MANTEO – N.C. 12 will reopen at the Pea Island Visitor Center this afternoon, 11 days after a nor’easter forced the road’s closure and reduced travel access between North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the mainland.
The N.C. Department of Transportation plans at 4 p.m. to open a one-lane paved detour to allow traffic to move in one direction at a time, managed by an automated traffic signal or an in-person flagger. Drivers are urged to slow down, be patient and expect some delays.
The reopening comes a day ahead of the original schedule to reopen N.C. 12.
N.C. 12 was closed Oct. 19 due to ocean overwash that flooded the road and eventually damaged over 1,200 feet of pavement at the Pea Island Visitor Center. Since then, the only way on and off Hatteras Island has been by ferry.
The road reopening will enable the NCDOT Ferry Division to suspend its emergency ferry operations starting after tonight's 8 p.m. runs from Stumpy Point and Rodanthe. The emergency ferry has been moving critical supplies and people on and off the barrier islands since it was activated on Oct. 22. During its weeklong activation, the emergency ferry has moved over 2,700 vehicles and more than 4,300 people.
When the road reopens today, Dare County will also modify its state of emergency so visitors can return to Hatteras Island.
“We’re grateful to the many state, local and federal partners who have worked nearly nonstop to maintain access to the Outer Banks despite Mother Nature’s fury,” said Daniel Johnson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Transportation. “While our highway maintenance crews were working to protect and then restore the road, our Ferry Division again stood up its emergency ferry and kept our other ferries operating to ensure we could maintain travel to and from the coast.
“We could not have done this without the close coordination and communication we’ve had with our partners in Dare and Hyde counties, and the National Park Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We’ll continue to work closely with our partners to explore longer-term solutions for N.C. 12.”
This marks the second time in a month the division has activated the emergency ferry. A nor’easter in late September forced the closure of N.C. 12 at the same location near the Pea Island Visitor Center. Prior to September, the emergency ferry had not been used since 2013.
Restoring greater access to the Outer Banks comes at a good time. Ocracoke is preparing to host its popular annual Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree, which starts Friday and ends Sunday.
In response, the Ferry Division will provide additional trips on its routes between Ocracoke and the mainland from Friday through Sunday.
Ferry Schedule
Those ferries will operate on the following schedule:
Swan Quarter-Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.
Ocracoke-Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.
Cedar Island-Ocracoke: 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.
Ocracoke-Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.
The division will also move the vessels from the emergency route back to their normal base of operations on the Hatteras-Ocracoke route. That will also help improve access to Ocracoke on the festival weekend.
Work on N.C. 12 Continues
NCDOT crews have worked nearly nonstop since Oct. 19 to restore the protective dunes, remove the broken pavement, and reconstruct N.C. 12.
Once the one-lane road is open, NCDOT will install a new set of sandbags on the dune line to protect the road from being undermined by high tides. That process will take a few weeks. Once complete, NCDOT plans to pave the northbound lane to restore N.C. 12 to full two-lane service.
At the same time, NCDOT has had preliminary discussions with the Federal Highway Administration and is pursuing emergency relief funds to help the state pay for the repairs to N.C. 12 after this fall’s storms and the road’s permanent repair.
NCDOT is discussing with its federal partners the possibility of moving a 1-mile section of N.C. 12 west of its present location at the Pea Island Visitor Center, to lessen the impact ocean overwash could have on the road in future storms.
NCDOT is working to complete environmental studies and prepare the necessary permits so the agency is ready to move forward if a decision is approved to move the road.
For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.
(Journalists are welcome to use b roll video NCDOT gathered Thursday of the agency’s work on N.C. 12. The person quoted in the video is Caleb Sawyer, an NCDOT resident engineer in Highway Division 1 on the coast).