RODANTHE, N.C. — State highway crews are racing to put N.C. 12 back in service on Pea Island, where nor’easter tides tore up roughly 1,200 feet of road by the wildlife refuge visitor center and cut the only road link to Hatteras Island.
No traffic is moving on the stretch from the Marc Basnight Bridge south to Rodanthe, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation. Since Sunday, crews have been ripping out broken asphalt, rebuilding a protective line of dunes and grading the road bed so it can be paved.
The ocean is not cooperating. Overwash at high tide keeps spilling across that stretch, and king tides, the highest high tides of the cycle, are expected along the Outer Banks Wednesday and Thursday.
The plan comes in stages. When conditions allow, crews will lay a paved one-lane detour controlled by flaggers. That single lane will stay in place while workers set sandbags along the dune line, and a contractor is still making those bags. Only after that will the department move to restore two lanes. No reopening date has been set.
In the meantime, the state Ferry Division is running round-the-clock emergency boats between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point on the mainland. Through Sunday, those boats had moved 1,451 vehicles and 2,416 people on and off the island. Each one-way crossing takes about two hours on a three-boat schedule, and drivers should expect long lines because each vessel holds a limited number of vehicles.
It marks the route’s second activation in roughly a month. A September nor’easter damaged the same section of road at the visitor center. The road closed again last Tuesday evening because of overwash, and waves undercut the pavement overnight.
Visitors are still barred from Hatteras Island under a Dare County evacuation order for visitors. Only people who qualify under the county reentry rules, including essential workers, permanent residents, property owners and island business employees, may board ferries headed to Rodanthe. Dare County is also running park-and-ride service at both ferry terminals for walk-on passengers.
Section: More Raleigh NC crime news
Filed under: Raleigh NC Traffic News
