From atop the gantries being used to erect the Rodanthe Bridge in North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound, a worker can look across the sands of windswept Hatteras Island and see Atlantic Ocean waves pounding the shoreline next to the two-lane State Route 12, the sole road connecting a chain of tourism-dependent villages to the mainland. The view is a reminder of why the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation is spending $145 million to build the 2.4-mile-long elevated road.
The bridge will bypass an area of Route 12 called the S Curves, which in 2011 required a $3-million emergency repair effort to fill and cover a temporary inlet created by Hurricane Irene, and a $20-million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-funded beach nourishment project the following year. NCDOT monitoring data shows the S Curves’ oceanfront is being eaten away at a rate of 11 ft to 12 ft per year. Forecasts for 2060 indicate that even under low-erosion scenarios, other sections of the 12.5-mile corridor will be similarly vulnerable to encroachment.