ACCOMACK COUNTY, Va. -- Space Company Rocket Lab wants to bring rockets to Virginia's Eastern Shore on barges. They would then use the one road on and off Chincoteague to truck those rockets over to Wallop's Island.
On Wednesday, November 20, Rocket Lab told Accomack County Supervisors it was turning its focus away from the Queen Sound Boat Ramp near Chincoteague.
"Unfortunately there are a lot of constraints in that and it's probably not going to be ideal infrastructure for us to use," said Jennifer Goodrum, Director of State and Local Government Operations for Rocket Lab.
Goodrum went on to say the company heard the concerns of local officials.
"We do recognize there's some significant community impacts in that in terms of traffic, EMS services," said Goodrum. "Certainly something we would partner and make sure we are working with to mitigate as much as possible if that option, and that's a big if at this point, that is not a priority option."
The company's first choice, according to Goodrum, is to barge rockets directly onto Wallops Island.
Either way, Chincoteague Councilmember Denise Bowden said the town is happy to help.
"I was really worried about how it would disrupt any emergency medical services that we would have occur over here," said Bowden. "After listening to Rocket Lab and their proposals and everything I'm confident that if the Queen Sound ramp is still an option that we can overcome that and figure out a way to make it work."
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The idea has led to a bit of concern among county and local officials. One of the main concerns being the size of the Queen Sound boat ramp, the entry point Rocket Lab has it's eyes on.
"This particular boat ramp I do not think would factor in to the rockets, I think this is way too small," said Chincoteague Mayor Arthur Leonard. "The rocket components that would be coming in would be much larger so I think they would have to build the facilities and the infrastructure to accommodate those rockets."
Another worry would be the possible use of the Chincoteague Causeway. During the summer, the two-lane highway sees plenty of traffic, so adding a trailer carrying a rocket could make things ugly.
Leonard said island officials have been trying to get the Virginia Department of Transportation to widen the causeway for years now, so he's hoping if this plan comes to fruition, it ends up working out in Chincoteague's favor.
"We've wanted to make improvements to it whether that's adding a third lane, what have you, so by barging the rockets in here it would make our causeway better," said Leonard.
We did reach out to VDOT today, asking if there were any plans or if it was a possibility the causeway is widened. They did not answer our question.
However that might not even need to happen, because Accomack County Administrator Mike Mason said Rocket Lab wants to use the Queen Sound boat ramp as a plan-b.
"The idea was to have a place, a secondary option in case landing a barge directly on Wallop's Island wasn't a viable solution," said Mason. "That could be because of weather, that could be because of protection of threatened species, there could be a number of issues that prohibit their use of plan-a at that point."
Mason said county, local and state officials just began talking about whether or not this plan is feasible.
"We realize there will have to be some improvements but the magnitude of those improvements, we haven't gotten that far yet," said Mason. "We're sort of just trying to get everyone in the same room to discuss what the issues are, what obstacles are and figure out if there's a way to mediate those obstacles."
