Hatteras Island, a tourism destination for travelers to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, has only one direct connection to the mainland—and it’s crumbling. The North Carolina Department of Transportation and conservation groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center, are currently entangled in a debate about the future of Bonner Bridge. Bonner Bridge has been hounded by hurricanes and tropical storms, leaving residents, business owners and tourists stranded. Talks about bridge replacements or alternative transportation methods began in 1990. In 2014, there’s still no agreed-upon solution.
(Southern Environmental Law Center)
The Southern Environmental Law Center argues that the ecological importance of barrier islands like Hatteras is not reflected in the current bridge replacement plan. Barrier islands facilitate wave attenuation, providing critical protection to the mainland. Successful wave attenuation depends on a healthy overall ecosystem function, because multiple interconnected abiotic and biotic factors contribute to the amount of attenuation in a given area (Koch et. al. 2009). Therefore, the SELC advocates for a “long” bridge that would be raised well above sea level and would skirt around critical wildlife habitat.
The NCDOT counters that the “long” bridge adds too much cost for the plan to be feasible. NCDOT wants to create a parallel, reinforced bridge adjacent to the current bridge.
Complicating matters on both sides is this question: how do you plan transportation solutions to an island that is constantly shifting (due to sediment displacement from waves and storms) in a sea that is slowly rising (the SELC holds that NCDOT’s replacement bridge will be underwater by 2060)? Talk about adaptive management.
It’s been twenty-four years of fighting…I don’t think we’re going to get an answer soon.