Posted on September 22, 2020
Eastern North Carolina — Ferry service to and from Ocracoke Island will soon increase, according to officials with the North Carolina Ferry System. The reason is due to dredging that will take place in the Pamlico Sound.
In July, the North Carolina Ferry System announced that they were temporarily reducing service on the Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter, and Ocracoke due to the critical shoaling issues in the ferry channel just outside of Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor.
The latest survey at that time, by the Army Corps of Engineers, showed water depths in Bigfoot Slough as low as eight feet. That meant the ferry system’s two largest sound-class vessels, the M/V Swan Quarter and the M/V Sea Level, cannot traverse the area safely.
“The shoaling has gotten to the point where two of our bigger boats can’t safely traverse the ferry channel in and out of Ocracoke,” said Tim Hass, Public Information Officer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division. “So, we’ve had to sideline two vessels and reduce the schedules between Cedar Island, Ocracoke and Swan Quarter.”
Ferry service was reduced to one boat a day leaving each port of departure, during some of the busiest summer travel times on the coast, posing a major problem for Ocracoke residents and the economy.
Eastern North Carolina — Ferry service to and from Ocracoke Island will soon increase, according to officials with the North Carolina Ferry System. The reason is due to dredging that will take place in the Pamlico Sound.
In July, the North Carolina Ferry System announced that they were temporarily reducing service on the Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter, and Ocracoke due to the critical shoaling issues in the ferry channel just outside of Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor.
The latest survey at that time, by the Army Corps of Engineers, showed water depths in Bigfoot Slough as low as eight feet. That meant the ferry system’s two largest sound-class vessels, the M/V Swan Quarter and the M/V Sea Level, cannot traverse the area safely.
“The shoaling has gotten to the point where two of our bigger boats can’t safely traverse the ferry channel in and out of Ocracoke,” said Tim Hass, Public Information Officer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division. “So, we’ve had to sideline two vessels and reduce the schedules between Cedar Island, Ocracoke and Swan Quarter.”
Ferry service was reduced to one boat a day leaving each port of departure, during some of the busiest summer travel times on the coast, posing a major problem for Ocracoke residents and the economy.
“Ferry channels are our lifelines,” explained Hyde County Manager Kris Nobles. “They’re our lifelines for our citizens to reach the mainland areas for goods and services, critical needs like doctors visits. They’re our lifelines for our traveling public that may be coming from our northern beaches, it’s key for evacuations, they are truly like our highways. When one of our ferry rides is compromised, it’s at our forefront priority.”
Not only do fewer ferries make it harder for tourists to come to the island, but Nobles says the lack of available ferries also made evacuations during Hurricane Isaias much more difficult.
“It’s definitely not what we want to see when we’re losing tourism dollars, but more importantly, having safe evacuation routes,” Nobles explained. “It became a very clear and critical threat not having enough evacuation capacity.”
The lack of service also impacts business owners like Tommy Hutcherson, owner of the only grocery store on the island, who depends on vendors to restock his shelves.
“Vendors, they like to catch an early ferry from Cedar Island and then a ferry to get back, but now they can’t do that,” Hutcherson said. “It eliminates a lot of visitors coming over here from Cedar Island because they only have one ferry to ride.”
Ocracoke Island is also still recovering from Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which flooded the island and destroyed many businesses.
“We’re all still recovering from the budget impacts of COVID too,” Nobles added, “and Ocracoke is still working hard to recover from Dorian.”
Due to the budget impacts, Nobles says Hyde County and the North Carolina Ferry System do not have the funding in their current budgets to facilitate the funding match requirements for the US Army Corps of Engineers or others to dredge this channel.
The North Carolina Ferry System, along with Hyde County, contacted Carteret County for assistance in dredging the ferry channel, called Big Foot Slough, for the Cedar Island – Ocracoke Ferry.
Carteret County agreed to provide to help fund the project, noting the dredging is also necessary to preserve the flow of traffic along Highway 12 and to preserve jobs during this time of economic depression.
“I think it really exemplifies counties working together for the betterment of North Carolina,” said Nobles.
It is Carteret County’s intention to lobby the legislature to reimburse Carteret County this expense in their next session.
Hyde County will utilize these funds to apply for and obtain the North Carolina Shallow Draft Navigation Funding necessary to complete the dredging and will serve as the local government sponsor to facilitate the project. Hyde County will also support Carteret County’s efforts in seeking reimbursement of the local match from the state.
Chairman of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, Earl Pugh Jr. stated, “We are thankful that Carteret County has stepped up to help in a time when we simply don’t have the funding for this project. Our ferries are lifelines to those living in and visiting Ocracoke Island, which is still struggling to rebuild after the devastation of Dorian. We look forward to working with Carteret County and other partners in the future to ensure state and federal funding is made available to keep our channels maintained and to avoid this type of reduction of service again. This is a true example of neighbors helping neighbors for the common good.”
Currently, there is no start date for the project, but Nobles says once it begins, it should take about 2 weeks to complete, and expects it to happen sometime during the late summer or early fall.
Big Foot Slough is a federally-authorized channel, which means that the federal government maintains the channel if funding is available.
However, federal funding to dredge Big Foot Slough has decreased substantially over the last ten years. One way to secure additional funding has been the development of the Shallow Draft Navigation Channel & Lake Dredging Fund in North Carolina.
The fund provides the state share for dredging projects and requires that state funds are matched with local funds. The state portion of the fund comes from a small percentage of the gas tax, as well as a percentage of boater registration fees. In this case, Carteret County is partnering with Hyde County to provide that local match.
Source: wcti12.com
