North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are working on permanent fixes for last year's damage from Hurricane Irene on the Outer Banks. Two breaches along Highway 12 are covered with temporary bridges. Beth Smyre is a planning engineer with the DOT. She says permanent spans will be higher and longer than the temporary structures.
Beth Smyre: We're estimating its probably going to be about 25 feet in the air. We want to make it high enough so that in the event of future storms, waves can just pass underneath the bridge and not damage the deck itself, so we've tried to elevate it as much as we can.
Smyre says the bridge for the breach on Pea Island will follow where NC 12 is today. She says two routes are under consideration for the lower breach at Rodanthe.