Two community events were held at the Jug Handle Bridge on Saturday, April 9, and IFP videographer Rory Kelleher caught all the action throughout the busy day.
The celebration started with the inaugural Run the Rodanthe Bridge race on Saturday morning, and continued in the afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a “Community Day” event where the public could walk or ride a bike on the new 2.4-mile structure.
The Jug Handle Bridge is expected to open to vehicular traffic in mid-April, and is the final bridge of the three new bridges on Hatteras Island to be built as part of the Bonner Bridge Replacement Project. (The Captain Richard Etheridge Bridge on Pea Island was completed in the spring of 2018, and the Bonner Bridge replacement was completed in 2019.)
Once open to traffic, the Jug Handle Bridge will connect the southern portion of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge to northern Rodanthe, bypassing the S-Turns section of N.C. Highway 12, which is highly susceptible to breaches and ocean overwash during storms.
