Three meetings have been scheduled for the public to learn more about a plan intended to improve public access to the main highway for the Outer Banks.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is working with the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and other federal and local agencies to develop a plan for a section of N.C. 12 in Dare County.

The vulnerable, 11-mile stretch of two-lane highway between the Marc Basnight Bridge and the Rodanthe “Jug Handle” Bridge is bordered closely on either side by the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound and regularly experiences closures and maintenance issues from repeated storm damage.

Being called the Solving Access for N.C. 12 in Dare County, or SAND, Plan, the group began work in January on short- and long-term solutions to reduce travel disruptions for that section of roadway.

NCDOT representatives will be available to answer questions, facilitate public surveys, and receive comments during the following drop-in informational meetings, all scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m.:

• April 28 at the Hatteras Civic Center.
• April 29 at the Rodanthe Waves Salvo Community Building.
• April 30 at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

The SAND project is funded with $1.86 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost Saving Transportation, or PROTECT, grant program.

“The plan aims to minimize environmental impacts and account for community considerations and the costs and feasibility of those solutions,” according to the release.

The team is using the Planning and Environment Linkages process to streamline future environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. Community stakeholder and public input is being considered important to the process as the plan is developed.

“By addressing environmental requirements in the planning stages, project managers can avoid having to duplicate studies and tackle major environmental hurdles that could delay projects and increase the costs to deliver them,” officials said.

Written comments can be submitted at any of the public meetings or by calling at 984-205-6615 and entering project code 2463, by email at nc-12-access@ncdot.gov or on NCDOT’s public input portal.

Comments during this round of engagement must be provided by May 15. Additional public meetings will be held in the summer and fall. More information can be found on NCDOT’s website.

Second and final in a series

As the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel studies the effects of permanent beach erosion control structures such as seawalls and jetties, a critical aspect of the analysis will be looking at the lessons learned.

The commission banned hardened structures on the ocean shoreline in 1985 because of the down-shore erosive effects on the beach. Still, there are numerous examples of such structures in place along different parts of the coast, with varied degrees of effectiveness.

Erosion is not only more severe and longstanding on the Outer Banks, which are more exposed to the power of the open ocean and coastal storms than other parts of the North Carolina coast, it is the most dramatic and unforgiving, especially on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. But coastal erosion is a statewide issue. To that point, federal beach nourishment projects in North Carolina began in 1965 at Wrightsville Beach and at Carolina Beach, and nourishment at both locations has been done in recent years.

When development and tourism took off on the Outer Banks in the 1980s, it didn’t take long before beach cottages began lining ocean shorelines.

Still, the forces of erosion had no mercy, and Kitty Hawk began losing beachfront properties. After the commission issued a variance to the hardened structures ban in 2003, permitting sheet-piling along N.C. Highway 12 in the beach community, then-Sen. Marc Basnight strongarmed the state’s ban into legislation.

Then in 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law that permitted four “test” terminal groins and has since expanded the permissible number of groins to seven. To date, four communities submitted permit applications: Figure Eight Island, Ocean Isle Beach, Bald Head Island and Holden Beach. Holden Beach has since withdrawn its application.

Long before the ban, numerous attempts were made to shore up the beach oceanward of the 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton. By 1930, the nation’s tallest brick lighthouse was a mere 98 feet from the ocean.

According to National Park Service records, interlocking steel sheet-pile groins were installed in the 1930s on the beach near the lighthouse and reinforced a few years later. Over the years, dunes were built, grasses were planted, the beach was nourished, revetment and sandbag walls were installed.

In 1969, the U.S. Navy installed three reinforced concrete groins to protect its base, which was adjacent to the lighthouse at the time. But the erosion continued. More sandbags were put in place; more beach nourishment was done. The Navy left in the 1980s. While the National Park Service officially gave up its beach nourishment and dune stabilization efforts in 1973, it continued trying in ensuing years to protect the lighthouse from the sea with rip-rap, artificial seagrass, sandbags and a scour-mat apron.

Finally, after much study and public debate, with the ocean lapping at its foundation, in 1999 the lighthouse was relocated about a half mile from the beach.

Fast-forward a quarter-century and, since September 2025, 19 unoccupied beach houses near that same beach in Buxton have collapsed into the ocean.

Escalating beach erosion along the state’s entire coast, but especially in Buxton, has put difficult discussions about lifting the hardened shorelines ban back on the table. The few existing permanent erosion-control structures built over the years on North Carolina beaches have yielded mixed results.

Oregon Inlet

One of the most successful examples of a terminal groin doing what it was intended to do, and with relatively minimal harm, is the 3,125-foot terminal groin and 625-foot revetment built in 1991 to protect the N.C. Highway 12 tie-in at the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, which has since been replaced and renamed the Marc Basnight Bridge. The $13.4 million groin is substantial — ranging from 110 to 170 feet wide at its base and 25 feet wide at its landward end, and 39 feet wide at its seaward end — and was built to withstand waves as high as 15 feet, according to an analysis done by the state Division of Coastal Management, “North Carolina’s Terminal Groins at Oregon Inlet and Fort Macon,  Descriptions and Discussions.”

Located on the south side of Oregon Inlet at the north edge of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge land, the groin placement encouraged sand buildup, or accretion, landward, resulting in a wide expansion of 50 acres of sandy property on the inlet side of the historic state-owned Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station. The building is vacant, but has been weatherized to preserve it for future use.

The groin site and surrounding beach have been regularly monitored by state and federal coastal scientists. Studies have shown that the structure has likely increased shoaling of a spit on the Bodie island side and deepening of the channel. Yet, the groin has cause little if any destructive downstream erosion while adequately protecting the highway and bridge infrastructure.

But the report warned that within the next 20 years or so, the continued southward migration of the Bodie Island spit could push the inlet’s main navigational channel up against the terminal groin structure itself.

“If this were to occur, the result would be severe scour and an increase in the maintenance necessary to preserve the threatened integrity of the structure itself,” according to the document.

Beaufort Inlet/Fort Macon

Since Fort Macon was constructed in 1834, about 25 erosion-control structures adjacent to Beaufort Inlet have been built, including groins, breakwaters, timber cribbing, sand-fencing and seawalls, as well as multiple beach nourishment projects, according to the terminal groin report.  The first phase of the terminal groin project began in 1961 and included a 530-foot seawall, a 250-foot revetment and 720-foot long, 6-foot-high terminal groin. Phase II, beginning in 1965, extended the groin 410 feet oceanward, and another groin was built west of the revetment to address extensive soundside erosion, while 93,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on the ocean beach.

The third phase, started in 1970, extended the terminal groin another 400 feet, to a total of 1,530 feet long. A 480-foot-long stone groin was built to stabilize the beach fill, and another 100,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on the ocean beach. Total costs for the three-phase project was $1.35 million.

Effects of the project include increased wave energy along the Fort Macon State Park and Bogue Banks area, and continued increases in wave energy were predicted. A sediment deficit has created erosion on the inlet’s western shoreline. Meanwhile, the sand spit at Fort Macon has migrated into the western bank of the navigation channel, indicating that the terminal groin has become inefficient at trapping sediment.

“Without constant beach nourishment, the terminal groin would no longer perform as observed historically and potentially fail altogether,” the report concluded.

Buxton

Dare County is planning a nourishment project in Buxton, as well as restoration of one of the Navy’s three abandoned reinforced sheet-pile groins that had been installed in 1969. According to the recent application to repair the southernmost groin, which is 50% or more intact, that groin had been lengthened in 1982 on the landward side by 300 feet, and armor stone was added two years later. New sheet piles and additional scour protection were added to the structures in 1994. The other two groins in the original groin field are too damaged to qualify under the Coastal Resources Commission’s “50% rule” that permits repairs.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten has said publicly that the county is under no illusions that the project planned for this summer will solve the erosion issue for good. But the hope is that it will serve as a Band-Aid long enough to find a more permanent solution to erosion that is now so severe it is threatening the livelihoods of community residents and the island’s tourism economy, as well as N.C Highway 12.

Retired East Carolina University professor and veteran coastal geologist Dr. Stanley Riggs, who has studied the Outer Banks since the 1970s, agreed that the fact that the lighthouse had to be relocated to save it illustrates why Buxton’s erosion is not going to be easy to tame for long, with or without groins. When the first coastal survey from Virginia to Ocracoke was done in 1852, the original 1802 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was destroyed, had been 1,000 feet from the shoreline, Riggs recently told Coastal Review. All told, the shoreline has receded 3,000 feet, or about two-thirds of a mile, at the cape, he said.

“And it’s been constant,” Riggs said. “It oscillates a little bit, but the main direction has been constant.”

As Riggs explained, offshore just north of the motel area in Buxton, there is an underwater rock structure that is set at an oblique angle relative to the barrier island. Similar “old capes” are also off Avon and Rodanthe, he said. The rocks are under as much as 50 feet of water, and they dictate how the waves refract there.

“And so, if you fly over it, and you get the right angle down there, what you see is a series of cusps, and one side of that cusp will be stable, the other side will be highly erosional,” he said. Groins will only make the eroding side erode faster. And when there are permanent or semipermanent structures along the beach, the shore face — the part that is under water — starts to erode and gets steeper and steeper, he said. And the steeper it gets, the more severe the overwash and the more difficult it is to hold the sand in place. That’s a big reason why beach nourishment is having to be done more frequently.

Not only does the Outer Banks stick out farther into the Atlantic, there is also a narrower continental shelf, which allows the bigger waves to come ashore from the open ocean without the wider “speed bump” needed to dissipate the power.

There’s no negotiating with the ocean, Riggs said. Considering the combination of coastal dynamics at play in Buxton, efforts to control erosion will continue to fail.

“It’s that land-sea-air interface that is really the highest energy place that we’ve got on our planet,” Riggs said. “And there’s some things you can do there. There’s some things you shouldn’t do there, you can’t do there, and it’s a matter of understanding how that system works.”

Ocracoke Island

A persistent erosion hot spot on the north end of the island along N.C. Highway 12, the only road between the Hatteras Ferry Docks and Ocracoke Village, has been patched on and off for decades by increasing numbers of ever larger numbers and size of sandbags.

But even the type of large, new, trapezoidal bags permitted at Ocracoke, Pea Island and Mirlo Beach have not held up as expected, according to a presentation provided by Paul Williams of the North Carolina Department of Transportation at the February Coastal Resources Commission meeting.

Williams presented details at the meeting of NCDOT’s revised request to increase the base of the sandbags from 20 to 30 feet and the height from 6 feet to 10 feet, to better protect them from being undermined by waves.

The newer bags have open ends at the top, which proved to be a problem at Pea Island, Williams told the commission. The Pea Island Refuge at the Visitor Center, he added, faces similar risks now to that seen at Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe in the years before the hotspot was bypassed with completion of the Rodanthe “Jug-Handle” Bridge.

“The performance has not been what we anticipated,” he said, describing how they were flooded at the top, which caused the sandbags to deflate. “This product, there may be some modifications that can be made to make them more resilient.”

Some of the new bags were also installed along with traditional sandbags at Ocracoke, and they’re still covered, Williams said, but roughly 1 mile of sandbags along N.C. 12 are at risk of being undermined during the next big storm.

“So it’s basically to give us more latitude on different products, to try to protect the roadway out there better than traditional sandbags have,” Willams told Coastal Review after the meeting. “We’ve used them for decades out there, and especially Mirlo, they really got tossed around during storms. We were looking to find a more resilient product, and we’re working on evaluating other options out there.”

The new sandbags with an opening at the top are quicker to fill, he said. They’ve worked at other areas, but conditions elsewhere are not as fierce.

“When you’re on the Outer Banks, you’re under constant pressure during some of these storm events, because we’ll have a storm set up on the coast and grind for days at a time,” Williams said. “And every tide cycle is just steadily pulling sand out of the bags, and we need to have some way to stop that.”

Even though many of the traditional sandbags without the troublesome opening are still in place at Ocracoke, Williams said that about half of them, or about 1,000, have been exposed and need to be replaced. Another issue on the island is the limited amount of sand available to cover.

Sandbags, which are considered temporary erosion-control structures that are permitted parallel to shore to protect imminently threatened roads or structures, have rules about color and size, but those rules have been notoriously abused with regard to the “temporary” part, with extensions often adding up to decades at a site, making them “hardened structures” in everything but name.

Before Nags Head in 2011 started nourishing its eroded beaches in South Nags Head, for instance, even battered and torn sandbags weren’t removed for years, and property owners often successfully sued the state to keep longstanding stacked rows of protective bags in place in front of their oceanfront homes on the eroded beach.

As sea levels continue to rise, storms intensify and erosion accelerates, even sandbags as fallbacks in the absence of other impermissible erosion-control structures are becoming less effective, as evidenced by photographs of huge piles of sandbags lined up against undermined houses at North Topsail Beach.

