NCDOT 7-98 Correspondence 5/24/2004

Outer Banks Sentinal
F 77K
JSubect: Outer Banks Sentinal
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 08:18:06 -0400
From: Michele Walker<[e-mail]>
To: All DCM <[e-mail]>
Bridge builder fined by feds
BY ANGELA PEREZ, SENTINEL STAFF
The construction company that built the 5-mile Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge pled guilty in federal
court May 17 to committing the largest unauthorized dredge ever made in the coastal waters of North
Carolina, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
Balfour Beatty Construction, Inc, (BBC) of Atlanta, Ga., a subsidiary of a United Kingdom parent
company, was charged with excavating, filling, and altering the course of the Croatan Sound. The company
also plead guilty to discharging dredged spoil into the sound without a permit, a violation of the Clean
Water Act, according to the report.
The bridge, completed in August 2002, spans the Croatan Sound between the mainland at Mann's Harbor
and Roanoke Island.
Two months after completion, between Oct. 21 and Oct. 31, the company had to remove its temporary
load-out trestles that extended into the sound to facilitate construction. Crews used a tug boat to create
propeller backwash to deepen to create a channel to send a crane and barge through the shallow waters of
Manns Harbor to dismantle the trestle.
Despite warnings from the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and knowledge that the company
needed authorization from the Army Corps of Engineers, the project manager ordered his employees to
create an unauthorized channel, which resulted in 5,500 cubic yards of dredged spoil that impacted as
much as 8.2 acres of shallow water habitat. The amount is roughly equivalent to 500 dump truck loads,
stated the report.
"That amount of dredge spoil can certainly have a long-term effect on the habitat of the area," said Ted
Tyndall, assistant director of permits and enforcement for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. The
pollution will smother shellfish, destroy submerged aquatic vegetation that is important for providing food
and cover for fish, and it can clog the gills of filter-feeding fish," said Tyndall.
The DOJ also announced that the tugboat's captain, Richard Douglas Hall, also pled guilty to violating the
Rivers and Harbors Act. Hall awaits sentencing, facing a maximum penalty of a$100,000 fine, one year
imprisonment, and a$25 special assessment.
"There must be strict adherence to the environmental regulations when large-scale ' .Liinuuic)
public projects are constructed in our State's natural resources," said Acting United
States Attorney George B. Holding.
"The agreement reached in this case continues this office's commitment to prosecuting violations of the
federal environmental laws."
Angela Perez can be reached at 480-2234 or [e-mail]
of 2 5/24/04 9:28 AM

vuw. uauna.uiuu a,
Michele Walker
Public Information Officer
NC Division of Coastal Management
[e-mail]
(919) 733-2293 ext. 229
of 2 5/24/04 9:28 AM