Highway 12 Temporarily Impassable

The NCDOT Ferry Division posted at 11am on Tuesday, March 6: The Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route remains closed due to the fact that NC Highway 12 on both sides remains closed. If the roads reopen late this afternoon as hoped for, we will resume service at that time.

At 8am, NCDOT posted on their NCDOT NC 12 Facebook page: 

Your Tuesday update on NC12: Our crews are working extremely hard to meet the 6:30 p.m. target for reopening both closed sections of NC-12. As long as we don't find any structural damage and the high tide cycles continue to normalize, we expect to get NC12 completely open to all traffic late this afternoon.

Current conditions:

NC12 Beach Road, Kitty Hawk, South Nags Head, and Old Oregon Inlet Road – Very Minor over wash at the last high tide. Very little sand and debris on the roadway. Open and Passable.

NC12 Bonner South to Rodanthe – Only remaining areas of deep sand are just North of the Pea Island visitor center and at the “S curves” north of Mirlo Beach. Pockets of standing water on the roadway the entire length of NC12. Impassable.

NC12 Rodanthe South – Standing water has receded, sand on road North end of Buxton. Open and passable.

NC12 Ocracoke - Moderate overwash at last high tide pushed additional sand onto NC12, one full lane is partially clear. Work will continue today on those efforts (pictured). Standing water remains on NC12. Additional loaders and an operator have been sent to assist efforts. If needed we will move additional resources to the Island. Impassable.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Original story:

Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands temporarily inaccessible due to hazardous highway conditions.

Ocracoke is accessible by way of Cedar Island or Swan Quarter, but not Hatteras.

Press Release issued by the National Park Service on Sunday afternoon:

• The North Carolina department of Transportation has closed NC Highway 12 from the Bonner Bridge to Rodanthe and suspended ferry operations to Ocracoke Island. Updated information is available here: https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/RegionSummary.aspx?ro=3810. 

• Other areas of NC Highway 12 and side roads may also have hazardous driving conditions that should be avoided.

  

• The Atlantic Ocean has over-washed the dunes in multiple locations along both Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.

• High surf conditions have resulted in extremely hazardous conditions on and directly behind beaches.  

• Walking and driving on beaches is not recommended until hazardous conditions subside later this week.

• Potentially hazardous ocean debris may wash ashore and buried items may be exposed during storm conditions. 

• Cargo containers have been recently lost from a cargo vessel off the North Carolina coast.  

• Cape Hatteras National Seashore visitors should report sightings of cargo containers either offshore or on the beach to Dare County’s non-emergency line at 252-473-3444.

• For more information about the weather, listen to NOAA weather radio or go here: www.weather.gov.

  This information was posted on the NCDOT NC 12 Facebook page Monday morning:

  Monday morning update on NC-12: As predicted, last night's high tide wiped out most of the progress that crews made yesterday. NC12 remains closed between the Bonner Bridge and Rodanthe, as well as on Ocracoke between the Pony Pens and the Ferry Terminal. High tides today will continue to be difficult. There's no timeline yet on when we'll be able to reopen those sections. 

  Here's what most areas looked like as of about 5 a.m.; 

  Northern Beaches – Beach Road had severe over wash with sand and debris mostly in Nags Head. Old Oregon Inlet Road has many areas with sand, debris and high water. Crews from Currituck will be working clean up on these routes. 

  Bonner to Rodanthe - Still minor ocean over wash at this time with both lanes impassable. Sand and water both 3’ to 5’ deep. Crews worked all night with little progress. DOT forces working in this area. Moving more loaders today for cleanup efforts. 

  “S” Curves – Over wash wiped out all progress deep sand and water blocking entire section. Yesterday, crews had this section clear of sand. 

  Rodanthe to Hatteras - Same or worse conditions as yesterday Deep standing water in Tri-Villages and Avon. 

  Ocracoke: NC 12 closed due to very high water more than a foot deep. 

  This morning's high tide comes at about 10 a.m. It is predicted to be nearly as bad as the one last night. We will update you again when we have more information.