Outer Banks' Highway 12 - Rebuilt After Irene, Bridge Needed Reinforcement 3 Mos. After Replacement
RODANTHE, N.C. — Last August, when Hurricane Irene sliced across the Outer Banks, it cut Highway 12, Hatteras Island’s lifeline, in two places. Engineers rushed to repair the damage, filling and repaving a washed-out stretch of roadway here and building a bridge over a newly formed inlet a few miles to the north.
The road reopened on Oct. 11, to the cheers of anglers, would-be vacationers and the innkeepers, restaurateurs and merchants whose livelihoods had taken a huge blow.
But the winds and waves that shape the coast were already gnawing at the new bridge. By January, engineers were reinforcing its southern approach with sandbags and rock trucked in from the mainland, in hopes of keeping the road open until a more permanent fix could be designed and built.
The Outer Banks are home to some of the nation’s most celebrated beach communities. The road that links them, also called N.C. 12, offers an extreme example of the difficulty of maintaining houses, condos, roads and other infrastructure in the face of a climate-driven rise in sea level.
EDIT
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/science/highway-12-outer-banks-lifeline-is-under-siege-by-nature.html?_r=1
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I love the OB, it's a special place, but more of the cost of keeping the place accessible should be on the people who have the money to build mansions on the beach.
