No Bridge over Troubled Water
December 9, 2013 - by
Chapel Hill-bashing may play well on the Outer Banks, but it’s not helping people who live or work south of Bonner Bridge.
DOT Secretary Tony Tata sounded like the Fox News commentator he once was when he blasted “ivory tower elitists (who) file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices in Chapel Hill…with their lattes and their contempt, and chuckle while the good people of the Outer Banks are fighting hard to scratch out a living….”
Governor McCrory, Senator Berger and Speaker Tillis jumped on the bandwagon bashing the Southern Environmental Law Center for blocking the bridge.
Every story, like every bridge, has two sides. And so does this one.
Derb Carter, the law center’s director, said, “DOT’s plan to build new bridges in the exact same places over Oregon Inlet and along NC-12 is going to cause the exact same problems that led to the current bridge closure and recent road closures: the ocean will continue to scour the new bridges and erode the road, NCDOT admits its proposed bridges will end up in the ocean, and the people of Hatteras Island will continue to be stranded by NCDOT’s poor planning for decades to come.”
A longer – and, yes, costlier – bridge over the calm waters of Pamlico Sound is the right long-term decision, Carter said, but DOT refuses to consider that alternative.
He also questioned why “Bonner Bridge closed so suddenly, without warning to the public after the bridge had been declared safe for travel just days before.”
I get both sides in this debate. I spend a lot of time at OBX. I’ve been over Bonner Bridge and down NC 12 more times than I can count. I know people whose lives and livelihoods are affected every time the ocean takes away their lifeline.
I don’t pretend to know the right answer here. But I do know that the political posturing going on in Raleigh over lawyers in Chapel Hill isn’t helping Outer Bankers. Unfortunately, this is what passes for leadership in Raleigh today.
To get a good – and, yes, fair and balanced – picture of the problem, including the geography and the history, read N&O Senior Editor Dan Barkin’s excellent Q&A.
No Bridge over Troubled Water
December 9, 2013/
Chapel Hill-bashing may play well on the Outer Banks, but it’s not helping people who live or work south of Bonner Bridge.
DOT Secretary Tony Tata sounded like the Fox News commentator he once was when he blasted “ivory tower elitists (who) file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices in Chapel Hill…with their lattes and their contempt, and chuckle while the good people of the Outer Banks are fighting hard to scratch out a living….”
Governor McCrory, Senator Berger and Speaker Tillis jumped on the bandwagon bashing the Southern Environmental Law Center for blocking the bridge.
Every story, like every bridge, has two sides. And so does this one.
Derb Carter, the law center’s director, said, “DOT’s plan to build new bridges in the exact same places over Oregon Inlet and along NC-12 is going to cause the exact same problems that led to the current bridge closure and recent road closures: the ocean will continue to scour the new bridges and erode the road, NCDOT admits its proposed bridges will end up in the ocean, and the people of Hatteras Island will continue to be stranded by NCDOT’s poor planning for decades to come.”
A longer – and, yes, costlier – bridge over the calm waters of Pamlico Sound is the right long-term decision, Carter said, but DOT refuses to consider that alternative.
He also questioned why “Bonner Bridge closed so suddenly, without warning to the public after the bridge had been declared safe for travel just days before.”
I get both sides in this debate. I spend a lot of time at OBX. I’ve been over Bonner Bridge and down NC 12 more times than I can count. I know people whose lives and livelihoods are affected every time the ocean takes away their lifeline.
I don’t pretend to know the right answer here. But I do know that the political posturing going on in Raleigh over lawyers in Chapel Hill isn’t helping Outer Bankers. Unfortunately, this is what passes for leadership in Raleigh today.
To get a good – and, yes, fair and balanced – picture of the problem, including the geography and the history, read N&O Senior Editor Dan Barkin’s excellent Q&A.