it’s time to say good bye to the S Curves, the stretch of road just to the north of Rodanthe that is famous—or infamous—for flooding and sealing off Hatteras Island.
Beginning Monday NCDOT will being the process of taking up the old road and returning the two miles to its original state in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. The Road is no longer needed because the Jug Handle Bridge bypasses that stretch of highway.
The road is coming up earlier than originally scheduled. The earlier timeframe had the road being removed sometime in early 2023. But, it seems, the delay in opening the Jug Handle Bridge because the paint contractor for the lane markings used the wrong paint, allowed some necessary infrastructure work to be completed earlier than anticipated.
The work that was being done was moving power lines and fiber optic cable to the new bridge from its old location parallel to the surface road. Because the bridge was closed two months longer than scheduled, contractors were able to work much more efficiently.
According to NCDOT removing the old road will take about six weeks.
The S Curve area has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest surfing areas on the East Coast. With the removal of the road, access will be much more difficult. There is a new parking lot at the north end of the Jug Handle Bridge, where the old NC12 would have been. Although it will be a long walk to the best surf break, there are no prohibitions on access to that stretch of beach.
It is unclear, however, how long what was the S Curves will remain a viable surf break. Without the maintenance to keep the road open, the beach just north of Rodanthe will probably become an inlet diffusing the wave energy of the area.
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