Ocean Isle Beach

Responding to the state legislature’s repeal of the ban on hardened erosion-control structures on the coast, Ocean Isle Beach in 2011 began the planning process to pursue permits to install a terminal groin at Shallotte Inlet to stem erosion that for decades had chewed away at the island’s east end. Five years later, state and federal approval was in hand to build a 750-foot-long terminal groin, but environmental groups in 2017 filed a lawsuit to stop the project. A ruling in March 2021 in the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the project alternatives were properly considered. By April 2022, the $11 million terminal groin was completed.

Today, a diminished beach remains in front of multi-million-dollar homes that were built after the groin was in place. Rows of sandbags block the surf from reaching some of the oceanfront homes, and several lots remain vacant because there is no longer enough property left to meet setback requirements.

In November, the Coastal Resources Commission allowed the owners of eroding vacant oceanfront lots to use larger sandbags to protect their properties.

Interest in future terminal groins

The Village of Bald Head Island, the first community to build a terminal groin after the “test groin” law passed, was issued a permit in October 2014 to build the erosion-control structure, which was completed in 2015.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality monitoring of the project after its completion did not turn up significant issues requiring corrective measures, according to its January 2024 report.

“While ongoing post-construction monitoring performed by the permittee has not identified any significant issues that would require corrective or mitigative measures, the Village performed a maintenance beach nourishment event, received nourishment from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ regularly scheduled Wilmington Harbor maintenance project, and is currently seeking permit authorization for a second Village-sponsored maintenance nourishment event,” according to the document.

Six other communities have expressed “varying degrees” of interest in building a terminal groin project, including North Topsail Beach and Figure Eight Island, as noted in the report.

BUXTON – Faced with devastating destruction across a significant segment of its beachfront, this small Outer Banks village is seeking help for coastal solutions, including measures that could require potentially controversial legislative action by the state and federal governments.

Since September, 15 houses have collapsed on a stretch of beach in Buxton just north of Cape Hatteras, the distinctive point of land midway along the East Coast that juts far into the Atlantic. Adaptation to storms and natural forces have fortified the community since its establishment in the late 1800s, but now stunningly rapid erosion is endangering its future.

“Today, small areas of our oceanfront have deteriorated to the point where we can no longer shoulder these challenges alone,” Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard wrote to members of the North Carolina General Assembly in November. “With your support, we can preserve our coastline, protect public infrastructure, and sustain the economic engine that benefits all of North Carolina.”

The county is one of the few “donor counties” in North Carolina, with more than 3 million people annually visiting Dare’s beaches and national parks and generating significant state tax revenue, he said. So far, he added, the county has spent about $275 million for beach nourishment as well as additional millions to maintain inlets, with little state or federal assistance.

In addition to a beach nourishment project in 2026 for Buxton, the county is planning to repair a purportedly half-intact groin, one of three installed in 1969 to protect the former Navy base constructed in 1956 near the original location of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Dare and Hyde counties also have asked the state Division of Coastal Management to lift the 1985 state ban against hardened structures so the remnants of the two deteriorated groins at the site can be replaced.

But beach stabilization of any sort on the Outer Banks, with its extraordinarily high-energy coastal conditions, is becoming more challenging in a changing climate with quickly evolving and often unpredictable consequences: Sea levels are increasing faster than projected, storms are intensifying, rainfall is heavier.

In recent years, Hatteras and Ocracoke islands on the barrier islands’ southern end have been suffering dramatically increased shoaling in its inlets and far worse erosion at numerous hot spots along N.C. 12, the island’s only highway. Over wash, loss of dunes and road damage is becoming more frequent and difficult to mitigate, sometimes resulting in loss of vehicular access for hours or days. 

People say things feel different. Residents — from old timers to long-time transplants — have noticed places flooding where they never did before, shoaling in waterways that had never clogged before, and erosion consuming an entire shoreline that had been wide and stable just a few years before. And this fall and winter, even seasonal nor’easters have switched to overdrive, with the storms coming in one after another and more often than some ole salts say they’ve ever seen. 

“When we really developed these islands in the ’70s and ’80s, it was a different system, and we need to recognize that, acknowledge it, and plan accordingly,” Reide Corbett, executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute and Dean of the Integrated Coastal Program at East Carolina University, said in a recent interview. “We can’t let self-interest lead the way. We need to understand what this looks like, and we need to get behind better policy. And it starts with how we develop.”

Responding to increasing numbers of house collapses in Buxton and Rodanthe, the Hatteras Island’s northernmost village, state leaders are urging Congress to pass legislation introduced by Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from North Carolina’s 3rd District, that would authorize proactive Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance payments to remove threatened oceanfront houses before they fall.

While the proposal has garnered bipartisan support, FEMA is currently understaffed and targeted for downsizing, reorganization or even elimination, and its flood insurance program is woefully underfunded.

A delegation representing local, state and federal officials toured the damaged area in Buxton on Nov. 24, where dozens of additional oceanfront houses are scattered willy-nilly, awaiting near-certain demise. Numerous members of the group expressed shock at the disarray and destruction at the scene.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson has directed the Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel to analyze shoreline stabilization options, including the potential effectiveness or negative impacts of groins.

Erosion on Buxton’s oceanfront has been a persistent problem for many decades, at least to the infrastructure on the beach, such as the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

“It was quite obvious to everybody that in the course of time the lighthouse would topple into the Atlantic Ocean and the thousand acres of park land, upon which no tree and scarcely any blade of grass grew, would be swallowed up by the warring ocean currents that swirl around the point of Cape Hatteras,” author Ben Dixon MacNeill wrote in an article published on July 30, 1948, in the Coastland Times. At that point, he noted, in just the lifetime of a middle-aged man, erosion had already whittled away 1,500 feet of beach. 

Despite the 1937 congressional directive to the National Park Service to preserve what would later become Cape Hatteras National Seashore as a “primitive wilderness,” until the early 1970s, according to park documents, the agency spent more than $20 million to stop the “natural process” of barrier island movement. Projects included installing in 1930 steel sheet pile groins along the beach by Cape Hatteras Lighthouse; installing in 1933 additional sheet pile groins at the lighthouse; nourishment of the beach in 1966 near the Buxton motel area with sand dredged from Pamlico Sound; and in 1967 placement of revetment of large nylon sandbags in front of the lighthouse.

In addition, the U.S. Navy built three reinforced concrete groins in 1969 to protect its facility near the lighthouse; the beach near the Buxton motels was nourished again in 1971 with material dredged from Cape Point; and the beach near the Navy operation was nourished in 1973 with Cape Point sand. 

Those actions were in addition to construction and repeated reconstruction of sand dunes, as well as beach fences and planting grasses, shrubs and trees to hold the dunes. 

Finally, in 1973, the National Park Service acknowledged the futility and unsustainable costs of stabilization, and abandoned its efforts. The agency, however, did continue various attempts to protect the lighthouse with riprap, offshore artificial grass, sandbags and a scour-mat apron. With the sea by then lapping at its base, the lighthouse in 1999 was relocated a half-mile inland.

In a letter dated Jan. 9, 1974, from the U.S. Department of Interior to a Buxton resident, the agency promised that all available data would be analyzed before determining future beach stabilization management decisions in the Seashore, including relative to the groins.

“The most reliable scientific data we have obtained thus far offer no evidence that the existing jetties or groins at Buxton provide acceptable protection from ocean forces,” the department added. “While some stabilizing effect may be gained in the immediate area, the jetties actually cause more erosion in adjacent locations.”

A report the year earlier published by University of Virginia coastal scientist Robert Dolan, et. al, to analyze the effects of beach nourishment in Buxton, in fact, said that the groins — short jetties extending from a shoreline — rapidly increased erosion by the motel area, causing dune destruction and ocean over wash into private property.

“The groins, somewhat unexpectedly, are trapping sediment at the expense of the beaches to either side and as a result of their success, the reach protected by the groins has become stable,” the report said, adding that the localized erosion problem at Buxton had followed construction of the groins.

Barely more than four years after they were built, the groins were damaged by storms and required repairs with new sheet piling. Patches and reinforcements continued until the Navy in 1982 abandoned the base, apparently leaving the groins to the elements.

By the time heated discussions kicked in about whether the lighthouse should be saved in place or moved, the community tried to persuade the federal government to not only maintain the by-then-deteriorating existing groins, but also to add a fourth groin. The petition was soundly rejected, and the Navy, the Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appeared to want nothing to do with the groins.

Today, the county sees the sand trapping barriers — even a single groin — as a way to prolong the effectiveness of a $50 million beach nourishment project, and importantly, as a way to buy time while consultants determine a long-term strategy for Buxton.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten reported in March that, according to Coastal Science & Engineering, the firm hired to do the beach nourishment and groin work, the southern-most groin would meet the state’s 50% rule that allows repair of an existing structure that has 50% or less in damages. The county is currently awaiting approval from the state, as well as acknowledgement that the application meets the exemption criteria for an exemption from the hardened structures statute, he said.

If the groin work is approved, contractors estimate the $2 to $4 million project would take up to two months to complete this summer and involve about 640 feet of repairs, using steel sheet pile and riprap scour protection within the original footprint.

As Outten summed up the current dilemma facing Dare and other North Carolina coastal communities: There are two extremes, either hold the coast in place as it is, and build sea walls. Or let nature take its course, let the houses fall and see the economy crumble.

“And neither one of those extremes is acceptable,” he told Coastal Review. “To anybody.”

A Republican lawmaker for most of the Outer Banks has pressed the governor’s office to declare a state of emergency for sections of the barrier islands that have suffered in the last several weeks from what he calls “catastrophic shoreline collapse” and the associated infrastructure damage, particularly to N.C. Highway 12.

Sen. Bobby Hanig, who represents District 1, which consists of Bertie, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Tyrrell counties, penned a letter to Gov. Josh Stein’s office dated Friday, Oct. 31, requesting a state of emergency be declared, for the “affected Ocracoke area (Highway 12, encompassing Hatteras and Ocracoke) and activate all state resources.”

In his letter to the governor, Hanig explained that the Buxton community “has suffered catastrophic shoreline collapse, resulting in the loss of sixteen homes and over two hundred feet of shoreline. NC Highway 12, south of Oregon Inlet — the only access route for residents, emergency services, and visitors — has been washed out by ocean waters, isolating families and placing lives at risk. Local emergency management and county resources are fully exhausted and cannot effectively respond without state support.”

He also requested that the state coordinate with federal partners to secure emergency assistance, and authorize emergency shoreline and infrastructure protection where “state and federal interests intersect.”

A spokesperson with the governor’s office said Monday in an email response to Coastal Review’s request for comment that “The images of homes being swept away are deeply unsettling. The state of the North Carolina is working closely with Dare County and state and federal partners in the area to make sure that North Carolinians remain as safe as possible.” 

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety explains on its website that “when a governor or local body declares a State of Emergency, emergency managers are provided with the legal means they need to deploy resources and immediately respond to a crisis to protect lives and property.”

This means that government officials can bypass certain procedures that are typically required, such as, for example, the budget approval process to access emergency funds, or the bidding process to hire a contractor to perform cleanup.

Post has been updated.

The nor’easter that swept up the East Coast this past weekend stripped ocean beaches of sand, inundated areas with floodwaters and pushed seawater over dunes and roads along North Carolina’s coast.

The Outer Banks suffered much of the brunt of the powerful system that brought wind, rain and coastal flooding.

On Saturday the North Carolina Department of Transportation closed sections of N.C. 12 on Ocracoke. Overwash forced officials to close portions of the road Sunday on Hatteras Island, where crews spent the weekend pushing sand and water from the road and rebuilding the dune line that divides the beach from the road.

As of late afternoon Tuesday, N.C. 12 on Ocracoke was the only road closed and the Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry service remained suspended, NCDOT’s Assistant Director of Communications Jamie Kritzer said in an interview.

N.C. 12 is closed on the north end of Ocracoke Island between the ferry terminal and the National Park Service Pony Pens.

“This afternoon, we’ve been forced to close N.C. 12 again on Pea Island from Marc Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe, due to ocean overwash,” Kritzer said. “The stretch on Pea Island was reopened at 5 p.m. (Monday) but the wind increased this afternoon and we saw overwash around high tide.”

Kritzer said that NCDOT crews were continuing to push sand and water from N.C. 12 and restore the protective dunes on both islands.

“Our ability to reopen N.C. 12 will depend on whether the dune holds through the next high tide cycle,” he said.

In addition to NCDOT’s highway crews, the state’s Ferry Division played a critical role during the response to this weekend’s nor’easter, Kritzer said.

“At one point, all seven ferry routes were suspended this weekend. However, when the winds subsided, the ferries were able to make a special run to take Ocracoke visitors back to Swan Quarter,” he said. “The Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry have helped transport highway crews and equipment between Hatteras and Ocracoke, so the crews could work on clearing N.C. 12.”

Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac told Coastal Review early Tuesday afternoon that there has been a lot of coastal erosion in certain areas of the national seashore.

At the time of the interview, the National Weather Service forecast much of the Outer Banks to experience flooding through Wednesday. Hallac said that he expects oceanfront flooding as a result, which could make driving on the highway through the seashore hazardous.

“The beaches continue to remain hazardous, especially the beachfront in the Buxton area and the beachfront in the Rodanthe area due to the waves and high-water levels battering many threatened oceanfront structures,” he said.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, eight unoccupied beachfront houses fell in Buxton, five of which collapsed within 45 minutes of each other. Another unoccupied house gave way on Oct. 3 in Buxton, bringing the total number of houses that have succumbed to encroaching ocean waters to 21 within the past five years.

As of Oct. 3, nine homes on Hatteras Island have toppled into the sea, “but there are a number of significantly threatened oceanfront structures, and you know, collapse is definitely possible,” Hallac said. “Even if collapse doesn’t occur, pieces and parts of those homes have broken off over the last couple of days, including large structures like decks. So that’s the reason that the entire beach front in the village of Buxton remains closed.”

He recommended travelers avoid taking N.C. 12 during the high-tide window, adding that there’s a likelihood of some minor soundside flooding as the winds are switching more to the north and northwest.

“That could also make some of our access points on the sound side flooded, and also make highway driving hazardous,” he said.

Conditions were less dire further south along the state’s coast.

Carteret County’s Public Information Officer Nick Wilson said that the county didn’t see any significant damage from last weekend’s coastal low.

“Most of the impacts were primarily in the Down East,” he said, where some roads in Cedar Island and a few other areas experienced overwash.

“A couple of our convenience sites were closed on Sunday for safety but were back to normal on Monday,” he continued. “There haven’t been any reports of building damage or injuries. The high tides over the weekend, combined with king tide conditions, did cause some flooding in low-lying spots, but it quickly receded once the low passed.”

Carteret County Shore Protection Manager Ryan Davenport said Wednesday morning that Most of Bogue Banks fared well during the recent storm.

“We did see moderate erosion and some dune escarpments in western Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach, and Salter Path, but the impacts were no worse than what we typically expect from a winter storm. We remain on track for the island-wide nourishment project scheduled to begin in fall 2026,” he said.

Town officials from North Topsail Beach in Onslow County to Holden Beach in Brunswick County reported experiencing some erosion and escarpment.

North Topsail Beach officials assessed the town’s little more than 11-mile stretch of ocean shoreline throughout Monday and found most erosion to have occurred along the northern end of town toward New River Inlet.

“We noticed our typical hotspots had erosion,” North Topsail’s Town Manager Alice Derian said Tuesday. “There’s some escarpment there. There was some scarping south, but the dunes are still intact.”

All of the town’s public accesses remain open.

Topsail Beach’s ocean shoreline “held up well except at the very south end,” Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission Chair William Snyder said.

He said that there is some escarpment to the natural dunes that front a portion of the undeveloped southern tip of the island.

New Hanover County Coastal Protection Coordinator Bryan Hall said in an email Tuesday afternoon that Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure beaches all experienced some erosion over the weekend. Wrightsville Beach’s ocean shoreline also suffered some escarpments.

“As far as I’m aware, there was no significant public or private infrastructure damage or significant established dune damage, which is a testament to the well-established dunes and the County’s Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) projects,” Hall said.

Officials in Brunswick County beach towns that responded to Coastal Review’s requests for comments also reported minor erosion, including Bald Head Island and Oak Island.

“Honestly, I think we fared pretty well,” Ocean Isle Beach Town Manager Justin Whiteside said Tuesday afternoon.

One end of a privately maintained road that runs through a gated neighborhood at the eastern tip of the island has been partially eaten away.

Whiteside said roughly half of the cul-de-sac within The Pointe, a relatively new development of luxury homes, is gone.

“They’re sandbagging around the perimeter of where the cul-de-sac was,” he said.

“There have not been any reports to us of damage besides some flooding caused by tides and winds,” Holden Beach Town Manager Bryan Chadwick said in an email Tuesday afternoon. “We do feel fortunate because it could have been a lot worse.”

Storm recap

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Erik Heden with the National Weather Service office in the Newport/Morehead City office said that with this last storm, “we wanted to make sure people knew that despite it not having a name,” nor’easters can produce the same winds, flooding and rain as hurricanes.

There have been multiple offshore storms that have beaten and battered areas of the state’s coastline, particularly the Outer Banks, where N.C. 12 on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands has been closed for most of the last few days and Down East Carteret County has experienced high-water levels.

There was also a king tide, which means at certain times of the year the tides come in higher and go out lower than normal, that began early last week, leading to some flooding, which was not storm related, in Beaufort, Buxton and other spots on the Outer Banks, Heden said.

The combination of higher water levels with a king tide, a storm with gale-force winds, large waves and swells, and 3 to 4 inches of rain made everything worse, especially in low lying areas, he said.

Flooding occurred up the Neuse and the Pamlico rivers, pushing water levels in New Bern to their highest since Hurricane Ophelia in 2023.

Down East Carteret County had a “tremendous amount of water on the roads,” but nothing they haven’t experienced before, Heden said. The Outer Banks experienced significant ocean overwash, especially at the March Basnight Bridge southward to the Pea Island Visitor Center, where the man-made dunes are built.

Heden said that while the coast will experience slow improvements and fall temperatures the remainder of this week, some areas will continue to experience issues with water, especially at high tide.

“Today’s Tuesday, and we’ve got this advisory through Thursday, so it’s not going to be worse than it was this weekend. We don’t have the wind, we don’t have the swell, but it takes a while for that water to calm down,” he said.

Precariously perched as a narrow strand protruding into the stormy Atlantic Ocean, Ocracoke Island and its vulnerable highway have been a longtime headache for coastal scientists and road engineers.

Worsening erosion, flooding and storm damage exacerbated by climate change have heightened the urgency for the year-round community: What can be done to save their beloved island?

Researchers met with islanders Sept. 10 at the Ocracoke Community Center to present a study that modeled what the island’s future may hold under different scenarios, from the status quo to new efforts at beach nourishment and bridging.

The bottom line is that the very road itself, along with ongoing attempts to block the ocean’s advance with dunes and stabilize the roadbed with sandbags, has instead resulted in the narrow, low landscape that is currently so under threat by natural forces.

“The heart of the challenge is that the storm events we need to protect roads and buildings from would actually otherwise provide a lifeline for barrier islands in the face of rising sea levels,” Laura Moore, professor and associate chair of research with University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said in an interview before the meeting. “It’s an extremely difficult reality, but unfortunately, the more successful we are in preventing storm impacts, the more quickly we’re managing the barrier islands out from under us.”

Accessible only by ferries, private boats and small planes, Ocracoke Island, most of which is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, depends on a single, highly vulnerable highway stretching about 13 miles from the ferry dock on the north end of the island to the village.

The road, N.C. Highway 12,  has been protected by oceanside sandbags for years along one section about 5 miles from the northern ferry terminal known as the South Dock because of the link to Hatteras Island. But not only are the sand barriers unable to withstand the overwash during storms — the road was impassible and closed for several days after Hurricane Erin in August — the stacking lanes by the ferry dock have also suffered severe erosion.

“It’s very threatened,” Moore told Coastal Review. “I mean, we spend so much time thinking about the road, and yet (potential loss) at that terminal is a storm away, maybe two.”

The multiyear study, led by the UNC Chapel Hill researchers as part of a team that also included scientists from N.C. State University, Duke University and East Carolina University, as well as representatives from the N.C. Department of Transportation, the National Park Service, Hyde County and Tideland Electric Member Corp., is intended to provide information based on scientific modeling, and does not make recommendations or propose solutions.

“What we were charged with was to consider how different management strategies might influence the future landscape,” Moore said. “So, we have looked at different management strategies under different sea level rise scenarios, and we are able to say something about how the different strategies will likely influence Island width and island elevation and the persistence of the island in the future.”

In other words, as Moore explained, the study did not set out to design and test strategies; it instead modeled, which is essentially, “if you do ‘X’, this is what is likely to happen.”

“We’re really looking at relative differences between the management strategies in terms of their effects on the island,” she said.

Moore said that researchers studied current coastal conditions and processes and worked off data and prior research provided in the N.C. 12 Task Force report and NCDOT feasibility studies for guidance as the team developed the strategies to be reviewed: the status quo, i.e., dune road and/or sandbag rebuilding and maintenance; beach nourishment, i.e., widen or nourish the eroding shoreline with sand pumped from stored dredged material or offshore deposits; or road alternatives, i.e., relocate the ferry dock(s), which would eliminate the need to maintain hot spots on N.C. 12,  or build a bridge or causeway to Hatteras Island.

What the modeling revealed is that under the status quo, the island would continue to narrow until, within years or decades, it would become impossible to maintain the transportation corridor. With use of beach nourishment, there would be short-term improvement for 10 to 20 years. But elevating or bridging the road would help to rebuild the landscape.

It’s the first time that the coastal scientists have been able to customize a barrier island model that includes all these processes for a particular location, Moore said, as well as conduct hindcast to calibrate that model.

“Not only are we supporting the local community and the stakeholders … we’re also supporting the scientific community and barrier island communities more broadly because what we’re learning also advances the science so that we can do even better next time,” she said.” It’s really been a beautiful next step to both be coproducing the science in a way that contributes to the local conversation and also contributes to the scientific advancements so that other communities throughout the world on barrier islands can also learn from one another.”

The Ocracoke erosion and road problem has been the target of much study by several iterations of an N.C. Task Force, a multiagency panel of coastal scientists and engineers and government officials that focused on seven vulnerable areas — the “hot spots” — all but one on Hatteras Island. The most recent group was established by the Dare County Board of Commissioners in 2021, with a report released in 2023.

Back in 1972, renowned University of Virginia coastal scientist Robert Dolan, who died in 2016 at age 87, warned in a study published in the journal Science about the consequences of development on the Outer Banks.

“Barrier dune development has been encouraged by man along the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stabilize the barrier islands,” according to the study abstract. “This modification of a delicately balanced natural system is leading to severe adjustments in both geological and ecological processes.”

Dolan, who was credited with being the first scientist to determine that the Outer Banks, rather than being anchored to coral reefs, was instead a 30-foot-deep shifting “ribbon of sand,” later elaborated, saying that the islands’ dune system “may be detrimental to the long-range stability of the barriers and may become more difficult and costly to manage than the original natural system.”

While other coastal scientists have built on Dolan’s research, including Moore, it is undeniable that the complex tension between natural forces and humanity’s need to control them where they live is becoming more difficult in places like Ocracoke.

“And so, the only reason the barrier islands exist in the first place is because of these processes that move sand from the front to the island interior,” Moore said. “That’s what formed these islands, right? And so now that things are changing more rapidly, we’re just really getting pinched in a way that we haven’t seen before.”

In simple terms, barrier islands are built higher and broader by overwash and wind carrying sand over the land. Where the ocean is battering away at the shoreline, the swath of land from the ocean to the sound side collects the sand, unless it’s blocked.

“We are understandably wanting to protect road and roads and infrastructure,” she said. “It makes perfect sense from that perspective, to build a dune to protect the road.”

As sea levels are getting higher, and storms intensify, the battering is more powerful. “And if we don’t allow the island elevation to build up, it will eventually become fragmented and drown in these areas,” Moore said. “So we’re kind of fighting a losing battle, unfortunately.”

Sea levels have been rising ever since the islands formed, she added. But it’s now rising much faster. Between the year 2000 and 2050, seas have been expected to rise 12 inches, a rate Moore called “very significant.”

“It’s so unfortunate, but if we can’t quickly slow the rate of sea level rise, we’re definitely going to have to find different ways to live at the coast,” she said. “In the case of barrier islands, if we want them to persist, we need to find a way to allow them to shift underneath us or accept that we may lose the ability to live on them at all.”

Still, with adjustments, there is hope, Moore said. Citing the 2.4-mile Rodanthe “jug handle” Bridge” and, farther north, the 2,350-foot-long Richard Etheridge Bridge as examples, she said sand will rebuild the island and the shoreline when the natural processes are allowed to happen.

The main goal of the research is to provide the scientific models of several scenarios so the community can work with partners in planning their island’s future.

“It’s really an opportunity to be an incredible example and posterchild leading the way for coastal communities broadly, because they are at the forefront,” Moore said.

Naturally, islanders can see that conditions are changing, and something has to be done, said Randal Mathews, chair of the Hyde County Board of Commissioners and an Ocracoke resident. For the time being, he said, the consensus seems to be to do beach nourishment.

“Well, it’s going to buy some time, because there’s no long-term plan, and there’s no real good short-term plan.”

What could be a reasonable solution, he said, is to “harden” the area with a jetty by the South Dock Ferry Terminal.

