The Mid-Currituck Bridge, a long-planned new crossing on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, may be progressing from the drawing board to construction, having recently received two key state environmental permits. However, the estimated $1 million project still faces multiple uncertainties, including a yet-to-be-defined financing plan and significant local opposition.
First proposed more than 50 years ago, the new 7-mile connection between mainland Currituck County and barrier island communities is intended to provide an alternative to the Wright Memorial Bridge, a four-lane roadway to the south that often gets bogged down with visitor traffic, especially during the summer months. Expanded access to the mainland would also provide an additional evacuation route for northern Outer Banks communities during hurricanes and other major weather events.
For nearly two decades, the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, an arm of the state Department of Transportation, has pursued the Mid-Currituck Bridge as a toll project that would include two-lane stretches across Currituck Sound and Maple Swamp. According to a 2024 NCDOT construction narrative, the agency envisions precast concrete piles with a concrete cap for the bridge’s substructure, while the superstructure would consist of precast, prestressed concrete beams with a concrete deck. The structures will be built from deep-water barges, supported by temporary trestles that will be built from both sides of Currituck Sound (about 2.6 miles). The trestles on the east side will be open deck to allow sunlight to reach the submerged aquatic vegetation habitat.
Although the project’s final environmental impact statement was completed in 2012, a subsequent renewal of NCDOT’s funding allocation strategy put the project on hold for more than three years, enough time to trigger an FHWA reevaluation of the document and its selected alternative to address changes in traffic volumes, land uses and other factors. FHWA’s March 2019 Record of Decision was soon challenged in federal court by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of groups opposed to the project, alleging that the review process failed to take into account current climate data and development trends, and alternative congestion relief solutions.
Four years of litigation resulted in a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that NCDOT and FHWA complied with applicable federal laws and regulations, allowing work to begin. Last September, the state Department of Environmental Quality issued a Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA)/Dredging and Filling Act and a Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification. NCDOT is awaiting a permit decision from the US Army Corps of Engineers, which will allow the agency to apply for a construction permit from the US Coast Guard.
“These four permits are necessary for the construction of the project and are vital to developing a plan for the next steps in the delivery of the project,” says NCDOT spokesman Logen Hodges.
That includes developing a financing plan for an effort that has doubled in cost from NCDOT’s original estimate of $500 million. Hodges says that while the final funding strategy has not been finalized, it will likely include federal and state funds as well as toll debt. Last fall, the project failed in an attempt to secure $425 million in funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant Program.
Hodges says that in evaluating all possible sources of funding, “the project team continues to work on a benchmarking analysis to evaluate whether the project will be done as a traditional toll project or a public-private partnership toll project.”
NCDOT says construction contracting could begin as early as next year, though a prolonged federal government shutdown could alter that timeline. There is also the looming threat of new litigation from opponents who say Currituck County is unprepared for the development the new crossing is likely to bring, increasing its potential environmental damage.
“Any legal challenges to the permits could affect the project schedule,” says Hodges.
