C. Bon(n)er bridge

No dude, NC follows the same despotic practices that many Northern states do: Despotism Lite. NCDOT has no problem writing blank checks and double timing work when it comes to building new highways around Charlotte and Raleigh.

 

obviously most of you posting here have no personal interest or concern for Hatteras. looks like this could take months unless they come up with another solution.

 

You must not have read my post right above yours.... NCDOT could do something very quickly, could have done something long ago.... Unfortunately they are more motivated to put overpasses over overpasses and continually upgrade roads around CLT and RDU while everything else around the state continues to degrade.... NCDOT chitts on the rest of the state.

Not to mention the envirowhacks and the Southern Environmental Law Center would rather there be no human life on the OBX...

 

Erock's full of truth and enlightenment yet again... kudos on that post

 

Ding, Ding, Ding!!! We have a winner! This is where the real hang up is as far as getting anything done with a bridge replacement.

I'm sure they (SELC, DoW, etc) love it every time this bridge gets shut down as it adds to the hardship of the folks on Hatteras Island. I believe they would like nothing more than to make Pea Island and all of Hatteras into one big old private bird sanctuary like Fishermans Island. These people are the left equivalent of the Tea Party wing nuts on the far right and just as dangerous. Man, I dislike extremism...

 

Spot on. Being a North Carolina native, I can tell you that I-40 around Durham has been a construction zone since 1984. You could blame the people for living on the island, but given the opportunity, I'd live there in a rat's heartbeat.

 

Erock and masterj are spot on. Its all despotism everywhere. Red/blue doesn't matter, they're all f*ing vampires sucking everyone dry. Money goes to Ral and Chlt for projects but gets siphoned off there and the projects take forever and run over budget, now they have started making toll roads and are wanting to make I-540 a toll road too. Won't be long before everything around the triangle will be toll roads.

This isn't a complaint on toll roads or me asking for the good folks of Buxton to pay for roads here. Just a general comment about how the pols rip everyone off an no one wins.

How long did it take for DOT to fix that small section of I-85 in Durham? 15 years??? Pretty much a case study in government incompetence and corruption.

Outlying areas get screwed, metro areas get screwed, we all get screwed 24x7 so the pols can line their pockets. Taxpayers lose, taxtakers win.

 

Seconded. To hell with extremists on both sides.

 

You guys should probably attend a public workshop before you start spewing out consipiracy theories on why the bridge has not been built. The state cannot nilly-willy select sites for projects, especially not projects with participating federal funds. If what I have heard is right, the biggest holdup here is the environmental groups fighting viable alternatives studies to the in-kind bridge replacement. This is federal law, the state cannot do anything about this holdup, otherwise they forfeit federal funding for the construction.

12 can be rebuilt in place circumventing many environmental laws under the guise of emergency repairs. Unfortunately a completely new moved location would trigger so many environmental red flags with wetland and floodplain impacts, these types of roads are damn near impossible to even build post NEPA regulations passed first in the 60s to fight the big bad evil government building roadways wherever they want.

It's really a screwed up situation for everyone, trust me the state does not want to abandon the corridor, but federal law is so beyond screwed and pigeon-holed anymore, it's almost impossible to build these kinds of projects if even a single special interest group latches on. Well guess what, you guys have about 100 special interest groups to worry about down there. They will not go away. It will take some creative ideas to ever, if it will ever, get fixed.

Not talking out my ass, actually work for a DOT designing highways.

 

Chitlin, like all most of the progressive ideology, love to conveniently forget that NC was run by Democrats for decades up until McCrory was elected a mere year ago. But, to stay in line with the ideology, .01% control by Republicans for .01% of recent history = RED STATE.


BTW, looks like the ball just got roll'n:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20131205/APN/1312050800


Good thing ole Bev isn't governor anymore... She'd be trying to find a way to steal the proceeds from the NC Education Lottery AGAIN and form 25 committees to examine the probable possibilities of what they might be able to do...

 

He can't be bothered with troublesome details like facts and/or basic logic if they get in the way of his lefty red-colored worldview.

 

Thanks for the insight, Skeg.

However, there are tons of enviro regs throughout NC--we have fresh water wetlands all over the state and especially around RDU. That said, they don't have any trouble getting permits to build 12 lane highways directly over small lakes and large river basins. Hell, highways even encroach on Umstead State Park.

There wasn't even barely a peep about enviro groups here in New Hanover County when they built our part of the I 140 bypass over wetlands, estuaries and the Cape Fear River either. I don't know what enviro groups tried to latch on to those projects but the end result was they weren't relevant at all. What's the real difference with Bonner Bridge?


As a disclaimer: I'm not 100% opposed to the Southern Environmental Law Center. They're putting up a fight against Duke Energy to get them to expedite cleaning up their toxin-leaching ash ponds around their power plant here in New Hanover County. This is a power plant that sits surrounded by estuaries less than a mile from the banks of the Cape Fear River.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire

Please read...

 

uh,i think Lee was just informing us that the bridge is closed.they might reopen soon

 

Bonner will be open at the earliest with in the next couple weeks or it could take up to march till they are finished repairing the bridge, that said the reason why the obx would get more tax money is do to the amount of income they can bring to the state of north carolina during the tourist season, those towns have been fighting those environmental agencies for a couple years now whether it be for the bonner bridge or cape hatteras state park, environmentalist are willing to watch families lose there livelihoods and homes over some damn sandpipers and sea turtles, ****s a joke they try to save those animals by doing so they kill off predators of those animals by setting traps. some environmental group haha