What the island folks don’t want to do is move the ferry terminal toward the Pony Pens in the middle of the island, as has been proposed in the recent past.

“They did a survey, and it was 90% of the people don’t want to move south and don’t want to lose access from Hatteras, because they know, like after Dorian, that’s what it was like here, logistically,” he said. “We were dying.”

Mathews said he is truly grateful for Moore’s and her research team’s work, and islanders are listening. But meanwhile, Ocracoke can’t withstand repeated hits to its economy, and the ferry system and road access are major concerns. And he knows that they need political support and funding.

“You know, in the big picture, there’s a lot of moving parts that we have to address, we have to come up with these short-term solutions,” he said. “And we’ve got to  go to Raleigh, and we’ve got to go begging, you know, and that that’s how it works.”

Transportation along the Outer Banks is beginning to return to normal in the aftermath of Hurricane Erin’s close pass.

N.C. Highway 12 on Ocracoke Island, which ocean water washed over and partially undermined during storm-amplified high tides, was set to reopen at 5 p.m. Monday.

The Hatteras-Ocracoke vehicle ferry was to begin service also at 5 p.m. with an amended schedule overnight followed by a full schedule Tuesday morning.

The ferry schedule tonight is as follows:

• Departures from Hatteras at 5, 6, 7:30, 8, 9, 11 p.m. and midnight.
• Departures from Ocracoke at 6, 6:30, 7:30, 9, 9:30, 10:30 p.m. and midnight.

The ferries will resume the regular summer schedules on Tuesday.

“Keep in mind, there will be some water and a thin skim of sand on the highway, so please drive with extreme caution if heading that way,” North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said in a Facebook post. “Our crews will also be continuing to work on the road, so please give them room to work.”

N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island reopened Saturday, and those who had evacuated were allowed to return. The Marc Basnight Bridge reopened at noon Saturday.

The highway was closed the evening of Aug. 20 after severe overwash from Hurricane Erin inundated a section of the highway with deep water and sand north of the National Park Service Pony Pens. Since then, NCDOT crews have been working to clear N.C. 12 between high tide cycles to make the road safe for travel.

Also, the Buxton Woods Reserve site of the North Carolina Coastal has reopened after being closed since Aug. 18 because of the potential risks associated with the storm.

This report has been updated.

State transportation crews were clearing N.C. Highway 12 and rebuilding dunes in the wake of Hurricane Erin’s pass offshore, as flooding conditions continued and the road remained closed Friday morning.

Friday morning’s high tide breached dunes in two new locations along N.C. 12, including a 200-foot-long breach at the Canal Zone just south of Oregon Inlet and a 30-foot-long breach in a dune at the visitor center for the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

In addition, ocean overwash was occurring at Buxton, north of Hatteras, and on the north end of Ocracoke Island.

“Our crews are out, and at the very least we still have no indication of pavement damage, but NC12 remains CLOSED at the Marc Basnight Bridge and on the north end of Ocracoke at this time,” according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s N.C. 12 Facebook page.

Later on Friday, crews from Tyrrell, Hyde and Currituck counties arrived to help get the highway ready to reopen, although there remained no time certain for that to happen. Officials said that before the highway can be reopened, ocean overwash had to stop, dune breaches must be repaired and the highway cleared of standing water and sand, an inspection for pavement damage and repairs completed, if needed.

“When we have a timeline on reopening, we will say so here,” officials posted on the page. “We will issue a press release. We’d shout it from the mountaintops if there were any mountains around here to shout it from.”

The highway will remained closed until it is safe to open, officials said.

Update 4:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Gov. Josh Stein declared a State of Emergency Tuesday ahead of the anticipated impacts from Hurricane Erin, which was about 650 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras and moving at 10 mph at around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“Hurricane Erin will bring threats of coastal flooding, beach erosion, and dangerous surf conditions,” Stein said in a statement. “North Carolinians along the coast should get prepared now, ensure their emergency kit is ready, and listen to local emergency guidelines and alerts in the event they need to evacuate.” 

Original post 6 p.m. Monday:

Eastern North Carolina should expect to see impacts from Hurricane Erin, including coastal flooding, starting Tuesday.

The center of the storm was predicted to remain off the coast by a couple hundred miles, but “We still expect impacts across eastern North Carolina, specifically coastal areas,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Erik Heden said during a webinar briefing at lunchtime Monday.

Effects will likely include dangerous surf and rip currents, storm surge, damaging beach erosion, major coastal flooding and overwash.

The storm was about 820 miles south-southeast of Buxton, or 810 miles south-southeast of Morehead City, according to the National Weather Service’s 5 p.m. Monday update. The Category 4 storm was moving northwest at 10 mph.

A storm surge watch and tropical storm watch were issued for eastern Carteret County, Hatteras Island, the northern Outer Banks and Ocracoke Island.

From Duck to Cape Lookout, water levels could reach up to 4 feet above ground, and 1 to 3 feet north of Duck and south of Cape Lookout.

“Elevated water levels will likely be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” forecasters said, adding peak storm surge forecast is generally provided within 48 hours of storm surge occurring in the area.

Heden, who is with the National Weather Service’s Morehead City/Newport office, said Monday that meteorologists began watching the storm Friday, and the storm is expected to increase in size in the coming days.

Updates throughout the weekend showed that as of midday Saturday, the storm was a Category 5, which has winds at 157 mph or faster on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The major storm weakened to a Category 4, then to a Category 3, with winds from 111 to 129 mph, by Sunday evening.

The storm restrengthened overnight Sunday to a Category 4, with 140 mph winds, Heden said. Sustained wind speeds for Category 4 storms range from 130 to 156 miles per hour.

Forecasters said Monday that tropical storm force wind gusts were possible for the coast, with the highest probability for the Outer Banks, but stronger gusts were possible in any passing outer rainbands associated with Erin.

“The earliest reasonable time of arrival of tropical storm force winds for the immediate coastline is sometime Wednesday morning,” forecasters said. “However, the most likely time this area could see tropical storm force winds will be during the evening on Wednesday.”

The main concern with the winds will be the potential for soundside flooding on a north to northeast wind for Down East Carteret County, Ocracoke and Hatteras Island on Thursday.

Coastal flooding could begin as soon as Tuesday, more than 24 hours before any tropical storm force winds arrive, peaking Wednesday into Thursday and slowly easing up later in the week, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters also advise that extensive beach erosion could occur because of strong, long periods of wave energy with waves as high as 15 to more than 20 feet in the surf zone. These waves will also make the surf extremely dangerous Wednesday into Thursday, as well as the life-threatening rip currents expected the majority of this week.

Hyde, Dare counties

Hyde and Dare counties have issued states of emergency and were evacuating Ocracoke and parts of Hatteras Island ahead of the storm’s arrival Monday.

States of emergency went into effect for Dare County at 6 p.m. Sunday, and for Hyde County’s Ocracoke Island at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Dare County officials announced Sunday afternoon a mandatory evacuation had been issued for Hatteras Island Zone A, which includes all of Hatteras Island, including the unincorporated villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras.

Visitors were to evacuate by 10 a.m. Monday and residents must begin evacuating beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The mandatory evacuation order for Ocracoke visitors began at 8 p.m. Sunday and for residents starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“It is extremely likely that Hyde County EMS services will not be available in Ocracoke due to Highway 12 being inaccessible. Please take this warning seriously, especially if you have medical issues or are likely to need special care,” Hyde officials said in a release, adding plans to continue monitoring the forecast and issue advisories as appropriate.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s ferry division announced Monday that only residents, homeowners or vendors with an Ocracoke re-entry sticker on their vehicles will be allowed on ferries inbound to Ocracoke, in coordination with the mandatory evacuation order.

“While we don’t expect Hurricane Erin to make landfall on the Outer Banks, there will likely be large waves, ocean overwash and major coastal flooding that impact Highway 12,” said Ferry Division Director Jed Dixon. “We hope everyone will heed the evacuation orders for their own safety.”

No visitors will be allowed access to Ocracoke Island until the evacuation order is lifted.

Priority boarding will be suspended for all vessels leaving Ocracoke, and tolls have been waived for ferries heading from Ocracoke to Cedar Island or Swan Quarter.

The Ocracoke-Hatteras, Ocracoke-Cedar Island and Ocracoke-Swan Quarter routes will run the published schedules until the evacuation is complete.

Service on the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry, which runs between the village of Ocracoke and Hatteras Island, is suspended until further notice.

For real-time travel information, please check NCDOT’s DriveNC.gov and the agency’s social media accounts. People can also receive text or email notifications on ferry schedules and changes through the Ferry Information Notification System, or FINS.  

National Park Service

To be consistent with Dare and Hyde counties, Cape Hatteras National Seashore will be closing beach accesses and facilities, the National Park Service said.

“The Coastal Flood Watch indicates that extreme beach erosion and coastal damage is likely along the oceanside, resulting in a significant threat to life and property. Large, dangerous waves will likely inundate and destroy protective dune structures,” according to the press release. “Severe flooding will likely extend inland where there is vulnerable or no protective dune structure, flooding homes and businesses with some structural damage possible. Roads will likely be impassable under several feet of water and vehicles will likely be submerged.”

Museum of the Sea at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Discovery Center on Ocracoke Island will close by 5 p.m. Monday. 

Cape Point, Frisco, and Ocracoke campgrounds were to close by 3 p.m. Monday and Oregon Inlet Campground will close at noon Tuesday. Bodie Island Lighthouse will close Wednesday and Thursday.

Off-road vehicle ramps were to close by 9 p.m. Monday. To view the status of beach access ramps, visit http://go.nps.gov/beachaccess.

Due to the presence of threatened oceanfront structures, the Seashore will close beach access in Rodanthe from the terminus of Old Highway 12 to the end of the Ocean Drive and in front of the village of Buxton southward to Ramp 43.   

Visitors should stay off the beaches completely and discontinue use of all beach trails and boardwalks beginning Tuesday morning.

Hurricane Erin is forecast to be a potential threat to Cape Lookout National
Seashore, with North and South Core Banks expected to experience the most significant impacts, Lookout officials said, adding that coastal flooding will likely be a long duration issue with impacts lasting late into the week.

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials plan to close facilities starting at noon Tuesday, including the Light Station Visitor Center and the Keepers Quarters Museum, through at least Friday.    

Island Express Ferry Service will cease operations out of Beaufort and Harkers Island beginning Wednesday through Friday.   

Great Island and Long Point Cabin Camps reservations have been canceled for Tuesday through Friday. The closure could extend beyond Friday, depending on the impact on the seashore. 

“I hope Erin will remain off the coast and head out sea, but hope is not a good way forward.  I really hate to impact people’s plans, and we aim to reopen as soon as possible afterwards,” acting Superintendent Katherine Cushinberry said Monday in a statement.

The National Park Service staff will be monitoring ongoing developments with Hurricane Erin and will post updates as needed on the park website at go.nps.gov/stormwatch.

Featured Image

A wall of sandbags extends along the roadside far into the distance aside N.C. Highway 12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island. This is where washouts and erosion from storm surge repeatedly chew away at the barrier island beach and roadway, part of the normal ocean dynamics that humans often try to control. Photo: Dylan Ray

Motorists will see lower speed limits this week along sections of N.C. Highway 12 in parts of Currituck and Dare counties.

It’s a move to improve safety during peak travel season.

North Carolina Department of Transportation crews have been reducing speed limits on several sections of N.C. 12. The speed limits in areas through Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Corolla and Frisco will be lowered to 35 mph on Thursday from the off-season speed limit of 45 mph.

Seasonal speed limit reductions will return in areas of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, such as the area near the Haulover Parking Lot south of Avon, as well.

Off-season speed limits will return on Sept. 15.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

After two hours of testimony from county officials and public hearing comments, a visibly frustrated Dare County Commissioners Chair Bob Woodard presented a motion to table any decision on an environmental zone of influence that borders Buxton Woods for 90 days, “so that we can study this and try to iron out exactly what we’ve been discussing.” The motion passed unanimously.

The discussion at the Monday meeting followed a recommendation from the Dare County Planning Board that the zone of influence in the SED-1 district should be removed from the county ordinances “based on consistency with the Dare County Land Use Plan.”

Created in 1988, the zone of influence includes an eight-mile-long area on the soundside of N.C. 12 from Frisco to the north end of Buxton. Written soon after Buxton Woods Reserve was founded in 1988, the zone of influence was an attempt to provide a “buffer to the core area of the forest that was protected under the SED-1 (Special Environmental District),” Derb Carter, Southern Environmental Law Center senior adviser and attorney, said.

The SED-1 “is Dare County’s most restrictive zoning ordinance right as it pertains to the land,” County Planner Noah Gillam told the commissioners.

The controversy over the ordinance originated earlier this year when New Jersey resident Brian Suth, who owns a building in Frisco located in the zone of influence, asked Gillam what would be involved in converting retail space in a building he owned and creating a fourth apartment. At that time, Gillam came across the 1988 language in the SED-1 amendment that defined the zone of influence.

