NCDOT plans to place sandbags along N.C. 12 at Pea Island Visitor Center
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has submitted a request to the state Coastal Resources Commission to place sandbags to protect N.C. Highway 12 at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.
The commission has scheduled a special meeting by teleconference on Monday at 10 a.m. to vote on the request, which NCDOT is seeking to move on as soon as possible to protect the highway from future storm damage.
The highway department submitted an application to the Division of Coastal Management to modify a Major Coastal Area Management Act permit on December 4 that would allow the repair of 1,300 feet of primary dune, and installation of 1,100 feet of “Permashield trapezoidal sandbags” along the area formally identified as the “Visitor Center Hot Spot”.
A permit dating back to 1999 has been modified numerous times that allows NCDOT to perform dune maintenance along the roadway between Oregon Inlet and Hatteras village, and a separate permit to do similar work on Ocracoke Island.
While North Carolina has a state law that bans the placement of hardened structures to stabilize beaches, similar sandbag structures are considered temporary and the same law requires special permission be granted by state regulators for their installation.
The Pea Island Visitor Center area has increasingly become a major erosion issue, with NCDOT noting that the average erosion rate at the visitor center since 2020 has been 7.5 feet per year.
There have been multiple dune “blowouts” in recent years along that stretch of the highway, with several instances where water and sand covered the roadway and shut down the road.
In the variance request to the Coastal Resources Commission this week, NCDOT notes that the most recent example was the coastal storm of November 15 to 17 that washed away approximately 1,000 feet of dune, exposing the edge of N.C. Highway 12’s pavement to high surf.
“The roadway flooding and pavement drop-off produced hazardous traffic conditions, so NCDOT temporarily closed NC 12 to all traffic between the Marc Basnight Bridge and the village of Rodanthe,” wrote NCDEQ Assistant General Counsel Christine A. Goebel.
The dune was rebuilt under the most recent CAMA permit that allows dune maintenance.
Goebel said in her memo to the CRC that NCDOT wants to remove approximately 1,300 linear feet of the current berm, and then install the sandbags in the same location across the road from the visitor center.
Two rows of sandbags will be placed, with the oceanside row 6-feet tall and 8-feet wide, and roadway side 4-feet tall and 6-feet wide.
The bags will be placed starting two feet below the grade of the roadway, 10-feet from the roadway’s edge.
The dune will then be rebuilt to cover the sandbags, and Goebel said the highway department has committed to developing a vegetation plan to help stabilize the dune that will be 6-feet high and 25-feet wide.