Hatteras to get another new bridge ... this one sucks.

[Kitehatteras]

Well said FLandOBX

[kooshball]

that bridge increases safety for everyone regarding ambulance service in poor weather and will get you to Avon where you can rent sound front with kite launch access.

[Toby]

it depends how high the bridge is...there is a formula how to calculate wind turbulence...height times 3 I think. So if the bridge is 10m height, wind will be ok 30m behind it. Ask if they allow kiting in between...wind is sideoffshore from bridge? Don't see a problem there.

[edt]

it depends how high the bridge is...there is a formula how to calculate wind turbulence...height times 3 I think. So if the bridge is 10m height, wind will be ok 30m behind it. Ask if they allow kiting in between...wind is sideoffshore from bridge? Don't see a problem there.

delta V is approximately equal to V ( L / x ) ^ (2/3)

For relatively clean air you want to be about 27 times L downwind, then the wind speed is roughly 8/9 as much (1/27)^(2/3). three times height is too close, that's (1/3)^(2/3) = 50% of your original wind speed and pretty turbulent. Ok for a sailboat not for us.

[Laughingman]

that bridge increases safety for everyone regarding ambulance service in poor weather and will get you to Avon where you can rent sound front with kite launch access.

All three options were going to increase safety in the same manor, all we are saying is it just sucks that the NPS and the Autobahn Society where successful in scaring everyone to the point where the least viable solution is better then no solution at all.
And by closing off the sound to all these houses there will be a shortage of good houses in Avon... guess what... now the price goes up... guess what... now it is as affordable to go to the Caribbean as it is Hatteras in April and May... so maybe good for some... not good for getting to my dollars as they will likely go somewhere else if I cannot find a good affordable house with clean shoreline sound access.
As it was we had to book 6-8 months in advance... what will it be now? And the prices had already increased dramatically over the past decade...
And now there will be that many fewer visitors during the mid seasons... how this is good for business is somewhat of a mystery to me.

[Toby]

I assume the house owners already pointed that out? If not, still time...

[haroldblakney]

Just a note and it is probably already said in this thread....
If it were up to the DOT, they would just move the road back (west) 200 ft and be done with it for a while (the island does move).
BUT, NO, it is not in the given "easement" so they have to put the road back in the ocean...and dang if they cant do that and very well! Amazing that DOT can do it but their hands are tied by SELC Audubon and the real problem as being the ESA. Yea, the Endangered Species Act...it says that if by "best available science" you need to sue to keep a species, the Govt will pay the lawyer's fees for doing that....what a cash cow and a goldmine for the lawyers. How can you go wrong! Best available science being joe bob's birding group of bird counters or such...science fabricated but it is the best
I'll step down now.

bridges suck for kiting and the view..but I sort of guess they are better than the powerlines...those should remain in the easement....for now

[POACHER]

I agree that this is very positive. The homeowners in Mirlo Beach were already screwed. Their property values declined dramatically several years ago (Hurricane Irene) due to constant erosion and flooding. Plus, relative to the number of houses on Hatteras Island (and the really great soundside homes south of the Rodanthe ferry docks where the bridge will re-connect on the island), there really aren't very many homes that are directly affected and will face the bridge....... Mirlo Beach and the Midgett trailer park and a few isolated homes......but not many. Bottom line for locals is that this issue has been debated and tied up in litigation for so many years that just having a resolution to the access question is a huge positive, and is already sending property values and home sales all across Hatteras Island higher.

I would question this. Sure they dropped after Irene but they are sky high again. One of our guys looked into buying the empty lot where the Sentinel was and it was still insane for a small parcel with no building on it. Even the little house Carpe Diem was still quite expensive.

Their values are going to severely shit the bed once the bridge goes in. This is just a guesstimate, but I'm assuming more than 75% of those houses' rentals are to kiters/windsurfers??? If yes, you can kiss those renters goodbye.

I guess the real point here is, nobody is arguing that a new (reliable) means of keeping NC12 open isn't needed. I get that, and can sympathize with the locals. But as kiters, watermen and just someone that appreciates the Pea Island Refuge that putting in a 200 million dollar highway through it to appease the Autobahn Society is truly insane.

To top off this shit sundae, now you tell me Liberty Mart is on the chopping block too??!! Now where am I going to get beer and ice cream?
LOL

I love Hatteras and will never stop going there. Bureaucratic bullshit like this really pisses me off though.
Best of luck.

[FLandOBX]

Poacher, talk to some real estate brokers on the island about the trend of real estate values. No one is buying in Mirlo Beach now (and only a fool would have bought there during the past 4-5 years). The values in Mirlo have been and are continuing to tank. Same as the oceanside houses without dune protection south of S-turns.

However, on more secure portions of the island, the values started to trend upwards once the new bridge was announced (again, the certainty of dependable access is the key to unlocking previously sluggish real estate values). You can still get a good buy on Hatteras because the inventory backlog is significant, but the trend in values is upwards.

And for everyone who thinks the new bridge will take away some huge area of existing kite access, kiteboarding has been prohibited in the Pea Island Refuge for years. It's just the Mirlo Beach soundfront houses that are losing immediate access, and that's not a large area at all.

[Laughingman]

And for everyone who thinks the new bridge will take away some huge area of existing kite access, kiteboarding has been prohibited in the Pea Island Refuge for years. It's just the Mirlo Beach soundfront houses that are losing immediate access, and that's not a large area at all.

My understanding is.....Kiting has been banned 150m from the power lines across all of OBX. Kiting to or from the new inlet was completely legal provided you did not come within 150m of the lines at the boat launch. The area north of that boat launch is where kiting was banned... as was everything else except bird watching.
And the area in front of the Mirlo beach is actually quite big considering the amount of usable sound access on OBX... losing 1.5km of houses with good launch is pretty significant imho. My count is 25 homes which are sound front