A crowded group of state officials, county representatives and local citizens met in St. John’s Baptist Church in Alligator in Tyrrell County to discuss a preliminary draft design for the US 64 expansion project.
Background
Ted Devens, with the NCDOT led the majority of the presentation.
“I do not want this to be misconstrued as a decision by the Corp of Engineers. The Department of Transportation is running this for the State. But we are under the Corp of Engineers as the Federal Lead Agency. So the Corp even though they are partners with us in making this decision, they have not made their final permit decision yet,” said Devens.
The proposed highway in Tyrrell County will be two lanes in either direction and be separated by a forty-six foot depressed median with shoulders on the sides.
Devens said the highway section will look just like the highway between Plymouth and Columbia.
“There is a difference on this highway in Tyrrell and Dare County. If you live on the side of the road for instance as we start the project down in Columbia, we got eight or nine homes down there on the south side and homes sporadically on the other side. We will maintain your driveway to the highway. But the difference is the median keeps you from making a left turn. So you will have to come onto the highway, you will have to make a right turn to get on the highway,” he said.
Arrangements will be made to make sure there are U-turns located.

“These are protected U-Turns where you can pull in and you are not going to get back-ended by somebody while you are sitting there waiting to make the turn. Typically our guidance is that we do not like you to have to drive more than a quarter of a mile,” said Devens.

Devens said that the measure increases highway safety based on the studies the NCDOT has been doing because drivers are not turning left across traffic anymore.

The new bridge will be on the north side of the existing bridge over the Alligator River. The bridge is very similar to the Virginia-Dare Bridge in the middle. There are two lanes in each direction. The center is the same with raised concrete in the middle. It is slightly larger than the Virginia Dare Bridge in width.

There are some particular reasons for this.

“It is a major highway hurricane evacuation route. We know that in a time of crisis a lot of cars are going to be coming in the westbound direction. We need room to move cars out to the side of the bridge in case of an emergency,” said Devens.
NCDOT officials met with county representatives in Dare and Tyrrell County to get them to consider bicycle facilities in the area.
“Tyrrell County was very strongly advocating this,” said Devens.
From Columbia, all the way to the Alligator River Marina, the DOT is sticking to the highway.

“Right as you stop at the five lane curb and gutter right by the sea food market is where the project starts. This was not a difficult decision to make. You have numerous homes on the south side of the road. We know that you were hit by the tornado. But we also saw that you were rebuilding. We had one home on the north side. We also saw that there were more wetlands on the south side then there were on the north side.  We are trying to miss as many people as we can,” said Devens
The DOT gradually started to find there were more wetlands on the north side than on the south side. So they decided to transition to the south side of the highway for a short distance. Then they came back to the north side of the highway.

“In this area before you get to the Alligator Community, there are no homes on the highway. We were looking at canal, wetland, and habitat impacts, that sort of thing.

“We came out to the Alligator Community and tried to talk to you guys. We did have a dialogue with you,” said Devens.

Devens said that residents were alarmed by rising water levels and drainage.

Residents gave feedback that they wanted the DOT to widen to the north side of the highway so that DOT could buy them out of their properties and get help moving to higher locations while trying to stay in the community.

“So we respect what you all said and presented that to the project team. This decision has been made that we will widen to the north side right here outside of the church. You will of course be compensated,” said Devens.

The DOT will stay on the north side of the highway all the way to the Alligator River Marina..

“Then the question is where is the new bridge going to go. Is it going to go on the south side. Is it going to go on the north side of where the existing bridge is here?  There were massive amounts of coastal wetlands which were deemed to be highly valuable,” said Devens.

The DOT did look at a lot of alternatives early in the project on the south side. The alternatives were studied early in the project and dismissed. This was mainly due to concerns over wetlands.

“This left us with more alternatives on the north side. We made a decision on the north side to come up,” said Devens.

The decision was made to leave the highway and come up on the north side. The highway is going to have come on the north side of the Alligator River Marina.

“The new bridge will start several hundred feet on the north side of the Marina and the owner’s house. The bridge will extend across the Alligator River several hundred feet north to the existing bridge. It will make a landing in Dare County about halfway between the existing bridge and where the boat ramp is,” said Devens.
The DOT talked to people in the East Lake Community. Residents there wanted the DOT to study the possibility of a Southern bypass. The DOT agreed with them that it was a good idea.
“Isnt it a very cool thing that the very alternative that the East Lake Community has asked us to study would be the selected alternative? That is a short, short shallow Southern bypass at East Lake. It goes on top of a Dare County sand pit,” said Devens.
Once the highways gets out of East Lake, and its come off the  Southern bypass there will be  a very short section of north-widening where there are no homes.

“Most important landmarks in East Lake are on the north side of the highway. We worked with Refuge staff and other officials, and the Refuge agreed that the best thing to do was to widen onto Refuge lands and allow East Lake to maintain their churches and other cultural landmarks. All the way out to US 64 where your four lanes kick in to go Manteo, that is all going to widen on the south side,” said Devens.
The Alligator River Marina is another important location in the area.
Devens acknowledged that the marina was more than just a business.

“It is a regional resource. It helps distressed boaters in a storm. It is a gas station without one for a long distance. It is also a place to use as a resource for getting flights out to a hospital after an accident,” said Devens.

Devens said that the DOT will work with owners on their access points to make sure that good traffic can be maintained into the facility.
In Tyrrell County it looks like five home are going to potentially be relocated with the project, four of them are going to be right here in the Alligator Community. The fifth one is going to be in that section coming out of Columbia.
Local Reaction
Mable Davenport asked why her home in Tyrrell County was being moved.
“You all did not come to me. You came to all these other people,but you did not come and ask my thoughts,” she said.
Devens mentioned that were hearings on the highway issue in Tyrrell County in April 2012.
“That was the opportunity to come out and say something,” he said.
Devens referred Davenport and others to Michelle Pittman, a representative available to answer any questions about compensation for homes and any other specific questions in that regard.
The Town of Columbia drafted a letter addressed to DOT officials regarding the Proposed Design for US-64 Widening in Tyrrell and Dare Counties.

“Recent legislative changes in the allocation of State Transportation improvement funds put the highway widening and new bridge across the Alligator River at risk of losing funding if the project is not expedited,” said Mayor Michael Griffin in the letter.

The Columbia Board of Aldermen is already on record encouraging the North Carolina the North Carolina Board of Transportation to move quickly to get R-2545 and R-2544 underway.

“Furthermore, we understand that delays in deciding where to construct new road sections are primarily east of the Alligator River. We encourage NCDOT to immediately contract for the construction of the new Alligator River Bridge and US-64 section west of the river to the Columbia town limits,” says Griffin