RT12 in Kitty Hawk to re-open

The Ocean Front road in Kitty Hawk (RT12) was damaged heavily by Isabel in 2003 and made worse in subsequent storms. The Nor'easter we had last week took out a section of the road near the Black Pelican.  Kitty Hawk does plan on beach re-nourishment but no one is sure of what may happen long term.   Fortunately for Southern Shores, most of Duck and Corolla, the same environmental conditions are not present.

Before the storm                                               After the storm

By Sam Walker on May 4, 2015   OBXVoice. State Department of Transportation engineers were on the scene this morning trying to determine how to fix a 150-yard section of N.C. 12 that was washed out by high surf from the May Day coastal storm. “As of this morning we are working to get repairs started as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the day,” said NCDOT spokesperson Jennifer Heiss. “Crews have been waiting for the waves to die down before they can begin working.”  Plans as of Monday morning are to have the road reopened to traffic by this weekend, according to Heiss. The quick-moving system spawned waves of up to 8 feet that pounded the beaches of the Outer Banks from Friday to Sunday. A large gap, or slough, in the underwater sandbars just off the beach at the end of East Kitty Hawk Road allowed the waves to reach the shoreline unencumbered and chew away at the dunes. The road was closed early Saturday after high tide Friday evening and Saturday morning carved out the sand alongside the roadway to a depth of as much as 8 feet to the beach below. What remained of the dunes to the north and south of the blowout were sliced in half, with cliff as much as 15 feet from the peak to the beach.   COMPLETE STORY