N.C. 12 Update 9/20/2011

At the Rodanthe breach area, crews continued hauling sand for dune construction and installed sand bags along the S-curves. As of yesterday, approximately 2,700 truckloads of sand has been hauled and placed for the repairs at Rodanthe.

At the temporary bridge location on Pea Island, crews placed concrete at bent 4 for footings. At bent 3, the template was set for driving piles. Bents are substructures supporting each end of the bridge span.

Approximately 71 feet of the bridge has been assembled. Crews began launching the assembled pieces of the bridge using a 90,000 pound excavator backhoe. In order to do this, the backhoe pushes the assembled pieces across temporary rollers. Yesterday, crews were able to launch the bridge close to 70 feet towards the south end of the breach.