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Responding to complaints from state Sen. Marc Basnight about bureaucratic obstacles to a replacement for the deteriorating N.C. 12 bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County, a conservation group says Basnight himself is to blame for delaying the project.

Basnight urged President Barack Obama in a Feb. 24 letter to overrule federal officials he said were stalling a bridge replacement because they feared lawsuits from “out-of-state environmental groups.” Basnight, the state Senate leader, represents Dare County.

The Virginia-based Southern Environmental Law Center responded with a March 1 letter to Obama, advocating a bridge alternative that Basnight opposes.

“It was Senator Basnight’s intervention in 2003 that halted the process and prevented the construction of the Pamlico Sound alternative,” wrote Derb S. Carter Jr. and Julia F. Youngman, based in the environmental group’s Chapel Hill office. ... [MORE]

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Sen. Marc Basnight, a Dare County Democrat who leads the state Senate, implored President Barack Obama this week to sweep aside legal and environmental challenges and allow North Carolina to proceed with construction on a replacement for the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County.

In a letter dated Wednesday and released today, Basnight paints a scary picture:

Imagine for a moment a busload of school children traveling across the bridge. When the bus reaches the apex of the bridge's 3.3-mile span, the road collapses, sending the bus and all of the children into the water below. ... [MORE]

The state Department of Transportation is seeking public comment until Oct. 27 on a $1.1 to $1.4 billion project to replace Bonner Bridge on the Dare County Outer Banks.

A 1,300-page Environmental Impact Study was released this week, examining social, environmental and economic impacts of the project.

DOT wants to build a new bridge for N.C. 12 over Oregon Inlet, between Hatteras and Bodie islands, west of the existing bridge. Other parts of N.C. 12 would later be elevated onto a series of bridges.

DOT plans to award a design-build contract for the first phase next year, with construction to be finished by 2014 if funds are available.

To read the environmental impact statement and review maps, photos and other documents, go to DOT’s Bonner Bridge Web site at www.ncdot.org/projects/bonnerbridgerepairs/.  Copies also are available at libraries and other government offices in Dare County.

Send comments on the environmental document to NCDOT engineer Beth Smyre at 919-733-7844, ext. 333, or bsmyre@ncdot.gov.