OUTER BANKS, N.C. (WAVY) – North Carolina Highway 12 is set to finally reopen after days of setbacks from Mother Nature.

NCDOT announced Thursday that closed sections will reopen at noon, but drivers should be cautious of standing water and sand.

North Carolina Department and Cape Hatteras National Seashore crews have been working to rebuild NC12 after part of the highway was wiped out from storms and high tides.

Closures started this weekend for part of the road from Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe, and on Ocracoke between the pony pens and the ferry terminal. The closures lasted through Monday and the roads were supposed to reopen on Tuesday.

However, another high tide was “severely hampering” reopening efforts Tuesday afternoon, according to officials.

Wednesday afternoon, the high tides washed out much of the dune rebuilding progress at the north end of Ocracoke Island.

Here’s a side by side look at NC12 before and after on Wednesday.

The photos below show before and after the recent high tide.

Before:

  • Part of NC12 during the dune rebuild
    (Courtesy: NCDOT NC12 Twitter)
  • NC12 rebuilding Seashore dunes the north end of Ocracoke Island
    (Courtesy: Cape Hatteras National Seashore Twitter)

After:

Due to the delay in reopening N.C Highway 12 on Hatteras Island, Dare County officials announced that residential trash collection scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24 in Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras has been cancelled. The next collection for these areas will be on Monday, Sept 28.

Residential trash collection in Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon is expected to still take place on Friday, Sept 25.

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