And It's Open!!

 

This was the scene on NC12 at Pea Island at about 6:00 p.m. yesterday! 

REOPENING TODAY!

We expect to be able to reopen NC 12 early evening today! More details as we get them!

It's next Tuesday!

Or maybe sooner!

N.C. 12 Update 10/05/2011 


 The N.C. Department of Transportation will reopen N.C. 12 no later than Tuesday, Oct. 11 after the road has been closed due to the damage caused by Hurricane Irene in August.

 “Our hope is to open before then, but right now we are confident work will be complete on or before the 11th”, said resident engineer Pablo Hernandez.  “We will open to road earlier if we can.”

 At the Rodanthe breach area, crews completed paving the asphalt base for the road patches south of the mid Pea Island breach and began grading the sand for the roadway embankment leading to the southern end of the bridge.

At the temporary bridge location on Pea Island, crews worked all night and into the early hours to set deck panels at the north end of the bridge after it was completely lowered onto the permanent bridge bearing supports.

The southern half of the bridge is in the process of being lowered onto the bearing supports. Crews still need to install six of the 12 bridge bearing supports, anchor the bridge in place and finish installing deck panels; however, the following items are complete at the temporary bridge location:

Piling: all 82 piles driven.
Sheet Piling Bulkhead: all 726 linear feet installed.
Concrete Footings: all 12 footings poured.
Bridge Truss Spans: all 662 linear feet placed.

Night Moves

The N.C. 12 temporary bridge crews worked all through the night and into the morning, lowering the north half of the bridge onto its permanent bearing supports, and setting deck panels, among other things.

 

 

Jack Under the Wood

This photo came in with this morning's batch from the site of the temporary bridge on NC12 and out of context it might look a little strange, if not precarious:

So, what's going on here?

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      Yesterday, our crews installed hydraulic jacks underneath the bridge truss and began lifting it in order to remove the temporary roller bearings used to extend the bridge across the breach.  The jacks will also be used to lower the bridge onto the permanent bearings.  This is a very delicate procedure where the bridge is alternately supported on wood blocks and lowered with the jacks approximately  four to six inches at a time.  Eventually, the bridge will be lowered approximately two to five feet, depending on the location along the bridge alignment. 
  


      This week's NCDOT Now features video of the work on NC 12:

Herons and Cranes

 

More Milestones!

Over the weekend, crews checked off several key components of the temporary bridge installation over the breach on Pea Island, as you can see from the graphs at right.

There's still a considerable amount to go, however.  On the bridge, crews still need to install the bearing supports, lower and anchor the bridge in place, and install deck panels.

As we have been saying, completion of the bridge does not mean N.C. 12 can be reopened.  Paving must be completed around the bridge and the work on the portions of the highway near Rodanthe also must be finished. When that's completed, then N.C. 12 can be opened to traffic.  Unfortunately, the work that must be done now would be the most effected by bad weather of everything we've done so far.  So that's why we just can't name a specific date as to when the highway will be reopened.  Katia, and a Nor'easter have brought a significant amount of rain to the site, and extra crews were called in to keep things on track. Best we can say at this point is still early-mid October.

Folks have been asking us about Oct. 6 - that refers to Dare County's re-entry plan for Waves, Rodanthe and Salvo - NOT the reopening of N.C.12.  Here's the county's release on re-entry to those areas of Hatteras Island.