KITTY HAWK — A part of the beach road that rolls along the Outer Banks is getting repairs, but it’s not the lonely section regularly torn up by storms.
The North Carolina Transportation Department says work could start as soon as this week to plug a breech in the dunes with sandbags and rebuild North Carolina Highway 12 in Kitty Hawk.
The one-third-mile section has been closed for almost a month as a result of damage from Hurricane Joaquin and a neighboring storm system. High waves washed out a 700-foot-long sand dune.
Crews will install sandbags starting eight feet below the edge of the road’s pavement, then cover it with more sand.
A long section of Highway 12 on neighboring Hatteras Island is often damaged by storm-driven water because protective dunes are sparse.