“No multi-family development, townhouses, or condominium project located with ½ mile of any SED-1 zoning district shall exceed a dwelling density of three single family units (whether contained under one or more roofs) per acre,” the amendment reads.

A number of Buxton and Frisco residents recalled the language in the amendment was specifically designed to stop a 40-unit condominium from being developed. The amendment did, in fact, prevent the construction of the condominium. But Gillam pointed out at the meeting that if the intent was to stop intensive development of a lot, it failed.

“It doesn’t apply to a duplex. It doesn’t apply to group developments, where you put ten single family structures on one property,” he said. “You could build a hotel on it.”

That amendment, tacked on to the end of the SED-1 zoning language, was never properly indexed or referenced in county zoning documents, and that has created the dilemma for the county.

The zone of influence was not, it is important to note, a zoning district. Rather it would overlay any zones that were created in the future.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said “There’s law that says that if you don’t properly index it, then it’s not enforceable. And so it’s clear that it was not properly indexed. You can’t go into zoning and look it up.”

What has happened in the 37 years since the zone of influence was established is that the soundside of Hatteras Island parallel to Buxton Woods has been zoned for a number of uses, such as residential, commercial and industrial, and none of those zones reference the zone-of-influence language. Because that has been the case, there are numerous nonconforming land uses in the district.

After identifying the zone of influence amendment, Gillam advised Suth that he could not “continue moving forward creating nonconformities.”

“I advise him that he couldn’t do this,” but he could have “the language (in the amendment) removed so he could have the four dwelling units,” Gillam said.

Much of the discussion at the May 5 meeting focused on whether the amendment is enforceable and whether it does protect Buxton Woods.

Asked by Commissioner Rob Ross to comment on the language prohibiting four living units under one roof, Carter noted the amendment was more comprehensive and had robust protections for land disturbance.

“There’s a pretty substantive requirement, if it were followed, to minimize the disturbance for every type of development that occurs in every zoning district within that influence area, and that’s important,” he said.

Carter also felt the county had met the minimal standard in indexing the amendment.

“The requirement in state law on indexing is you’ve got to have a file ordinance with an index that’s readily available to the public. That’s the basic legal requirement. And in our view, all that’s been met, on indexing a zoning amendment,” he said.

The confusion about what to do was reflected in the public’s comments. Although Hatteras Island residents were overwhelmingly in favor of retaining the protections of the amendment, there was an acknowledgment that it was a complex issue.

“It feels a bit rushed, like every angle has not been fully explored. I’m reminded of the Jodi Mitchell line,” said Buxton resident Aida Havel, paraphrasing the composer’s song Big Yellow Taxi. “They came to paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Complicating any effort to enforce the zone of influence is state law SB 382 passed last year that requires written permission from every property owner in a zoning district if the district is downzoned. Since the zones covered by the zone of influence allow more development than would be permitted by the language of the amendment, it would constitute downzoning, and that Outten said, means the ordinance may not even be relevant any longer.

“You can get rid of it or if you leave it in place, we can’t enforce it,” he said.

After listening to Buxton residents, in particular, voice strong support for keeping the zone of influence in place, Woodard said, “Those (1988) commissioners had a valid reason for doing what they were doing, and they were honoring what the citizens of Hatteras Island wanted. I understand what’s before us, and there’s too much gray there for me, way too much gray for me to say, ‘let’s move forward.’ I would prefer to table it.”

This story is provided courtesy of The Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review partners with The Voice to provide readers with more stories of interest about our coast.

Because of the potential for strong wind gusts, elevated tides and heavy rainfall associated with a low-pressure system, Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials advise visitors to exercise caution on roads and beaches from Thursday evening into this weekend.

National Weather Service forecasters in the Newport office said Thursday morning that the low-pressure system will impact eastern North Carolina Thursday and Friday, “bringing the potential for multiple hazards including: strong winds, coastal impacts, heavy rain, and a tornado or two.”

Forecasters warn that rapid water levels could rise along soundside areas on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, and that minor to locally moderate coastal flooding could continue through this weekend because to high astronomical tides. For weather-related updates, visit the National Weather Service website.

“Visitors should avoid the beach between the north end of Rodanthe and South Shore Drive, and the north end of Buxton, due to the potential for small-to-large pieces of debris to fall off multiple threatened oceanfront structures during and after the storm conditions,” Park Service officials said Thursday.

Officials also said that motorists should use caution along vulnerable areas of N.C. Highway 12 Thursday evening through at least early Saturday morning because of periods of ocean overwash. Travelers should monitor road conditions at https://drivenc.gov.

The Dare County Sheriff’s Office in a social media post Thursday morning warned that overwash was already happening at the north end of Buxton Village.

Beach driving conditions are not expected to be favorable at off-road vehicle ramps. All Seashore campgrounds are open at this time but campers around low-elevation sites may experience flooding.

Travelers using N.C. Highway 12 on the Outer Banks should expect the return to off-season speed limits Monday and expect a short delay in Rodanthe early Tuesday morning.

North Carolina Department of Transportation officials announced Friday that speed limits will return to 45 mph from their seasonal speed limits of 35 mph in areas of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Corolla, Frisco and parts of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, such as near the Haulover Parking Lot south of Avon.

Speed limits were lowered May 13 ahead of peak travel season. Seasonal speed limits will return May 15, 2025.

Motorists are advised to continue driving with caution, as there are still many motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians on the Outer Banks in the fall,” officials said.

North Carolina Department of Transportation crews are expected to reinstall the speed limit signs along sections of N.C. 12 on Monday, weather permitting, officials said.

NCDOT crews also intend to close at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday the intersection of Trade Winds Drive and N.C. Highway 12 in Rodanthe to remove an unused overhead sign structure. There is no detour.

There is no detour for the closure that should last about 20 minutes. Motorists should plan accordingly, officials said.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore is teaming up with researchers and government representatives to begin a multiyear study on transportation and resource management challenges on Ocracoke Island.

Working with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, Duke University, East Carolina University, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Hyde County and Tideland Electric Membership Corp., the study is to answer a series of questions relating to transportation adaptation and mitigation strategies to improve transportation reliability and management of natural barrier island processes.

An information and feedback session is scheduled from 1-2:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Ocracoke Community Center.

“Transportation strategies that have been used for decades to maintain N.C. Highway 12 and the South Dock Ferry Terminal can impact seashore lands and may have inadvertently contributed to the low elevations and narrow island widths that currently make transportation susceptible to disruption from multiple sources including ocean overwash, soundside flooding and heavy precipitation events,” according to a seashore release.

The overall goal of the project is to inform decision making as Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NCDOT, Hyde County and the village of Ocracoke work to address transportation and resource management-related challenges along the east end of Ocracoke Island as well as access to and from Hatteras Island.

The results from initial modeling and public feedback will be incorporated into the second year of research, which will evaluate the effects of other transportation strategies before concluding with a second information session during the summer of 2025.

To learn more about the study, including additional opportunities to provide feedback, visit the website.

In anticipation of the coming busy season, when the Outer Banks experiences an influx of visitors, state transportation officials are planning to lower the speed limit along N.C. Highway 12 starting Wednesday in parts of Currituck and Dare counties.

In Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Corolla and Frisco, the speed limit will be lowered to 35 mph from the off-season speed limit of 45 mph, North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Monday.

Seasonal speed limit reductions also will be put in place for areas of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, such as the area near the Haulover Parking Lot south of Avon, as well.

“NCDOT has been reducing speed limits on these sections of N.C. 12 to improve safety during the area’s peak travel season,” officials said.

Off-season speed limits will return on Sept. 16.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded an emergency contract to replace and repair sandbags along N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island.

The $489,000 contract was awarded to Barnhill Contracting of Rocky Mount.

The work set to begin Monday involves replacing approximately 800 sandbags that were damaged or displaced during recent storms and restoring the protective barrier between N.C. 12 and the Atlantic Ocean on the northern end of Ocracoke Island.

Single lane closures will be in effect while the sandbag replacement is taking place.

Reprinted from Ocracoke Observer’s 2:30 p.m. Feb. 13 report

An Ocracoke Island man, Warren Howard Frantz of Sunset Drive, died Tuesday morning after his vehicle sailed off an overwashed N.C.12 at the north end of Ocracoke and landed in sandbags alongside the road.

Frantz, 61, and his wife, Janet, were driving to catch the 11 a.m. ferry leaving Ocracoke when the vehicle hit water on the road, it went airborne and off to the right toward the ocean.

A bystander, islander Thurston Sumner, ran to the vehicle and was able to get the woman out of the car. This reporter stood with Janet, who said she’d suffered a broken arm.

Soon afterward, Hyde County EMS and members of the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene to attend to Warren, known as “Howdy,” and who was still trapped in the vehicle.

Hyde County Sheriff Capt. Joe Smith confirmed that despite rescue efforts and CPR, Frantz had died but Smith did not have further details.

North Carolina Department of Transportation officials have closed the road from the pony pens northward because of the hazardous conditions and after the 11 a.m. ferry left the N.C. Ferry Division suspended Hatteras ferry runs.

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review is partnering with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

Speed limits for sections of N.C. 12 in Currituck and Dare counties are being reduced for the busy travel season.

The speed limits in areas through Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Corolla and Frisco, will be lowered to 35 mph through Sept. 15 from the off-season speed limit of 45 mph, North Carolina Department of Transportation officials said Thursday.

The seasonal speed limit reductions will be in place for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, including the area just north of Oregon Inlet and near the Haulover parking lot south of Avon.  ​

One area of N.C. 12, the 3.1-mile section of N.C. 12 from Duck to the Currituck County line, will be permanently lowered from 45 mph to 35 mph.

Second in a series.

HATTERAS — Once the quiet and well-behaved counterpart to feral Oregon Inlet, Hatteras Inlet is now repeatedly afflicted by shoaling that defeats routine maintenance of the critically important Ocracoke ferry routes.

“It’s ever-evolving,” Catherine “Cat” Peele, planning and development manager for the state Ferry Division, said in a recent interview. She added that bathymetric surveys are done regularly to keep close tabs on sand buildup. “The channel is constantly changing. We’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.”

Nearby channels outside Hatteras Inlet, the passage from sound to sea between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, have also become bigger problems.

On Monday, June 6, for example, the Ferry Division announced that it had been forced to reduce its scheduled ferry runs to and from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island because, in addition to labor shortages, Big Foot Slough just outside Ocracoke’s Silver Lake was clogged. 

Severe shoaling in that Pamlico Sound channel, according to the announcement, had created dangerous navigation issues for the large sound-class ferries, causing the vessels to be temporarily pulled from service. Emergency dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to happen as soon as possible, and ferry runs will return to the normal summer schedule when channels are cleared to a safe depth, the statement said.

Ferries are essential transportation for residents of this tiny barrier island situated at the southern end of the Outer Banks. Accessible only by boat or small airplane, the charming historic village and beautiful undeveloped beaches are magnets for thousands of tourists every year.

In addition to repeated shoaling issues in Big Foot Slough, just in recent months the free Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry, the busiest of the state’s seven ferry routes, has struggled to transit shoaled spots in the inlet’s ferry channel, occasionally bumping bottom. And an inlet channel used mostly by the Coast Guard and commercial and recreational fishing vessels and charter boats had, after repeated attempts to dredge, become impossible for the Corps to maintain, leading to diversion of traffic to a newly marked natural route. 

“Long range,” Peele said, “it’s hard to know what that inlet will look like.”

Essential routes, difficult challenges

At the same time, the North Carolina Department of Transportation worries that an erosion hot spot long threatening the only highway on Ocracoke Island may soon suffer one too many storm breaches.

Traffic coming off the Hatteras ferry at the north end of Ocracoke Island must drive 13 miles through undeveloped Cape Hatteras National Seashore on N.C. 12 to reach the village. The most vulnerable section of roadway is about 5 miles south of the ferry terminal. If the road becomes impassable, the island’s robust tourism economy would suffer a huge blow. 

That leaves NCDOT, which oversees the ferries, and the Corps having to contend with difficult coastal challenges — primarily erosion and shoaling — for transportation in Hatteras Inlet and on Ocracoke Island that are worsening with the effects of climate change. 

Earlier this year, Brig. Gen. Jason Kelly, who has served since June 2020 as commander of the Corps’ South Atlantic Division, met with Dare and Hyde County and National Park Service officials at the Dare County Administrative Building in Manteo to listen to their concerns, including persistent maintenance problems in the waterways.

Although no immediate action was taken, the agency has provided additional funds for emergency dredging in the inlet and found a new approach, expanding its authority in the inlet to do projects. 

In October 2020, then-U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao announced the designation of the North Carolina Ferry System as a Marine Highway Project, the first in the state. Marine Highways are defined by the federal government as alternatives to traditional transportation methods. With the designation, the ferry division will be able to apply for federal funding to modernize and improve its vessels and infrastructure, according to the announcement.

