Federal grant for Alligator River Bridge hailed again, this time at the water’s edge

Gov. Roy Cooper and Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt posed for pictures together on a dock along the Alligator River late Thursday morning, with the U.S. 64 bridge stretched out behind them. The two men had just delivered speeches on the river’s shore toasting a $110 million federal grant that will allow the N.C. Department of Transportation to replace the 60-year-old bridge starting in 2025. The grant was announced more than two months ago. But Cooper and Bhatt made the trip to sparsely populated Tyrrell County on Thursday to draw...