Department of Transportation crews spent today surveying the impacts of the Nor’easter on parts of N.C. 12 already damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Although the Nor’easter has moved north of the North Carolina coast, rough seas continue to affect the Outer Banks, especially during high tide.

In Kitty Hawk, there is overwash on N.C. 12, which is locally known as the beach road. That is not stopping crews from continuing to move and place sand along the ocean side of the highway to rebuild the dune that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. They are also removing pavement damaged during both storms from the roadway.

On Pea Island, the Nor’easter did not hamper progress to repair the tension cables on the deck of the Bonner Bridge, but it has washed sand and water onto N.C. 12 at the temporary bridge. As the water recedes, crews will continue their work to rebuild the highway approaching the bridge. The Mirlo Beach area is also seeing flooding and overwash on N.C. 12. Crews with Barnhill Contracting Co. who had mobilized there earlier this week had to move their equipment for safety reasons related to the Nor’easter. They are currently in Avon stockpiling sand, which they will load onto trucks and haul to the S-curves for dune reconstruction once conditions improve.

Weather permitting, NCDOT plans to open N.C.12 to four-wheel drive traffic by noon on Saturday, Nov. 10. Initially, these vehicles will only have access to one lane of the highway and Bonner Bridge, and in some parts, they will travel over sand. In addition, NCDOT will close the four-wheel drive route from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the first few days to ensure motorist safety during the overnight hours. Once crews open both lanes of the temporary bridge, the department will allow four-wheel drive traffic 24 hours per day.

The department urges motorists to “know before you go” about traffic conditions along the Outer Banks. For real-time travel information at any time, call 511, visit www.ncdot.gov/travel or follow NCDOT on Twitter at www.ncdot.gov/travel/twitter/.

Another option is NCDOT Mobile, a phone-friendly version of the NCDOT website. To access it, type “m.ncdot.gov” into the browser of your smartphone and bookmark it for future reference. NCDOT Mobile is compatible with the iPhone, Android and some newer Blackberry phones. (Editor’s note: To view images of hurricane recovery efforts along the Outer Banks, visit the NCDOT Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncdot/.)