The North Carolina Ferry System, the second-largest in the country behind Washington state, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. As part of its remembrance, the division is asking ferry passengers and staff to share ferry experiences over the decades. To contribute, visit the Ferry Tales website.

Because the ferries got their start on the Outer Banks, it’s expected that some stories will be about ferry mishaps, including being stuck on shoals — more so lately. 

Authorized in 1962, the Rollinson Channel Project, which includes the Hatteras ferry channel, has always been dredged as needed, mostly by the Corps’ government dredges.

As detailed in the agency’s Hatteras Ferry Channel Realignment draft environmental assessment issued in October 2021, the ferry channel comprises a 100-foot-wide channel with an authorized depth of about 12 feet stretching from the Rollinson Channel to the inlet gorge and another channel with similar dimensions that follows the “best deep-water route” to the gorge.

All was well until the 1990s, when the spit at the end of Hatteras Island gradually started eroding, in turn widening the inlet and allowing more sand to wash into channels. After a series of hurricanes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the situation worsened. By 2013, the ferry channel became hopelessly clogged and unnavigable, and the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferries began using a longer horseshoe-shaped natural channel.

The former 4-mile ferry trip from the Hatteras terminal to the Ocracoke “South Dock” terminal on the north side of the island doubled in length and went from about 40-minutes to about 60 minutes. While the number of round trips had to be reduced, fuel costs increased considerably. Lines and wait times at the stacking lanes at the Hatteras village terminal in Hatteras got much longer. 

In recent years, Sloop Channel, just outside the South Dock Terminal started shoaling, which created additional delays.

A new passenger vessel, the Ocracoke Express, was launched three years ago to relieve some of the backup on the Ocracoke-Hatteras route and to give visitors another option. The ferry, which costs $5 each way for adults and operates in the summer only, can be reserved online ahead of time. Free trams that stop at numerous village attractions are also offered for passengers on the Ocracoke side.

But in Big Foot Slough, shoaling that dangerously narrows the channel can also be a problem for the Ocracoke Express, which comes into Ocracoke Village at the Silver Lake terminal.

An alternate channel

In interests of ensuring that the sound ferry operations are not disrupted, Peele said, there have also been discussions about obtaining dredging permits for a nearby possible alternate channel known as Nine Foot Slough. 

Once the Hatteras Inlet realignment is implemented, it would provide the regulatory flexibility that will foster more efficient and responsive maintenance of the portion of the Hatteras Ferry Channel that follows deep water, according to the draft assessment, “due to the changes in shoaling patterns caused by the dynamic nature of the Hatteras Inlet system.”

Peele said that with more flexibility, the Corps should be able to plan with more certainty.

“We’re hoping that with the realignment with the Corps, they’ll be able to dedicate their equipment,” she said. 

No doubt, it will be a much-needed improvement in addressing the constantly migrating shoals, but it does nothing for Big Foot Slough, nor would it alleviate the threat to N.C. 12 or any other trouble spots that may materialize outside the designated area.

An August 2020 Ferry Division overview provided by Deputy Director Jed Dixon reported that funding to dredge Big Foot Slough, a federal channel, has decreased and is inconsistent year to year

Impacts to the dangerous shoaling in Big Foot Slough, which is also spelled Bigfoot Slough, the report said, include “vessels hitting bottom, damage requiring emergency repairs, departure cancellations, schedule modified to use only certain smaller vessels.”

In 2020, the Ferry Division workforce totaled 61, according to the report, compared to 100 in 1998. To varying degrees, difficult positions to fill include marine engineers, painters, mechanics, welders and sandblasters. 

With inadequate staffing and work space, Ferry Division maintenance and refurbishment projects were delayed, the report said, and emergency repairs reduced personnel and space needed for planned projects.

The situation two years later serves as an example of that squeeze on resources. In May 2020, the division announced that three ferries running the Pamlico Sound routes and one on the Hatteras route could not operate for a brief time because of mechanical issues.

To address ongoing erosion at South Dock, the division has installed sheet pile to stabilize the point as a short-term measure, although state law on hardened structures limited its effective length. But the National Park Service, which owns the land where the Hatteras and Ocracoke ferry terminals are, and NCDOT have agreed that stabilizing the ferry terminals and the Ocracoke hot spot on N.C. 12 will not last long.

Terminal relocation

A proposal to relocate South Dock closer to the Ocracoke Pony Pens on the west side of the island is still being considered by NCDOT and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Although the new location would bypass the eroding ferry basin and the problematic hot spot on N.C. 12, it would present numerous complications, including potential negative effects on submerged aquatic vegetation, and increased time and staffing requirements for ferries to travel to the new terminal.

An amended feasibility study first completed by NCDOT in 2016 of long-term solutions to erosion on the island’s north end proposed building the new terminal near the middle of the island. Depending on the ferry used, that location would add about 15 to 45 minutes to the current one-hour trip between Hatteras and Ocracoke, the document said. The number of trips would have to be reduced, unless additional staff and ferries were provided. 

If the terminal were to be moved, NCDOT would no longer maintain the portion of N.C. 12 beyond the new location. Further, National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac has said that, with a road no longer bisecting the land, the Park Service would likely close off the north end of the island as a pony preserve or for other natural uses.

But that’s not an idea favored by island residents, who don’t want to lose access to nearly half their island, said Randal Mathews, an Ocracoke resident and Hyde County commissioner.

But it’s not a new idea; nor is the eroded hot spot a new problem.

During a 1999 meeting with the Outer Banks Task Force, N.C. State University civil engineer John Fisher, then-chair of the task force science panel, called a dune at the hot spot that was reconstructed after Hurricane Dennis a temporary “Band-Aid.”

“We seriously think you should think about abandoning that whole stretch of road and relocating the ferry system,” he told the task force, according to a Nov. 7, 1999, article in The Virginian-Pilot.

In a January 2004 Pilot article, then-National Seashore superintendent Larry Belli had told the task force during its October 2003 meeting that beach nourishment would be a last resort.

“I think we really need to look seriously at the alternative of moving the ferry terminal while we can do it,” Belli told the panel. “I would just go up as far as I can on the island. There would be some pluses and minuses, but there is with anything.”

And 19 years later, NCDOT is still wrestling with what to do about the same hot spot.

“I’d say on N.C. 12, this is probably the top priority, if not very close to the top priority,” Paul Williams, NCDOT North Carolina Division 1 environmental officer, said during an April 28, 2021, virtual meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission.

Between 2010 to 2021, according to department records, costs for N.C. 12 storm-recovery work on Ocracoke Island totaled $15,142,646.

For now, NCDOT will continue to patch the road together the best it can while it weighs solutions. 

Peele said a grant application, if approved, would allow continued analysis of the feasibility study to determine what needs to change to operate the ferry under the federal Marine Highway designation.

The feasibility study would likely last for about a year, she said.

If an actual move was decided on, the project would have to be added to the state’s transportation improvement plan, she said, and it’s not clear whether it would meet the funding protocol.

The opening of the Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge in Dare County has been delayed until pavement markings installed earlier this week are replaced.

The pavement markings did not meet North Carolina Department of Transportation specifications for quality or reflectivity, officials said Wednesday about the delay.

Flatiron, the prime contractor, after consultation with NCDOT, will hire a new subcontractor to replace the substandard markings and restripe the bridge and the intersections.

Once a new subcontractor is in place, a better timeline on a traffic shift to the new bridge can be established.

Pavement markings are the final step in completion of the 2.4-mile bridge over Pamlico Sound, which will bypass a section of N.C. 12 that is highly vulnerable to ocean overwash.

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

Reprinted from Island Free Press

The Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge will open in mid-May at the earliest due to damage to one of the bridge’s expansion joints, per a recent update from North Carolina Department of Transportation Communications Officer Tim Hass.

The damaged joint is located on the northern end of the bridge, and is one of 26 expansion joints on the 2.4-mile long structure. Expansion joints allow the concrete to naturally expand and contract without cracking during the bridge’s estimated 100-year lifespan.

“(The) component for one of the bridge’s expansion joints needs to be replaced, and it won’t be delivered and installed before then,” stated Hass. “However, the delay does allow us to get some other punch list items out of the way, and gives (Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative) a few extra weeks to get further along with the work they’re doing on the electric/phone/internet lines.”

“It’s looking like the opening date won’t be any earlier than mid-May at this point.”

The grooving and grinding work on the bridge’s surface is complete, and some of the items the construction crews are tackling include sealing the concrete, removing some of the blemishes, what engineers call “point and patch” or “fluff and buff,” filling some of the holes where scaffolding was attached to the bridge, and erecting traffic signs on the bridge and the entrance/exit ramps.

Once complete, the bridge will connect the southern portion of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to northern Rodanthe, bypassing the S-turns section of N.C. 12, which is highly susceptible to breaches and ocean overwash during storms.

“The bridge and the ramps are pretty much ready, and if a disaster were to befall the S-Curves in the next few weeks, we could move traffic onto it if we had to,” stated Hass. “But it will be much, much easier to install the new expansion joint without traffic (on the bridge).”

The bridge is considered part of Phase II of the Bonner Bridge Replacement Project, and is the final bridge of the three new bridges on Hatteras Island to be built. The Capt. Richard Etheridge Bridge on Pea Island was completed in the spring of 2018, and the Bonner Bridge replacement was completed in 2019.

More information on the bridge project, which includes project history, maps, documents and videos, can be found at https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/nc-12-rodanthe/Pages/default.aspx.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

Plans have been delayed until the end of the 2022 hurricane season to remove about 2 miles of roadway and its protective sandbags through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge after the new Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge bypassing the area opens to traffic.

The delay is to give the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative time to install transmission lines under the bridge. Currently, the transmission lines that power Hatteras and Ocracoke islands are along the roadway that was slated to be removed this spring. If the roadway were to be removed as scheduled, the transmission lines would be exposed to the elements and not easily accessible, according to the cooperative.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the cooperative came to the agreement.

“Delaying this removal until November 30 will give CHEC both protection and access to its existing transmission lines that provide electricity to all of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.” Susan Flythe, cooperative general manager and executive vice president, said in a statement. “It will also provide protection and access to the fiber optic cable owned by Lumen Technologies, which is buried in the easement from (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and provides internet and communications for the islands.”

New River Electrical of Botetourt County, Virginia, has begun the work to install the hanger and conduit system. The work, which is expected to continue until early summer, will require minor traffic delays during daylight hours. The on-bridge work will pause during the summer months and resume after Labor Day with the goal to complete the cable pull by the end of 2022. The new line is expected to be energized in 2023. Updates on the timing of delays can be found at DriveNC.gov.

“The Service is pleased to be able to offer this solution for CHEC to help ensure access to this critical infrastructure while cable installation on the bridge is completed,” said Rebekah Martin, project leader of the Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuge Complex. “We remain committed to working with NCDOT and CHEC and appreciate our long-standing and positive relationship with both partners.”

Vehicular public access to the old road will be prohibited while the work is ongoing to ensure public safety. The north end will be secured with a locked gate. Initially, 200 to 500 feet of asphalt is to be removed on the southern end. All asphalt and sandbags are to be removed by Nov. 30.

Related: Commission OKs turnaround area, sandbags for NC 12

The Coastal Resources Commission, during its meeting Feb. 10, gave NCDOT the go-ahead to build a turnaround and install a perpendicular sandbag structure after the roadway is removed. Concerns about removing the roadway and exposing the infrastructure following the commission’s approval were reported Feb. 21 by the Outer Banks Voice.

The Coastal Resources Commission has given the state Department of Transportation approval to build a turnaround area for traffic where the existing part of N.C. 12 will come to a dead end after the Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge opens to vehicles, and to protect the turnaround from erosion, it is allowing construction of an unusual sandbag wall.

During its meeting Thursday in Beaufort, the commission granted the department a variance from state coastal management rules that prohibit the construction as planned.

The Rodanthe bridge, which is expected to open to traffic next month, bypasses the vulnerable section of N.C. 12 often called the “S-curves” or the “Rodanthe hot spot.”

Once the handle-shaped span is complete — it extends over the Pamlico Sound from the southern end of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and ties back into the existing highway at Rodanthe — NCDOT plans to relocate the N.C. 12 designation to the bridge and remove the existing roadway and the temporary sandbags that now run parallel to the highway through the refuge.

Last fall, NCDOT applied to modify the Coastal Area Management Area major permit for the project. The permit had only authorized NCDOT to build a paved driveway south of the refuge on existing N.C. 12, but not a turnaround area. The Division of Coastal Management denied NCDOT’s application because the proposed work is inconsistent with the commission’s oceanfront setback and sandbag rules. NCDOT then applied for the variance.

