Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Newspaper Articles

Reprinted by permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina

July 1, 1999

The News & Observer

Lighthouse past halfway point

By JERRY ALLEGOOD; STAFF WRITER

Page: A3

BUXTON -- The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is more than half-way to its new home away from the ocean and moving so smoothly that it could arrive two or three weeks earlier than expected, movers said.

With continued smooth sailing - actually rolling on large metal rollers - the 128-year-old lighthouse will reach the end of its 2,900-foot retreat from the sea around July 10, said Joe Jakubik, project manager for International Chimney Corp. By late Tuesday the lighthouse had passed the 1,450-foot mark.

Relocation of the 200-foot-tall tower is already a huge tourist attraction, attracting more than 12,000 people a day to the construction site at Buxton, according to rangers with Cape Hatteras National Seashore About 3,000 people a day have crowded into a small visitor center beside the relocation path.

Seashore officials are bracing for 15,000 to 20,000 people a day over the Fourth of July weekend. Visitors can watch the lighthouse inch along from a path beside a construction fence near the lighthouse.

When the slide began June 17, company officials said it would take a month to six weeks to cover the ground with the lighthouse moving 70 to 100 feet a day. But the pace has picked up and the tower has covered more than 200 feet on some days.

Jakubik said movers don't want to go too fast because the 4,800-ton load travels on large steel track beams and a mat of steel that has to be continually repositioned in front of the lighthouse.

"We just don't want to get ahead of ourselves," he said.

He said workers for Expert House Movers of Virginia Beach, a subcontractor, were able to speed up the process by changing the way push jacks are attached to track beams behind the lighthouse. The five push jacks provide thrust by gradually extending an arm five feet against a frame around the base of the lighthouse. After each push, the arms retract, and the base of the jack slides up.

Ordinarily, the jacks are bolted to the beams and repositioning required workers to screw and unscrew 12 bolts on each jack. Now a hydraulic plate clamps down when pressure is applied and releases when the jack needs to slide forward.

"It takes seconds where it would take minutes before," Jakubik said.

Rob Bolling, seashore historian, said many of the visitors he talks with are newcomers attracted by state and national media coverage of the move.

"We've had people from New Jersey, Florida, California and the Great Lakes area - wherever there is lighthouse country," he said.

At a press briefing Tuesday, crews for television networks in Germany and Italy videotaped the gradual movement of the spiral-striped beacon.

"The main appeal is that this is absolutely unusual," said Paolo Longo, a reporter for an Italian television company said. "You don't see anything like this in Italy."

Section: News
Edition: Final
Estimated Printed Pages: 2

Index Terms:
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
NC
coast

Caption:
An aerial view of the path the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is taking in its trip from the sea.

Staff Photo By Chuck Liddy

Copyright 1999 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

Record Number: 1999181132