stretch of beach. Think about it. If you’re driving from Richmond, you come in south down Highway 158 on the mainland, then go across the Wright Memorial Bridge, and drive north again, and by the time you reach your beach house you’re 7 miles from where you were two hours ago.
The new bridge has been approved (funding has been approved since 1989 but nothing has been done to start construction!) and construction will start in early 2009, opening tentatively in 2013! You’ll be able to fly on across the Currituck Sound once you reach Coinjock on the mainland and be right at the TimBuck II Shopping Complex near Corolla in 5 minutes! That knocks off nearly two hours from the 4 hour trip from Short Pump to Corolla! That’s pretty exciting, and makes it a lot more affordable to go down there gas-wise. There supposedly will be an $8 toll during the peak Summer season, but that’s far less than the money it would cost for gas to drive for two more hours, plus time is money. It’s estimated the project will cost between $340 and $745 million dollars. There are six current alignment proposals, which can be seen in the map graphic.
More Information:
Trevor,
My name is Allison Hammond, and I am a staff member on the Deep Run Sentinel. I am writing an article about your being recognized for saving the church and doing other good work like participating in the Marathon Dance and keeping up your website. My editor told me that I could contact you through your website and that you would reply, so if you could answer my questions as soon as possible, I would very much appreciate that. If you could send your answers to my questions to abhammond@henrico.gaggle.net, that would really help. Here are the questions:
- Which church did you save?
- Where is the church located?
- What did you do to save the church?
- Why did you save the church?
- How do you keep up your website?
- How are you involved in this year’s Marathon Dance?
- What are you planning to do in the future regarding service to the community and career?
Thank you for answering my questions regarding this article.
- Allison Hammond
great article on the bridge, dude. Thanks for the update … OBX Dave
I guess you have never gotten off the beat’in path and drove through the nice quaint village of Aydlett,NC. Don’t blink because you’ll pass through it before you know it. We too have a nice quiet community that will be totally destroyed once this bridge is put through the middle of it. Since we don’t have the money to spend buying politicians and so-called “Bridge Studies” we have to rely on grass roots tactics.(Writing Letters). I moved to Aydlett 17 years ago to get away from the hustle and bustle of the OBX Beaches. To no avail. The same reason you love the Outer Banks is the same reason I love Aydlett. It’s a beautiful place to visit or live. And we would like to keep it that way. When people buy property on the Currituck Outer Banks they buy it for it’s beauty and solitude. Call me old fashion but I like things just the way they are. The problem with todays society is that everyone is in a hurry. Hurry to do this; Hurry to do that. No one can just slow down and enjoy this prestine area. I’m married and have two children . Our community means a lot to me and my family. Just like the nice folks in Duck,Southern Shores and Corolla we too don’t want our community in Aydlett destroyed. The “powers to be” have pretty much spoken and our fate has been sealed. But we will not go down without a fight and I guess you can say you can chalk this one up to greed and impatience.
It’s great and all that a few thousand tourists will be able to get to their rental houses faster in the summer…but then again what about all of the residents of buxton and hatteras that will have no access to the mainland? Sure we could build a 700 million dollar bridge to alleviate traffic, but whats the point if hundreds of people are cut off from the mainland except by ferry and numerous more killed when the Bonner Bridge collapses? The Bonner Bridge is rated 2 out of 100 at the last check, the bridge that collapsed a few months ago that was all over the news was rater at 50 out of 100. Bonner Bridge was built in 1963, with a 30 year max lifetime, if we don’t stop worrying about saving time versus worrying about saving lives we will all regret it.
Build, build, build. I feel sorry for folks in Aydlett. Goodbye Corolla, you are now Va Beach. Tourists are King. What a shame.
And what's up with a Spanish company getting the contract?? Oh well, think how much the state will get in tolls?? And how many illegals will have work in this recession.