“Due to its location, DOT believes the Turnaround Site would be exposed to similar erosion, overwash, or other severe weather and tidal events typically experienced in the Rodanthe Hot Spot without protection from the proposed temporary sandbag structure on the north end of the Turnaround Site, running perpendicular to the existing sandbags running along existing NC 12,” according to the variance request. 

NCDOT Communications Officer Tim Hass with Division 1, which includes the Outer Banks, described for Coastal Review Friday the process ahead, now that the department has the approval it had sought.

“After the Rodanthe jug-handle bridge opens to traffic, the turnaround will be installed on old N.C. 12 to allow traffic to reverse direction where the road will dead end just south of the boundary of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. NCDOT will remove approximately 1.8 miles of pavement from the refuge in the area bypassed by the jug-handle bridge. NCDOT will install sandbags and a dune to protect the turnaround,” Hass explained.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Assistant General Counsel Christine A. Goebel explained to the commission Thursday that beach erosion, dune loss and damage to N.C. 12 have been particularly severe in the Rodanthe S-curves hot spot. The hot spot, which includes the southern end of the refuge, is characterized by low-lying land that transitions from sound shoreline and marsh to a flat beach and the ocean all within a few hundred feet.

“The Rodanthe hot spot is susceptible to shoreline erosion, overwash, coastal flooding, the loss of beach and dunes and sand cover. These circumstances can undermine the integrity of the road, making travel by the general public unsafe and forcing NCDOT to close the road,” she said.

Goebel also refreshed the commission on the work leading up to the request. In 2002, NCDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, along with other state and federal agencies, expanded the scope of an environmental study that originally started out as the “NC 12 Replacement of Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.” The expanded study looked at N.C. 12 from the southern end of Bodie Island across the Oregon Inlet and through the refuge to Rodanthe, or about 14 miles, including the S-curves.

In December 2010, FHWA announced plans for the N.C. 12 replacement of Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, and approved construction of the first phase of the project.

Goebel said that the Division of Coastal Management on Sept. 19, 2012, issued a Coastal Area Management Act major permit authorizing NCDOT to build the Bonner Bridge replacement. That work was completed in February 2019, when the 2.8-mile Marc Basnight Bridge, which spans Oregon Inlet, opened to traffic.

When the permit was issued in 2012, the final design was not complete for the next phases of the project. As a result, the CAMA major permit has been modified numerous times since to authorize subsequent phases of the project and related changes.

NCDOT was able to award a contract for design and construction of the jug-handle bridge in 2016, when the document recording proposed N.C. 12 improvements was issued. The document includes plans to remove 1.8 miles of N.C. 12 in the refuge and maintain the existing secondary state road for the turnaround. NCDOT also said it would transfer 19.27 acres of existing N.C. 12 easement back to the refuge to be restored to a natural state.

In September, NCDOT filed a request to modify the CAMA permit to build the paved turnaround and install the temporary sandbag structures on existing N.C. 12 south of the refuge boundary to protect the turnaround, Goebel said.

NCDOT proposed installing about 1,400 square feet of new asphalt on the landward side of the existing roadway to provide a safe turnaround for traffic within NCDOT’s existing right of way. NCDOT also proposed installing a temporary sandbag structure across the removed roadway bed, perpendicular to the shoreline, to protect the turnaround from erosion damage.

The temporary sandbags are white, trapezoidal-shaped and made of woven polypropylene and are to be placed in two adjoining rows perpendicular to the shoreline at the end of where existing N.C. 12 will end. One bag will be 50 feet long, 6 feet wide and 4 feet high and placed next to the turnaround. And next to it, a 50-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall sandbag will be placed, she said. Goebel reminded the commission that this type of alternative sandbag structure is like those for which the commission granted a variance in 2020 for use in Ocracoke, but that that sandbag wall was never built.

NCDOT’s permit modification request was denied by the division in a letter dated Oct. 25 because the proposed project didn’t meet the minimum 60-foot oceanfront setback and because the proposed sandbag structure would be perpendicular to the shore rather than parallel and white instead of tan, as required by commission rules. Further, the proposed size doesn’t meet allowed specifications.

NCDOT Special Deputy Attorney General Colin Justice said the existing CAMA permit included a paved driveway at the north end but did not include an area for travelers to safely turn around.

The project is expected to disturb about 6,000 square feet of land.

The narrow part of the island has some of the highest erosion rates on the North Carolina coast, Justice said, adding that the beach is flat and susceptible to overwash on both the ocean and sound sides. This resulted in numerous closures of the area in recent years.

The “S-curves” north of Rodanthe, one of the most troubled sections of the ribbon of highway connecting Hatteras Island with the mainland, may soon be allowed to return to its natural state.

Sometime in March, if the weather holds and the North Carolina Department of Transportation meets its schedule, the span informally known as the “jug-handle” bridge will open to vehicle traffic, bypassing one of the most dynamic stretches of shoreline on Hatteras Island. Soon after the bridge opens, NCDOT is expected to remove the asphalt and the sandbags placed to protect it from land that is part of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, allowing the forces of nature to dictate what happens next.

“The jug handle has an opportunity to be a barrier island again and function as a barrier island. Not as a Highway 12 dune-dike complex,” East Carolina University geology professor Dr. Stanley Riggs told Coastal Review last week.

It is a stretch of shoreline has always been dynamic. Wimble Shoals is just to the south of the beach, and buried beneath the sandy shoal is rock. That rock has lot to do with why it is one of the best beaches for surfing on the Outer Banks, Riggs explained.

“When we get heavy weather, the waves still refract off that rock, which is why that’s such an important surfing area,” he said.

The wave energy, though, is not the only factor that will affect what happens when the road is gone.

“This is actually something that I have been thinking about,” said Dr. Reide Corbett, dean of Integrated Coastal Programs at ECU’s Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese. “We’ve done a lot of work around this area both on the front side and the back side of the island.”

Corbett said he’s not the only one thinking about it, so is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “This is a real interest to Fish and Wildlife given their management of the area.”

Natural barrier island processes do not suddenly stop at the boundary of the wildlife refuge.

The north end of Rodanthe, the Mirlo Beach subdivision, is subject to regular ocean inundation. The southern terminus of the new bridge will be a traffic circle about three-quarters of a mile south of Pea Island. When the bridge opens to traffic, that section of the road through Mirlo Beach will no longer be a primary highway, although NCDOT says it will continue to maintain it.

“Division 1 intends to maintain access along this remnant portion of NC 12 as we do other secondary routes in Dare County and the State by clearing sand, water, snow and ice and other debris as conditions warrant and are safe,” Tim Hass, communications officer with NCDOT, responded this week to Coastal Review in an email.

Currently, NCDOT has sandbags placed parallel to the road south of the refuge, and the department is planning to extend that protection to a turnaround area, although they do not yet have a permit to do so.

“NCDOT applied for a permit from the NC Division of Coastal Management to install sandbags and a modified cul-de-sac at the north end of the remnant portion of NC 12,” Hass wrote in the email. “The permit application was not approved by (the N.C. Division of Coastal Management). The NCDOT has appealed the permit application decision by NC-DCM to the Coastal Resource Commission.”

The department’s request for a variance is on the agenda for the commission’s meeting Feb. 9-10 in Beaufort.

The department seeks commission approval for about 50 feet of sandbags at the end of the modified cul-de-sac that would be placed perpendicular to existing N.C. 12.

The area including Mirlo Beach is subject to frequent ocean overwash, and at times seawater will reach the sound, but it remains unclear exactly what will happen here over time.

Corbett, with the Coastal Studies Institute, described the breach that Hurricane Irene created just a mile and a half north of the area — where the Richard Etheridge Bridge is now — as a model for what may occur.

After Hurricane Irene passed in late August 2011, an inlet formed here and cut off highway access. The inlet was as much as 30 feet deep and 100 to 150 feet across then, and Corbett noted that it was a first for NCDOT in that when N.C. 12 was breached, the department did not try to fill in the inlet, choosing to bridge the gap instead.

But over time, sand naturally accreted in the breach, filling it in. The area is now a wide, fairly flat swath of sand between the ocean and Pamlico Sound.

“That showed a natural progression of what the island did when the natural processes were allowed,” Corbett said.

Although there are similarities between the New Inlet breach, as it is known, and the shoreline closer to the jug-handle bridge, there are also important differences.

“One of the things that’s different in that (the S-curves) location, new New Inlet had these, for lack of a better word, a canal or a creek that sort of moved from the sound side very close to the road. And those already had some depth to them,” Corbett said.

The area that the jug-handle bridge is bypassing does not have those deep canals or creeks on the sound side. That was apparent after Irene overwashed the area. When water from the Atlantic flowed into the sound, instead of a single deep breach between ocean and sound, there was a series of narrow, shallow creeks.

The researchers said changes in the area will be dynamic.

“I think we’re likely to see significant overwash and it may be a breach,” Corbett said.

But what is uncertain is how tenuous or permanent the connection between the ocean and sound will be.

“You have this very broad very shallow sand flat on the backside and there’s no real depth … a creek or anything that really comes up close to the road,” he said. “I’ve been out there, and I’ve collected some bathymetry. I was surprised at how shallow it is throughout that very broad region, without really any cuts in that, like a canal or a creek, moving up into the barrier.”

He also found a significant amount of sand in the water, leading him to wonder if it is an area that would be prone to inlet formation.

“Can we somehow move water in such a way that does breach this region, given the amount of sand that we have on the backside of the island right there?” he theorized. “Or would we see a breach someplace else first? As soon as you breach the island at some place, it sort of acts as, releasing the cork. So, if you create a breach someplace else first, you don’t have the same pressure on the system at any other location.”

Related: Bridge will bypass Pea Island, but refuge access to remain

When a breach or an inlet forms, a limiting factor on whether the rift is permanent or transitory is the amount of freshwater from mainland rivers that is flowing into the sounds of the region, and that, too, becomes a limiting factor.

“Because of the amount of fresh water, our tidal exchange system can likely only handle a certain number of inlets,” Corbett said. “It’s sort of an interesting line of potential study — understanding our inlets and our flow — to better understand what it might look like in the future.”

The one factor though, the single most dynamic event that is also the most unpredictable, in determining what will happen in the S-curve area is coastal storms.

“If you can tell me when we’re going to get storms and what storms and where they would go, I could tell you exactly what would happen,” Riggs with ECU said. “If we have the right storm, it will open. It will open as an inlet, but it won’t stay open.”

Such inlets are ephemeral, he added.

Reprinted from Island Free Press

Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard summarized the highlights of 2021 and outlined what’s to come in the year ahead Wednesday during the annual State of the County.

Held virtually for the second year in a row, Woodard provided an overview of the county’s accomplishments over the past year, including the N.C. 12 Task Force, before digging into the upcoming projects that are planned for 2022.

In early 2021, Dare County and National Park Service Superintendent David Hallac established the N.C. 12 Task Force, made up of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Southern Environment Law Center, the Coastal Studies Institute, the Army Corps of Engineer, the Division of Marine Fisheries, and others.

“The primary mission of this task force is to complete a long-term plan for N.C. 12 and the highway’s vulnerable locations, meaning hotspots,” said Woodard, noting that there are an estimated eight hotspots along the highway, which are flooded on a regular basis during storms.

This year’s “State of the County” focused on the months ahead, and Woodard touched on the progress of several projects expected to be completed in 2022.

NCDOT is close to completing the “jug-handle” bridge, expected to open in late February or Marc. Woodard said to expect a celebration once an opening date has been announced.

Woodard reported that the Miss Katie Dredge, a new shallow-draft hopper dredge that will be used in the various channels and inlets throughout the county is still under construction in Louisiana but is is scheduled to be delivered on April 1. Miss Katie will be managed by the Oregon Inlet Task Force and will be able to operate up to 12 hours a day, weather permitting.

Funding for the project was approved in 2019 through a public-private partnership with the state. The legislature allocated $15 million from the Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund for the purchase.

“Having easy access to Miss Katie will be extraordinarily helpful, but it’s not going to solve all of our problems when it comes to shoaling,” said Woodard. “We will continue to have to work closely with the US Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that dredging is taking place in the most crucial waterways throughout the county, which is making sure that dredging is being performed as often as possible in Oregon and Hatteras inlets.”

Woodard noted the county’s assistance in an effort to realign the Hatteras Inlet ferry channel is an initiative spearheaded by the Dare County Waterways Commission.

Due to its current alignment, the Corps is only permitted to dredge the southern tip of Hatteras Island using federal funding. State and local dollars must be used to dredge the South Ferry Channel to successfully create a route to the Hatteras gorge, and permission must be obtained before dredging can be performed outside the official dredging window of October through March.

“The fragmentation of this essential waterway, which also serves as a ferry route from Hatteras village to Ocracoke Island, has been a source of considerable frustration,” said Woodard. “The realignment would ultimately classify the entire channel as federally authorized, so that federal funding and federal dredges could be used to dredge the entire channel.”

Woodard stated that the realignment is expected to be finalized in April.

