Lowering the Tower
July 17, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

The lighthouse is poised over its new foundation. The process to lower the tower and fill in the brick foundation is in progress.

Mike Landen of Expert House Movers talked with us while signing hard hats on this last visit. These hats will be auctioned for funds for exhibits at the Keepers' Quarters in the near future. Mike said, "I've been waiting for this (move) for fifteen years. I did the SE Block Island move and loved it and this move has been fantastic."

Sean McLaughlin handled much of the hydraulics work and the push jacks throughout the move. Sean expressed that no one person gets credit for this move because it was a big team effort. Everybody did a lot. And it moved this lighthouse.

Jerry Stockbridge of Wiss, Janny, Elstner Associates, Inc., was on site to take us into the lighthouse. He is part of a team of restoration architects who tested the historic building materials to set parameters to what forces they could withstand during the move. A triangle of brick was removed from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse before the move, and it was subjected to pressure testing to determine the pounds per square inch the brick could withstand. Never during the move did the stress even approach a small percentage of the limits.

Stockbridge's firm also installed the computers and sensors to monitor the "round" of the walls, deflection of the plinths (stepped granite stone at the base of the tower), verticality, etc. There are even sensors to measure the temperature of the black and white stripes. Thermal heating can change the angle of verticality of the lighthouse; the lighthouse is a dynamic object at all times, reacting to various elements including wind and solar heating. The tower's flexibility increased its movability.

In case of a power failure, a plumb line is rigged in the center of the tower with a suspended weight on a paper with concentric bull's-eyes; deviation of the weight from the center is the manual way of measuring verticality; Dexter Stetson, builder of the lighthouse in 1868, would have used the same device to determine the roundness of the walls as bricks were laid.

After a move, Stockbridge's firm inspects for any changes in the historic buildings and comes up with the drawings and specs for any needed restoration work. "We'll have little if anything to do after this move," Jerry comments, "because these guys have done such a good job in moving these historic buildings. Even the old crack in the tower from lightning, (reported by the lighthouse keeper on April 17, 1879), has had no change. This is a great job."

Photos:

Photos courtesy Bruce Roberts

As the tower neared the concrete pad [Large Image] at its final destination, oak cribbing was stepped down to meet the roll beams upon which the tower glided. Since having arrived at the relocation site July 9, movers have begun the "lowering phase." The goal is to remove the support steel and transport system and put the lighthouse at its final elevation on shoring towers.

Photos courtesy Bruce Roberts

In the second image, "jacks and cribbing" [Large Image] you are standing under the lighthouse. Shoring steel is on either side of the main beams. The jacks within one main beam are depressurized, leaving some of the steel suspended. This steel is removed and the jacks are reset. This process is repeated for each main beam, until all jacks are reset at the same height and the tower is then lowered by the unified hydraulics jacking system in small increments at a time. The process is repeated until the tower is at about four feet, and then the shoring towers are reinstalled. Joe Jakubik, site manager for the International Chimney team of movers, predicts the lighthouse will be at elevation sometime this evening.

Once this is accomplished, bricklayers will build brick columns for infill to conjoin the lighthouse base with the concrete pad. The shoring towers are removed and the brick infill is completed.

Earthmovers have already smoothed over the old site, leaving the original 1870 pine timber mat intact and covered with water for preservation.

At the new site, earth will soon cover the concrete and brick infill and the first plinth, restoring the lighthouse to ground level appearance at the new site.

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Feb 1, 1999
Staff Report

The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society will update the progress of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse move throughout the Spring ... sign up to receive e-mail updates.

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Schedule of Events
UPDATE
July 17, 1999
Cheryl Roberts

The new lighthouse site is an area of 3.1 acres surrounded by natural growth. The light of the lighthouse will gain an advantage at a new height to put the beacon out across Diamond Shoals. A Notice to Mariners for light-out was issued for March 1st.

May until early June: installation of the main beams with hydraulic jacks that lifted the tower. The next step was to install the roll beams upon which the tower will move.

Eary June the slide began. It can take up to six weeks, moving about 50-100 feet per day. This is now predicted to last until early-July.

Early July until early September the tower will arrive at the new foundation, be lowered onto the concrete pad, all steel removed, and concrete infill to complete its new foundation will be done.

Phase 2 will begin and work on details including parking, utilities and such begins.

September 4th, beginning at 7:00 pm the National Park Service will host the re-lighting ceremony.

Memorial Day 2000 reopening is planned. Nothing specific has been announced, but a ceremony will likely be in order.

