Three months before the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, Dare and Hyde County officials urged state lawmakers Thursday to help them fund a more permanent solution to maintain North Carolina Highway 12.
The 148-mile stretch connecting the barrier islands of the Outer Banks is a frequent victim of storms and ocean overwash. The scenic stretch is also critical in bringing in more than $2.2 billion in annual tourism spending.
An NCDOT map shows the most problematic “hot spots” along NC Highway 12. Crews push back sand from the canal zone almost every day. (Source: NCDOT)NC Dept. of Transportation engineer Ronnie Sawyer told members of the Joint Transportation Oversight Committee that just moving sand off the road and back onto the dunes in the Canal zone of NC 12 is an everyday operation. In the last 15 years, the NCDOT has spent nearly $51 million maintaining the NC 12 “hot spots” in Dare County.
Another $20 million has been spent in Ocracoke, where a severe weather event has struck every year since 2018, requiring a response from the DOT.
Sawyer said a two-mile section of NC 12 in Ocracoke is so close to the ocean, it’s protected by 7,000 linear feet of sandbags. That’s about 23 football fields worth, installed by the NCDOT.
“We don’t have to have a direct hit,” Sawyer told the committee. “A storm could come by 200, 300 miles [offshore], and it still gives enough swell and enough wave energy to have impacts on NC 12.”
Hyde County manager Kris Noble said without a more permanent solution, more and more sandbags will be needed. The county also wants to shift the highway 30 feet toward the sound to avoid further ocean overwash.
The DOT is also keeping track of how many hours Highway 12 is partially or completely closed. Since 2015, it’s added up to 9,549 hours or 398 days for Dare County.
Sawyer said it was eye-opening to think about the economic impact of services and goods that are stalled when the road is out of commission.
“A year of our economy has been shut down with road closures,” said Dare County manager Bobby Outten.
Since 2010, Dare County has invested $100 million in beach nourishment projects.
“You see the houses falling in, and everyone thinks we’re spending all this money to protect those houses,” said Outten. “That isn’t the purpose of the beach nourishment. The purpose is to protect Highway 12.”
With the situation so dire, Sen. Michael A. Lazzara (R-Onslow) questioned why no long-term solutions have been prioritized in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).
Sandbags protect a section of NC 12 in Ocracoke. (Photo: NCDOT)Albemarle Rural Planning Organization (RPO) transportation planner Ethan Sommers told Lazzara the scoring process for the STIP made it difficult to compete against road projects in larger counties where congestion was a bigger factor.
At the oversight committee’s last meeting, NCDOT’s planning director told legislators the STIP has $31.4 billion available for the next ten years, but there are $144 billion in projects competing for those limited dollars.
Outten said Dare County is currently working with a consultant to look at smaller, shorter-term solutions that cost less and might have a better chance of being funded.
“We’ve spent a pile of money trying to fix it, but we’re out of money. We don’t have any more money in our beach nourishment fund to do more than what we’ve done,” conceded Outten.
Noble said she was hopeful that the state’s Coastal Resources Commission was re-examining hardened structures to perhaps mitigate the problem on Ocracoke.
“We really need a long-term solution, or we’re literally dumping money in the ocean,” said Noble.
Sen. Tom McInnis (R-Cumberland) agreed with county leaders that the fragile coastline was a valuable asset that they should work together to protect.
“But there’s one problem we will never solve, and that is the beating back of Mother Nature,” McInnis said. ”It’s going to be a tough one to figure out.”
A photo shared by NCDOT shows Ocracoke’s historic shoreline movement since 1940, with erosion each year threatening NC 12. (Image: NCDOT)Hence then, the article about we re dumping money into the ocean outer banks seeks state help for long term nc 12 fix was published today ( ) and is available on NC news line ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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