The county recently received a $150,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency flood mitigation assistance grant to update the county’s stormwater master plan.

“This master plan serves as an outline of our stormwater management policies in unincorporated Dare County, and it allows us to evaluate drainage issues, and develop a capital improvement plan to address stormwater issues,” said Woodard. “The grant also provides the funding we need to identify and map the county’s stormwater infrastructure, and to have an engineer develop projects for critical areas throughout the county.”

Dare County also received a $30,000 grant through the Division of Coastal Management’s North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program to perform risk and vulnerability assessments on Hatteras Island, and to identify and rank the projects that are needed.

“The first step in this process was to develop a questionnaire which was sent out in November, and we received over 1,100 responses. The next step is for engineers to rank the risk,” said Woodard. “Once the process is complete, Dare County will have an opportunity to apply for up to $60,000 that would be used to design a project that would help address some of these issues affecting Hatteras Island.”

Several beach nourishment projects are planned for the summer, including a new project in Avon, and a maintenance project in Buxton.

“The Avon and Buxton beach nourishment projects will cost approximately $29.8 million,” said Woodard. “Dare County will contribute approximately $21.6 million from the beach nourishment fund, with additional funding provided by local, state, and federal (sources).”  

The Avon and Buxton beach nourishment projects, which will cover about 2.5 miles of shoreline in northern Avon and 2.9 miles of shoreline in southern Buxton, are scheduled to begin in May.

The full presentation video is available online, and can be viewed on the Dare County Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/darecounty.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

Reprinted from Island Free Press

OUTER BANKS — The North Carolina Department of Transportation said N.C. Highway 12 was expected to reopen late Tuesday following a weekend storm and after high tides Monday night and Tuesday morning, which were expected to bring more ocean overwash.

NCDOT crews continued to work on reopening N.C. 12 north of Rodanthe on Monday, but were dealing with miles of accumulated saltwater and sand and a steady barrage of water pouring in.

N.C. 12 remained closed Monday between the Bonner Bridge and Rodanthe, as well as on Ocracoke Island between the Pony Pens and the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry terminal.

The coastal flood warning for the Outer Banks remained in effect Monday as oceanside flooding continued to bombard a number of vulnerable areas throughout the islands. By the morning’s roughly 10 a.m. high tide, ocean waves and water poured into already inundated areas of north Buxton, south Avon, Rodanthe and Pea Island, causing dangerous travel conditions.

On Ocean View Drive in Avon, gas tanks that were floating in local yards and side streets on Sunday were joined with outdoor air conditioner units, and a deep layer of sand and saltwater covered the road. The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative cut off power to a number of homes in the area as a safety measure, per a request from the Avon Fire Department. The Food Lion in Avon was open on Monday, but many adjacent businesses that were blocked by a flooded N.C. 12 were not.

“It seems like it’s worse today than yesterday,” said one Avon resident examining the area, “but it’s hard to tell if the [surf is] actually bigger, or if it’s just adding to the water that’s already there.”

The National Weather Service Newport/Morehead City Office reported that the ocean overwash conditions would repeat again with Monday’s high tide at roughly 10 p.m. Very large waves as high as 10-17 feet continue across the coastal waters, with the highest waves reported north of Cape Hatteras.

The strong winds were forecast taper off by early Tuesday morning.

Dare County Schools on Hatteras Island were closed Monday. On Ocracoke Island, the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes were running, but the Ocracoke / Hatteras route was closed due to the road closures on both Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.

Learn More

• National Weather Service
• Island Free Press photos of the area

Featured Photo

Waves lap at N.C. 12 in Kitty Hawk at low tide Monday morning. Although part of N.C. 12, or the Beach Road, in Kitty Hawk has been repeatedly washed out during major storms of the past few years, this particular section showing damage from Hurricane Matthew has never been washed out before. The area damaged in the past is immediately south of this section. Photo: Kip Tabb

 Learn More

• North Carolina Department of Transportation’s N.C. 12 page

Hurricane Irene cut two inlets in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Hatteras Island. Photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

HATTERAS — Traveling along the edge of the continent on a two-lane highway built atop a skinny strand of shifting sand just inches above two mighty bodies of water might sound adventuresome in travel guides.

The adventure can turn hazardous on a nasty day in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Sand swirls in angry gusts across the road, vast pools of water — from sky, ocean, sound or all of the above — force vehicles to crawl, turn around or stall. Dunes appear to transform into living things, buffeting a pitiful strip of asphalt from monstrous waves.

But for residents of the Outer Banks, driving on the 65-miles of N.C. 12 on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands is an economic necessity and a transportation challenge. Tourism brought $834 million into Dare County in 2010, and most islanders make their living from tourist-related business.

Two severe cuts in the road in and on the south edge of the refuge inflicted by Hurricane Irene in August were the most recent illustration of the corridor’s vulnerability to beach erosion and storm damage, renewing questions about the futility of fixing such a vulnerable highway, especially in an era of a rapidly rising sea.

“The cost of maintaining Pea Island has been incredibly expensive,” said Stan Riggs, a geology professor at East Carolina University. “If the public knew how much has been spent just to hold that road, I think they’d croak.”

Dr. Stanley Riggs

Riggs has spent his professional life researching the natural dynamics of the N.C. coast. Few people know more about the coast’s geology. Riggs has written numerous books on coastal geology, including The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast. The recently published book argues that the present development and management policies for the coast’s changing barrier island are in direct conflict with their natural dynamics.

Riggs agrees that a transportation route for Hatteras Island is a necessity. But sea level rise is expected to accelerate in the future because of a changing climate, he says. That means only worse problems for N.C. 12, Riggs noted. It’s time, he said, for people to get creative.

“We need a whole new paradigm,” he said.

How High Will She Rise

Oceans rise in a warming climate. Water expands as it heats up, and melting glaciers add to the oceans’ volume.

That much scientists know. How high the sea might rise in the future and how quickly are still open to debate. That will depend largely on how much of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps melt.

Because of its gently sloping coastline, North Carolina is one of the most vulnerable states on the East Coast to sea-level rise, scientists say. Most current scientific estimates put the Atlantic Ocean along our shores about three feet higher than it is now by 2100. That’s about double the historic rate of sea-level rise. A panel of scientific experts that advises the state’s Coastal Resources Commission came to a similar conclusion last year in its original draft report on future sea-level rise. It concluded that the rise would be about 39 inches by 2100. Depending on how much or how little is done to address climate change, the rate could potentially be as low as 18 inches per 100 years, or as high as 55 inches.

A follow-up draft was watered down significantly after intense lobbying by development interests. The commission is awaiting a response from its scientific panel before deciding on a final report.

As policymakers ponder, the ocean continues its inexorable rise, putting that thin ribbon of asphalt known as N.C. 12 in greater jeopardy and its future in greater question.

“We’re not opposed to doing something out there,” Riggs said. “Our point is, we know what the science is.”

Along Comes Irene

Hurricane Irene chewed up N.C. 12 through Mirlo Beach. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

At one breach in Pea Island, about six miles south of Oregon Inlet, Hurricane Irene cut about 150 feet from the road, channeling surging water from ocean to sound.  Further south at Mirlo Beach, she destroyed whole sections of roadbed with a surging tide.

Riggs has long predicted that those areas, especially at Mirlo, could become new inlets, but Irene was a weak hurricane that barely kicked up wave. Even weak storms, scientist warn, can have catastrophic effects as the oceans warm and rise.

“It was all on the backside, and those inlets blew out, not in,” Riggs said. “And all that destruction was because the water couldn’t get out.”

With the blessing of Gov. Bev Perdue, the N.C. Department of Transportation went into high gear to get the road reopened to traffic. Emergency ferries transported supply vehicles, utility trucks and, eventually, some of stranded residents back and forth between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe.

Within weeks, a temporary, $2.6 million steel truss bridge was installed over the breach in Pea Island, and road workers repaired the underbed and repaved N.C. 12 at Mirlo Beach. The highway reopened Oct. 5, but DOT already has had to reinforce the new inlet’s south shore with rock and metal sheet piling to stem erosion that could have undermined the bridge.

Long-term solutions at the north end at Mirlo, where erosion is as much as 15 feet a year, include building a bridge within the easement and building a bridge that extends into the Pamlico Sound. At the Pea Island inlet, options are to build a new road or bridge west of the existing road, or build a permanent bridge where the road now stands.

Permanent fixes proposed by DOT at both sites initially included beach nourishment, either by itself or combined with bridging, But after a December meeting of state and federal agency representatives, DOT decided it was not a viable option because offshore sand sources were inadequate, it was too costly and permits would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.

At the suggestion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manager of the refuge, DOT agreed at the December meeting to look into the feasibility of a longer, seven-mile bridge that would start north of the Pea Island breach, curve out into Pamlico Sound and tie-in at Rodanthe.

Public comment on the proposals closed in January, and DOT is expected to make a recommendation on an alternative within weeks.

Maintaining the Road

Whatever the choice, DOT remains committed to keeping the coastal thoroughfare open.

“N.C. 12 is just like any of our highways that has its own challenges,” said Victor Barbour, DOT’s technical services administrator. “But I do think from an overall perspective, we have some roads in the mountains that cost as much or more as N.C. 12 to maintain.”

According to information in the final environmental impact statement for replacing the aging Herbert C. Bonner Bridge at Oregon Inlet, DOT spent about $5.5 million to restore N.C. 12 after storms between August 1999 and October 2007. Of that, about $3.9 million was spent within the Pea Island refuge at three “hot spots, ” including at ‘S’ Curves, renowned as a premier East Coast surfing spot.  Most of the costs were related to Hurricanes Dennis, Bonnie and Floyd in 1999 ($1.7 million) and Hurricane Isabel in 2003 ($1.2 million). Over that period, there were six hurricanes, one tropical storm and 13 nor’easters that required clean-ups.But Barbour agreed that maintenance of N.C. 12 is more expensive than an average road. Over the last 10 years, he said, DOT has spent $100 million maintaining 120 miles of N.C. 12 stretching from Corolla to Ocracoke. Although the cost has not been broken out per mile, there’s no doubt that the vast majority of work is concentrated south of Oregon Inlet. So far, Barbour said, Hurricane Irene damage has cost $12 million, much of it paid by federal emergency funds.

Pea Island, the Bonner Bridge

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge has some of the most pristine beaches on Outer Banks. Not only do residents love to go there, it attracts about 3 million visitors per year.  But it’s not a substantial land— just 13 miles long, the refuge is at its widest only one mile east to west. At its narrowest, it is just a quarter mile across.

In the old days, the ebb and flow of the tide was unrestricted. Now, Riggs said, “the whole system is in danger of being blown out.”

Crumbling supports at the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.

Environmental groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the refuge, favored a 17.5-mile bridge to replace the aging Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet that would have bypassed Pea Island and its troublesome hot spots. DOT took the proposal off the table because of its high upfront cost and access issues. Construction of the new bridge just west of the existing one is scheduled to begin in early 2013.

Dennis Stewart, a refuge biologist who is a member of a N.C. 12 coastal scientist panel that has advised DOT, said that Fish and Wildlife is working cooperatively with DOT to find mutually acceptable fixes to N.C. 12. Although Mirlo is mostly outside of the refuge, the hot spot area stretches from ‘S-Curves’ on the south end of the refuge into Rodanthe.

Stewart said he has seen Pea Island narrow over the years. When he first started in 1994, N.C. 12 was located east of a ranger’s building, a 40-vehicle parking lot was east of the highway and a double dune line was east of the lot. All that’s gone now, he said.

The water that came rushing back toward the sound shoreline when Irene passed turned out to be a powerful punch at a weak spot.

“It was almost like a tsunami,” Stewart said.  “Hurricane Irene totally convinced me that it’s a fragile system.”

As a coastal engineer with North Carolina Sea Grant, Spencer Rogers —who is also a member of the N.C. 12 coastal panel — said that despite the overall success of road relocation in the past, Fish and Wildlife will no longer permit that remedy. Another challenge to maintaining the corridor in the future, he said, is the near-impossibility of fixing the road within the 100-foot state right of way, as required by the refuge.

Andrew Coburn, associate director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, said that it all boils down to allocation of sparse resources

“If there’s an unlimited amount of sand and an unlimited amount of money, absolutely you can keep a road open there,” he said. “If you had unlimited resources, you probably wouldn’t have had a breach. But you’d have to deal with the potential environmental impacts of what you did to maintain that road.

“It’s tough,” Coburn said. “It’s almost an impossible situation to be in.”

Riggs, convinced that there will be little other option in the not -too-distant future, supports use of high-tech ferries – an idea that  is anathema to Dare County and one DOT says would be impractical– combined with things like water taxis or float planes that have been used successfully in other coastal regions.

“Right now, we’ve survived just out of sheer luck,” Riggs said “The next big storm is going to be a catastrophe.”

Coming in March: What will the Outer Banks look like?