Home Page: Okeefe Family Website |
New!
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Thanks
to the work of The Old Sunset Beach Bridge Preservation Society, on
08/12/10 members of the Town Council decided to save and find a home
for the old bridge.
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The Sunset Beach, NC, Pontoon Bridge
Copyright Jo O'Keefe All Rights Reserved |
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Until early October,
2010, Sunset Beach will have the last pontoon bridge crossing the Atlantic
Intracoastal Waterway. The current pontoon bridge was constructed by
the North Carolina Department of Transportation in 1961. It replaced
a cable swing bridge built in 1958 by Mannon C. Gore. Development of
the island began after Gore purchased the island in 1955 from the Brooks
Family and the International Paper Company. Incorporation occurred in
1963.
The center floating portion was a timber creosote barge. Approximately every two years men took the barge out of the water, closing the bridge to vehicular traffic for about two to three weeks at a time, to make repairs. The bridge was "dry-docked" for repairs in at least 1964, 1967, 1969, and 1971. In 1984 the floating portion of the bridge was replaced with the current metal barges. They were purchased from a company in South Carolina by the name of Shugart, hence giving them the name "Shugart Barges." Photo courtesy of Marinas.com®. All Rights Reserved Marinas.com, home of the largest
selection of marine aerial photos, granted permission to include this
photo on this webpage. It increases appreciation of how vital the little
pontoon bridge has been for 49 years. Visit Marinas.com to see stunning
photos of hundreds of bridges. Life on Sunset Beach is metered by hourly openings of the bridge when vessels are waiting. It opens for commercial vessels at all times. Thus it might open on the hour for a line of pleasure boats as occurred in the photos below, close, and need to be re-opened promptly because a fishing trawler is approaching. An average of six times per month the tide is so low that the bridge cannot be opened because of the risk of being mired in mud. In that case, boats must wait through low tide until the water level becomes high enough for the bridge tender to open the bridge safely. |
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Bridge Tender's
House in front of Twin Lakes Seafood Restaurant, during opening for
traffic on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Sunset Beach, NC, 05/10/10
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Pontoon Bridge
open for boat traffic, 06/04/10
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Beginning in 1983, Sunset Beach property owners opposed construction of a high-rise bridge such as those approved for Holden Beach and Ocean Isle Beach. Opposition and lawsuits continued for a quarter of a century. The cost for a new, high-rise bridge for Sunset Beach, documented in my blog on Brunswick Voice of the Wilmington Star News, rose from an estimated $5.2 million to nearly $32 million. During those years the North Carolina Department of Transportation spent as much as nearly a half million dollars per year to maintain the old bridge. In 2006 NCDOT spent under $3,800 to maintain the nearby high-rise bridge on Ocean Isle Beach. In FY 2009-2010, NCDOT spent $262,910.57 more on the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge than it did on the neighboring Ocean Isle Beach Bridge. The bridge tender opens the bridge for commercial vessels regardless of the time. This causes additional delays for vehicular traffic. In 2005 the Average Daily Traffic was 4,300 vehicles per day. By 2007 the Annual Average Daily Traffic had increased to approximately 7,000 vehicles per day. It continues to increase. Scores and sometimes hundreds of vehicles are delayed on both the island side and the mainland when the bridge opens. In the right-hand photo below, sail boats pass through the bridge. Vessels on the waterway take precedence because the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway was constructed before the bridge.
I have business cards saying that, by moving here, I traded traffic signals for mesmerizing waves. Little did I know that I would spend hours sitting in my car or pacing near it blocked by a railroad crossing gate waiting for the bridge to gyrate or stopped by the bridge traffic signal. In the photo on the right below, two fishing trawlers caused an extra opening of the bridge.
During that quarter century of delays, both vehicular traffic and boats were held up daily, wasting fuel and ruining people's schedules. Visitors are stranded on the island and mainland for many hours at a time when part of the bridge breaks. During 2009 the cable, affecting thousands of people, broke nine times. |
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Boats waiting
for bridge to open
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Sunset Beach Bridge
broken on 10/12/04 with workmen repairing it
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Persons wait on
the island side (left) and the mainland side (right) while repairs are
underway
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Boats passing
through the open bridge
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The most serious issue was and continues to be safety. Getting a person off the island during a medical crisis such as a seizure, heart attack or attack by a Portuguese Man of War takes a long time. Emergency crews have delays reaching persons in need on the island. Large ladder trucks cannot cross the bridge because of weight. Beach fires spread rapidly. One fire fighter told me that half of the houses on the island could burn down if trucks were unable to respond to a fire call.
In December 2007 Judge Louise Flanagan refused to grant an injunction requested by the Sunset Beach Taxpayers Association and the Brunswick Environmental Action Team to deny construction of the high-rise bridge. That allowed NCDOT to award the contract. The opponents withdrew their lawsuit. |
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View west with
Big Narrows on left
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View east
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The contract was
awarded to English Construction Company, Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia.
On February 19, 2008, English Construction staff, along with NCDOT engineers,
arrived on the site. Soon afterwards workmen began to clear trees and
do other preliminary tasks.
To follow construction of the bridge, go to http://okeefes.org/Barrier_Islands/Sunset_Beach/Bridge_Construction/Index/New_Bridge_Home_Page.htm.
Unless there are delays, the new Sunset Beach Bridge should be completed in early October 2010. The pontoon bridge, detour and work bridges will be removed after the new bridge is in use.
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Many persons are
interested in the fate of the pontoon bridge after the new bridge opens.
The bridge and its barges were not expected to last beyond the end of
2010. The Town of Sunset Beach is considering ways to salvage parts
of the old bridge. The current bridge tender's house, one of several
replacements of the original house, was erected in 1976 and might not
be salvageable. Because both a park and a boat ramp are planned for
area near the waterway next to the new bridge, we can hope that remnants
of the bridge will be incorporated into them. Momentum is growing for
saving the bridge thanks to the
Old Sunset Beach Bridge Preservation Society.
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