Island Free Press ...Ocracoke Update

What you need to know to get to and from Ocracoke this winter

By IRENE NOLAN

The most important thing that visitors to Ocracoke need to know this winter is that you can’t get there from here without a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

For 2 1/2 months this winter, travel to Ocracoke from Hatteras will be the way it used to be before a highway was built more than 50 years ago.

Visitors and Ocracokers will have to drive on the beach for 3.2 of the 13 or so miles to and from the Hatteras Inlet ferry from Jan. 2 until March 15.

N.C. 12, Ocracoke’s only highway, will be closed, and traffic will be routed onto the beach from the Pony Pens on the north end of the island to the National Park Service campground closer to the village to allow the state Department of Transportation to replace all seven of the highway bridges over the island’s creeks.

The short bridges over the creeks were constructed in the 1950s when the highway was built and need to be upgraded and widened.

Stan White, who represents Division 1 on the state Board of Transportation, which includes Hyde County, reviewed the considerations that led to the decision to close the highway for 75 days and replace all seven bridges at once at a meeting on Ocracoke last September.

White said that in 2004, the state General Assembly asked the DOT to spend the balance of highway funds available, spread among the 14 districts, under the North Carolina Moving Ahead program.

A requirement, White said, was that the project be completed in two years. That meant the project had to be one that did not require a lot of planning and permitting by state and federal agencies, which can take many more years to complete – almost two decades in the case of replacing the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet.

Replacing the Ocracoke bridges was a project that needed to be done and fit the time frame.

“We thought we had money to replace four of the bridges,” White said at the meeting.

Replacing those first four bridges would take eight months and would require one lane of traffic on Highway 12 from the Hatteras Inlet ferry docks to Ocracoke village. The thought of one lane traffic through the height of the tourist season was one that didn’t appeal to many folks. And then there was the issue of replacing the remaining three bridges – and more road closures – at a later date.

During the planning, White said, the contractor noted that if the highway could be closed, all seven of the bridges could be replaced at the same time.

After consultation with everyone involved, including the Ocracoke community, a consensus was reached to close the highway for the winter and get the job done.

The contract was awarded to Carolina Bridge Co., Inc., of Orangeburg, S.C., for about $8 million.

Then planning started in earnest for closing a highway that islanders and visitors had gotten used to in the last 50 years.

Access to Ocracoke though the winter will continue to be available via the ferries to Cedar Island and Swan Quarter on the mainland, and ferries will be added to the usual winter schedule.

Travel to and from Ocracoke via the Hatteras Inlet ferry will require a four-wheel-drive vehicle and driving on the beach.

Extensive planning has gone into preparing for life without a highway by Hyde County Emergency Management, the Department of Transportation, the National Park Service, and Ocracoke citizens and community groups.

Plans are in place to handle medical and fire emergencies, law enforcement, ensuring the safety of the traveling public on the beach, and maintaining the flow of services and supplies – everything from food and gasoline to mail and prescription drugs, to the deliveries of building supplies and deliveries by such companies as UPS and Federal Express.

DOT and county officials stressed that they fully expect the project to be completed on time. Staging for the project began in early November, and many of the bridge pilings were in place by the end of December.

The contractor, they said, has “big incentives” to reopen the road by the March 15 date.

Easter, the traditional opening of the tourist season is early next year – the weekend after the scheduled reopening.

“Everything has to be completed by March 15,” said Stan White who owns a vacation home on the island. “Or I’ll have to sell my house here.”

NEWS AND UPDATES ON THE INTERNET

Regular updates on the progress of the project and other notices and important information are posted on a Web site, which has been set up by Hyde County and the DOT. It is www.ocracokebridges.com.

