Study examines future of transportation on Ocracoke Island amid storms, sea level rise
After back-to-back flooding earlier this year caused a fatal crash and then cut off access to Ocracoke Island for days, the National Park Service has launched a study into the future of transportation to the popular Outer Banks destination.
The National Park Service this summer entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to evaluate transportation and resource management strategies on the barrier island, which is only accessible by vehicle and passenger ferries.
The park service will hold a public information session about the study Sept. 4 at the Ocracoke Community Center.
N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island flooded with ocean overwash on March 26, 2024. (Photo courtesy North Carolina Department of Transportation)
Researchers from North Carolina State University, Duke University, East Carolina University and representatives from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Hyde County and Tideland Electric Membership Corporation will also participate in the multi-year study, the park service said in a release.
The stretch of highway near the ferry terminal is protected by artificial dunes created with large sandbags along the road. After a fatal accident in February during overwash flooding, NCDOT awarded a $489,000 emergency contract to replace and repair more than 800 sandbags along N.C.12. A storm in March stalled that work, and caused more damage to the sandbagged shoreline.
N.C. 12 on the northern end of Ocracoke Island damaged and flooded by ocean overwash the morning of March 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy Randal Mathews)
It also halted ferry service and cut the island off for days, with the Coast Guard stepping in to deliver medication and other necessities to stranded residents.
“The evolution of Ocracoke’s dynamic barrier island in response to storm events and sea level rise presents challenges to the maintenance of the transportation corridor that spans the length of Ocracoke Island,” the park service release said. “Climate change may amplify these challenges by increasing hurricane longevity, intensity and rainfall.”
Mitigation strategies like the sandbags, “that have been used for decades” to maintain N.C. 12 and the South Dock Ferry Terminal “may have inadvertently contributed to the low elevations and narrow island widths that currently make transportation susceptible to disruption,” the release said. The park service on Friday didn’t immediately return a request to explain how sandbags and dune rebuilding caused those impacts.
The park service said the study will include model scenarios to simulate three management scenarios: Maintain the existing location of N.C. 12, conducting beach nourishment projects and exploring “how the barrier island would migrate in response to other transportation alternatives,” the release said.
A view from above N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island, which has battled increasing ocean overwash flooding and erosion in the past few years. (Photo by Michael Flynn/National Park Service)
The Sept. 4 information session from 1-2:30 p.m. will provide an overview of the study, review the modeling exercise and solicit feedback, the park service said.
Results from initial modeling and public feedback will be incorporated into the second year of research, which will examine transportation strategies before concluding with a second information session next summer.
To learn more about the study, see c-coast.org/ocracoke-adaptation-study.
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