Re-lighting Ceremony Set
July 17, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

The National Park Service announced that a re-lighting ceremony has been set for Saturday, September 4, beginning at 7 pm. This gala event will mark the beginning of a celebrated future for this historic light station. The U.S. Coast Guard will take part in this event at the light station. It will be the beginning of a tribute to the old U.S. Lighthouse Service and the keepers who kept a light for mariners. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse represents this tribute.

New Cape Hatteras Book Released
July 17, 1999
Staff Report
UPDATE
ROANOKE ISLAND, NC

CAPE HATTERAS: AMERICA'S LIGHTHOUSE, has just been announced by Cumberland House. The book is by Thomas Yocum, Bruce Roberts, and Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and will be available at most of the national bookstore chains such as Borders and Barnes & Noble in the near future. It will also be widely available on the Outer Banks including the National Park Service, Buxton vistors center at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Book Review:

By Homer H. Hickam ... author of Torpedo Junction, Rocket Boys/October Sky, and Back to the Moon.

"Cape Hatteras: America's Lighthouse is a treasure to all of us who love what is arguably the most famous lighthouse in the world. The authors should be commended for writing not only a fascinating look into the past and future of this great beacon, but also a damn fine tale of passion, perseverance, intrigue, romance, grand schemes, utter calamities, and vast heroism.

This is an important bit of American history but it is not a dry text. This book is a real page-turner, one that will illuminate your mind as surely as the Hatteras lighthouse on a frightening, dark sea. Like the mariners which once depended on the light to skirt a dangerous coast, after you finish reading this book, you will be grateful for the experience."

Homer H. Hickam

Lighthouse Society Dinner Announced
July 17, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
ROANOKE ISLAND, NC

The Annual Keepers Dinner will be held Sept. 11 at the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills. Keynote speaker, Joe Jakubik, International Chimney Corp. Project Manager for the Cape Hatteras Relocation, will give a presentation of images and narration on "How We Moved the Lighthouse."

Join us for a fun evening of celebration with the Keepers Bar opening at 5:00 pm. Bett Padgett will provide entertainment, singing from her new CD "If a Lighthouse Could Speak." Move artifacts will be auctioned for funding of exhibits at the Keepers' Quarters at the relocation site.

Tickets are $29.00 per person, $55 for two. No children's plates are available. You may email Betty Parrish, OBLHS Membership Director Tickets are now available to all interested, and with limited seating, please order soon. Email messages will be returned beginning July 26. Ticket orders will be taken in the order in which she receives payment by postmark. You may mail your ticket requests and money to her at 6625 Candlewood Drive, Charlotte, NC 28210

Aquarium Construction Update
July 12, 1999
Michael Halminski
UPDATE
ROANOKE ISLAND, NC

Even though the North Carolina aquarium at Roanoke Island is closed for major expansion, the staff is quite busy in expansion related details. Husbandry staff began collecting aquatic specimens, and adding them to special quarantine and holding tanks on the site. Collecting trips were made in the Croatan and Pamlico Sounds as well as Oregon and Hatteras Inlets. Species collected include Black Drum, Croakers, Spadefish, Pinfish, Red Drum, Sea Mullet and Bluefish. Exhibits staff has also been busy preparing Expansion Graphics, The Rivers of North Carolina Changing Exhibit, and The Coastal Gallery Changing Exhibit.

Photos courtesy Michael Halminski

Advisory Committee members inspect progress of the centerpiece exhibit Graveyard of the Atlantic Tank (above).

Construction contractor T. A. Loving Co. of Goldsboro has indicated that construction of the $15 million project is 55% complete including placement of the large acrylic viewing port for the 185,000 gallon Graveyard of the Atlantic fish tank. The tank will not only hold an assortment of sea life, but also a 50-foot replica of the Monitor, the Civil War ironclad ship that sunk off of Cape Hatteras in 1862.

Photos courtesy Michael Halminski
Steel roof framework was installed for the Greenhouse Project. The Greenhouse will contain trees and other vegetation as well as the River Otter Exhibit. (above).

Completion of the 68,000 square foot project is scheduled for March 21, 2000. Already in the planning stages, an official grand opening ceremony is set for May 17, 2000. This will include special guests, speakers and activities to be announced at a later date.

Photos courtesy Michael Halminski
General overall view of the construction site shows the new expansion project taking shape (above).

The other North Carolina Aquariums at Fort Fisher and Pine Knoll Shores are also scheduled for expansion in the near future. All 3 Aquariums host over 1 million visitors annually.

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