Mark VanDyke Photography
NC Herbert C. Bonner Bridge Oregon Inlet OBX
The Atlantic Ocean Pushes Through Oregon Inlet
Dare County, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via NC-12 (Outer Banks Scenic Byway)
Date taken: August 18, 2015
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The Herbert C. Bonner bridge replacement is back on course. With revisions to the development plans for transportation on and around Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge (south of the Bonner Bridge), all litigation has been lifted and plans are set to move forth with construction (as early as Spring 2016).
Nowhere on Hatteras Island can the human need for control and stability be seen so vividly as with the Bonner Bridge and the artificial primary sand dunes on Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge--two of the largest contributors to the modern day economy of the Outer Banks. Each project attempts to hold stable and secure an ecosystem that only works when in constant tension and dynamics. The ocean moves through inlets and then back with the tides; sand is deposited and moved from the front beach to the sound. The inlet migrates south by up to one-hundred feet per year. Water washes over the dunes and floods the roads; the sound connects with the ocean and forms new inlets during storm surges. And all along the way, we try desperately to hold this dynamic system in balance to encourage visitors to continue investing time, effort and energy in short and long-term visits.
In 1989 the Army Corp of Engineers built a sixteen million dollar terminal rock groin on the south side of the Oregon Inlet to stop the natural inlet migration. Annual dredging is the norm to keep shoaling from clogging the navigation of the inlet, again trying to stop nature's natural sand movement processes. And with each federal and state investment in maintaining the unmaintainable, industry makes their own investments and begins to rely on the stability of such projects--a twisted web of interdependency develops. The Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park and Oregon Inlet Fishing Center & Marina send a steady procession of boats underneath the Bonner Bridge and out to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream each and every day. The steady procession of boats utilizing Oregon Inlet to pass from the Pamlico Sound to the Atlantic Ocean is actually very impressive--stop and check it out some morning or in the afternoon around three to four o'clock. The combined economic value of the inlet and all the activities by the boats and industrial parks is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars annually to North Carolina. That is what I call a very strong contingent for keeping the Oregon Inlet open and stable! I even read a recent proposal that was very close to going forth that would have driven ten-foot tall steel walls into each side of the Oregon Inlet to keep the waterway from migrating naturally, thus ensuring (theoretically) stability. This is truly a dynamic area of interests and conflicts--and that generally means an interesting place for the camera as well!
The new Oregon Inlet Bonner Bridge will be slightly longer at three plus miles in length and will curve further inland into the Pamlico Sound than the existing bridge. The intermediate bridge construction that was occurring roughly half-way between the Bonner Bridge and Rodanthe on Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge has been stopped permanently and at least strongly encouraged to consider future construction of elevated tracks out into the Pamlico Sound and away from the shifting sands of Pea Island to avoid the continual investment and environmental onslaught of trying to keep stable a bridge and a roadway (NC-12) built on an island that is but a moving combination of sand, wind and water. Look for the first section of this new bridge to be near the s-curves at the southern end of Roandthe (northern terminus of Pea Island). Eventually, as the ocean and island do their natural dance, the plan is to connect the two ends (Bonner and S-Curves) with an elevated causeway out into the Pamlico Sound. This, in theory, will provide the least disruption of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge while providing the critical infrastructure to get visitors and residents from the mainland to the Hatteras Islands.
NC Herbert C. Bonner Bridge Oregon Inlet OBX
The Atlantic Ocean Pushes Through Oregon Inlet
Dare County, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via NC-12 (Outer Banks Scenic Byway)
Date taken: August 18, 2015
Website | Facebook | Google+ | FAA
The Herbert C. Bonner bridge replacement is back on course. With revisions to the development plans for transportation on and around Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge (south of the Bonner Bridge), all litigation has been lifted and plans are set to move forth with construction (as early as Spring 2016).
Nowhere on Hatteras Island can the human need for control and stability be seen so vividly as with the Bonner Bridge and the artificial primary sand dunes on Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge--two of the largest contributors to the modern day economy of the Outer Banks. Each project attempts to hold stable and secure an ecosystem that only works when in constant tension and dynamics. The ocean moves through inlets and then back with the tides; sand is deposited and moved from the front beach to the sound. The inlet migrates south by up to one-hundred feet per year. Water washes over the dunes and floods the roads; the sound connects with the ocean and forms new inlets during storm surges. And all along the way, we try desperately to hold this dynamic system in balance to encourage visitors to continue investing time, effort and energy in short and long-term visits.
In 1989 the Army Corp of Engineers built a sixteen million dollar terminal rock groin on the south side of the Oregon Inlet to stop the natural inlet migration. Annual dredging is the norm to keep shoaling from clogging the navigation of the inlet, again trying to stop nature's natural sand movement processes. And with each federal and state investment in maintaining the unmaintainable, industry makes their own investments and begins to rely on the stability of such projects--a twisted web of interdependency develops. The Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park and Oregon Inlet Fishing Center & Marina send a steady procession of boats underneath the Bonner Bridge and out to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream each and every day. The steady procession of boats utilizing Oregon Inlet to pass from the Pamlico Sound to the Atlantic Ocean is actually very impressive--stop and check it out some morning or in the afternoon around three to four o'clock. The combined economic value of the inlet and all the activities by the boats and industrial parks is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars annually to North Carolina. That is what I call a very strong contingent for keeping the Oregon Inlet open and stable! I even read a recent proposal that was very close to going forth that would have driven ten-foot tall steel walls into each side of the Oregon Inlet to keep the waterway from migrating naturally, thus ensuring (theoretically) stability. This is truly a dynamic area of interests and conflicts--and that generally means an interesting place for the camera as well!
The new Oregon Inlet Bonner Bridge will be slightly longer at three plus miles in length and will curve further inland into the Pamlico Sound than the existing bridge. The intermediate bridge construction that was occurring roughly half-way between the Bonner Bridge and Rodanthe on Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge has been stopped permanently and at least strongly encouraged to consider future construction of elevated tracks out into the Pamlico Sound and away from the shifting sands of Pea Island to avoid the continual investment and environmental onslaught of trying to keep stable a bridge and a roadway (NC-12) built on an island that is but a moving combination of sand, wind and water. Look for the first section of this new bridge to be near the s-curves at the southern end of Roandthe (northern terminus of Pea Island). Eventually, as the ocean and island do their natural dance, the plan is to connect the two ends (Bonner and S-Curves) with an elevated causeway out into the Pamlico Sound. This, in theory, will provide the least disruption of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge while providing the critical infrastructure to get visitors and residents from the mainland to the Hatteras Islands.