DETAILS OF THE ROAD CLOSURE PLAN

•    Traffic will be routed onto the beach from the north via a ramp next to the boardwalk to the beach at the Pony Pens and from the south via the ramp at the campground.
•    DOT has improved beach access at the Pony Pens, where there has been an overwash area, and at the campground ramp where there is a sharp turn and deep sand that can impede access onto the ramp. A grid-type fabric has been laid down to improve traction and accesses have been graded. DOT will work with the National Park Service, which allowed the beach detour, to keep conditions drivable.
•    Towing services are being provided to assist vehicles stuck on the beach – at the expense of DOT.
•    Air pumps are available at the north and south areas of the detour for drivers to use to pump up their tires when coming off the beach.
•    Ocracoke is open to visitors during the road closure. Access from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island is available and additional ferries have been added to the winter schedule. Visitors are allowed on the ferry from Hatteras but are being advised they need four-wheel-drive.
•    Hyde County Emergency Management will assign priority to vehicles needing to travel ahead of the public, such as utility, crucial delivery, emergency, and government vehicles. Also dedicated ferries on certain days will carry propane and gas trucks, which limit the number of other vehicles, and garbage trucks, which aren’t always pleasant to travel with.
•    An extensive plan for continued medical care and medical emergencies has been worked out by the Ocracoke Health Center, Ocracoke, Hyde County, and Dare County Emergency Medical Services, Outer Banks and Pungo District hospitals, and medical transport helicopters.
•    EMS transport will include two ambulances staged at the Pony Pens and one in the village. Two four-wheel-drive specially outfitted vehicles will be available to transport patients from the campground ramp, along the beach, to the ambulances at the Pony Pens, and then to the Hatteras Inlet ferry.

•    Medical transport helicopters will be available as usual, which means as the weather permits.
•    Ocracoke EMS will have two crews available during the 75-day road closure.
•    Plans have been made for fire emergencies, including a loaner truck from the mainland.
•    The National Park Service will relay incoming and outgoing mail along the beach detour.
•    The Park Service also will carry prescriptions from a courier from Hatteras Island to the Ocracoke Health Center for pickup by patients and will pickup outgoing laboratory samples from the health center and deliver them to the courier.
•    For the safety of the traveling public, the detour along the beach will be regularly patrolled by the Park Service, the county sheriff’s department, and county emergency management. There will be a patrol after the last ferry in the evening to make sure no one is stuck on the beach. A cell phone number to call in emergencies will be posted on both sides of the detour.
•    Ocracoke School has made arrangements for its basketball games. Home games have been scheduled before the road closure to accommodate the visiting teams. Activities buses will be parked at the Pony Pens for away games and parents and other volunteers will transport the students back and forth along the beach to the buses.

FERRY SCHEDULES

To help accommodate traffic to and from Ocracoke during the bridge replacement project this winter, the North Carolina Ferry Division has made changes in the Cedar Island, Swan Quarter, and Hatteras routes to Ocracoke.

The schedules are expected to be in place from Jan. 2 until March 15

Hatteras-Ocracoke

A vessel will leave each side at 5 a.m. and run every other hour from each side until 9 p.m. Ferries will leave Ocracoke on the even hours and will leave Hatteras on the odd hours. The last vessel will leave Hatteras at 9 p.m. and tie up at Ocracoke to be in place for an emergency during the night.

    Leave Ocracoke        Leave Hatteras
    5 a.m.                5 a.m.
    6 a.m.                7 a.m.
    8 a.m. (etc.)             9 a.m. (etc.)
    8 p.m. – last run        9 p.m. – last run

Ocracoke-Swan Quarter

Same schedule as summer:
Leaving Ocracoke: 6:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4 p.m.
Leaving Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m.

Tolls will be waived on the Ocracoke-Swan Quarter ferry for Ocracoke residents and vendors.

Ocracoke-Cedar Island

New schedule for this winter:
Leaving Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m.
Leaving Cedar Island: 7 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m.

The Tuesday at 7 a.m. ferry from Swan Quarter to Ocracoke will be designated for LP Gas and gasoline trucks. The Tuesday and Wednesday at 4 p.m. ferries from Ocracoke to Swan Quarter will be designated for their return. This will limit the passengers allowed on the vessel.