DARE COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina Highway 12 (NC 12) is a vital link for people who live in or visit the Outer Banks. However, keeping it open can sometimes be a tough and costly task.
Watch: Drone flies over NC 12 in the OBX
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has spent millions of dollars not only to build new bridges, but to also maintain the highway over the past five years.
More investment will be needed to deal with persistent “hot spots” where the highway is especially vulnerable, leaders say.
NCDOT just wrapped up its annual tune-up near the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Crews worked for weeks to shore up dunes in the area to try and minimize closures—just as the tourist season ramps up and blocking the highway for maintenance becomes more disruptive.
“Everything aligned and we were able to secure a contractor to do it and it just worked out perfectly,” said Jeff Ryder, a county maintenance engineer for NCDOT. “We feel a lot better and secure and we feel that the traveling public is in a lot better shape because we were able to do this.”
It’s just one front in the battle against Mother Nature to keep the essential road open.
News 3 obtained data detailing how much NCDOT has spent on sand removal and other maintenance of the highway. From Fiscal Year 2018 through Fiscal Year 2022, the agency spent more than $5.4 million on maintenance. NCDOT spent another $860,000 to deal with the impacts of coastal storms and hurricanes.
That doesn't count spending on the new Marc Basnight Bridge and the new Rodanthe, or "jug-handle," bridge.
Outer Banks
Outer Banks community trying to find new ways to deal with erosion's impact
Ryder said the start of 2024 has also been rough on his crews.
“Every other week or every three weeks, we’ve had storms. Different types of storms have produced winds that have created overwash or blown sand on the roadway… from the Marc Basnight Bridge out to Ocracoke,” he said.
Ryder said the stretch of road in the Pea Island area remained open and passable. The same cannot be said for NC 12 on the northern end of Ocracoke Island, which has closed multiple times this year.
Janille Turner provided News 3 with video (shown below) of the highway from the last closure, earlier this month.
“The day that video was sent, you can see the water on the road,” she said. “You can see the road was broken."
Watch: Driver shows broken roadway on NC 12
Turner owns Ocracoke Oyster Company. She said the constant closure of the road and ferry suspensions due to weather and winds have impacted access to vital services in Dare County and beyond. They’ve also impacted the local economy, she said.
“We still have businesses on the island that have not reopened because the road has been closed,” she said. "And it’s just not worth staffing your business if you can’t get people here.”
Ryder said a project to shore up the roadway with new sandbags and to repair damage is underway.
“Like every place, we’re losing oceanside beaches. We have a much smaller area, much smaller space to protect the dunes,” he said.
Ocracoke and Pea Island are two of the remaining hot spots along NC 12, as identified by the NC 12 Task Force.
“These are areas where erosion is basically threatening the reliability of transportation, and in some ways, the integrity of the roadway itself,” said David Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina.
Hallac was a member of the task force, along with stakeholders from Dare County, Hyde County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NCDOT.
“We're not coming up with a final plan for what will happen at a hot spot,” he said. “But we're conceptually saying we believe that something like this should occur. And that is providing, I think, energy and inertia and support for moving forward with more detailed design and planning processes to find a solution.”
Those efforts received a boost earlier this month when the Biden administration announced a $1.8 million grant for NCDOT. The funds will be used to study the 11-mile stretch between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe to determine the best alternatives.
"This is another example of an area that's got a lot of vulnerability because of sea levels and extreme weather,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in an interview with News 3. “So the communities there have a vision to improve Highway 12 and we're offering more than $1 million to help with the planning and design of that.”
Watch related coverage: Endangered Rodanthe beachfront homes come down
One proposed idea from the task force would be to build a bridge or a series of bridges in the Pea Island area.
However, it could years before a new solution is found and brought to fruition. So, Jeff Ryder and his crews will continue their watch.
“We feel a large responsibility. The crews I have are excellent crews and they understand the responsibility they have to keep it open," he said.
