A North Carolina Lifeline Built On Shifting Sands
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Publicado: 22 de mayo de 2012
A North Carolina Lifeline Built on Shifting Sands
North Carolina Department of Transportation
BESIEGED Waves hit a new bridge on Highway 12 at Pea Island, N.C., over an inlet created by HurricaneIrene. Critics say officials should adopt a ferry system instead.
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: March 5, 2012
RODANTHE, N.C. — Last August, when Hurricane Irene sliced across the Outer Banks, itcut 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 formedinlet 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.
Butthe 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, inhopes 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.
By some estimates, atleast 70 percent of the ocean coastline of the lower 48 states is threatened by erosion. But the outlook here is unusually gloomy. In 2009, a federal report on erosion in the Middle Atlantic statespredicted that if the sea level rises two feet this century — an estimate that many experts call optimistic — “it is likely that some barrier islands in this region will cross a threshold” and begin tobreak up. The report, produced by the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Geological Survey and other agencies, said the Outer Banks were particularly threatened.
Already, Highway 12...
North Carolina Department of Transportation
BESIEGED Waves hit a new bridge on Highway 12 at Pea Island, N.C., over an inlet created by HurricaneIrene. Critics say officials should adopt a ferry system instead.
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: March 5, 2012
RODANTHE, N.C. — Last August, when Hurricane Irene sliced across the Outer Banks, itcut 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 formedinlet 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.
Butthe 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, inhopes 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.
By some estimates, atleast 70 percent of the ocean coastline of the lower 48 states is threatened by erosion. But the outlook here is unusually gloomy. In 2009, a federal report on erosion in the Middle Atlantic statespredicted that if the sea level rises two feet this century — an estimate that many experts call optimistic — “it is likely that some barrier islands in this region will cross a threshold” and begin tobreak up. The report, produced by the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Geological Survey and other agencies, said the Outer Banks were particularly threatened.
Already, Highway 12...
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