Insults won't build useful, long-lasting bridges

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, December 12, 2013.

Demonizing doesn't lead to productive discussions and useful solutions. Unfortunately for North Carolina taxpayers, that's the tactic Gov. Pat McCrory and Transportation Secretary Tony Tata have chosen to deal with opponents to their plan for replacing the Bonner Bridge on the Outer Banks.

Building a new bridge took on more urgency last week when inspectors found Oregon Inlet currents had washed away sand from the 50-year-old bridge's support columns, threatening its stability. The bridge is closed until the supports are repaired. Residents and visitors can only reach Hatteras Island by ferry.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, meanwhile, has refused to withdraw its appeal of a federal court's rejection of its suit, which seeks a much longer, more expensive span to replace the Bonner. Environmental groups contend that a 17-mile-long bridge is needed to cope with frequent ocean washovers that cut through N.C. 12 and tear up the pavement.

McCrory said that by continuing to pursue the longer bridge and blocking a shorter replacement span, the law center is "putting people in jeopardy. And they're putting jobs in jeopardy."

Tata went way over the top, saying "These ivory tower elitists file these lawsuits from their air-conditioned offices in Chapel Hill. And they do so with their lattes and their contempt, and chuckle while the good people of the Outer Banks are fighting hard to scratch out a living here based on tourism and based on access."

Good sound bite, maybe, but not helpful. The good people of the Outer Banks have had their fight to scratch out a living interrupted several times in recent years by ocean storms that severed their only highway. With ocean levels rising, that's likely to happen more often in coming years. A plan to essentially replicate the existing Bonner Bridge does nothing to protect Hatteras Island and its economy from those emergencies.

The law center's suit correctly points out that the state's plan will "build a bridge that will be useless without an access road and additional bridges ... built through an eroding, unstable section of Hatteras Island and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Yet they elected not to identify, disclose or evaluate a plan for that access route."

The Bonner Bridge is dangerously antiquated and in urgent need of replacement. It's time to put lawsuits and invective aside and negotiate a plan that will be a long-term solution to a serious Outer Banks problem.