$1B+ Mid-Currituck Bridge
Despite having no financial plan to build the bridge, the North Carolina Department of Transportation is pushing ahead with the Mid-Currituck Bridge Project, an outdated and unnecessary transportation project exceeding $1B. The project, first introduced decades ago, currently includes a seven-mile bridge that would extend across the Currituck Sound to the northernmost section of the Outer Banks. Critically, plans for the bridge failed to look at current science and projections of sea level rise. An up-to-date analysis shows that roads around the bridge will become inundated and unusable long before the pricey project has paid for itself.
The bridge would bring a host of problems, including:
- Further beachfront development in an area already vulnerable to erosion, hurricanes, rising sea levels, and other threats likely to become more severe as a result of climate change;
- Damage to water quality critical to residents and aquatic habitat in the Currituck estuary critical to fisheries; and
- Thousands more vehicles and traffic on the beaches of the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge.
The bridge would also put further stress on other nature preserves and natural heritage sites in the area that are vital not only to migratory birds and other wildlife but also to tourism as people seek destinations to enjoy nature and get away from it all. Our state would be better served directing funding and resources to road improvements needed to improve resiliency in Eastern North Carolina.
Better alternatives
Residents and property owners along the route have repeatedly asked NCDOT to consider more affordable and less damaging solutions that would have less impact on taxpayers and on the area’s special landscape.
A primary focus for alternative solutions was easing the area’s peak congestion days, which are usually summer weekends, at drastically less cost to taxpayers and the environment than the proposed bridge and could be implemented much sooner.
Financial burden
The bridge would place an unnecessary burden on North Carolina’s financial coffers and is overall a financially infeasible project. Recent traffic and revenue reports concluded that only about $200 million could be generated in toll revenue —which would cover only a fraction of the bridge’s more than $1 billion price tag.
In 2013, the Southern Environmental Law Center worked with a diverse coalition of groups from both sides of the political aisle to pass legislation that removed earmarked funding for the bridge and made it subject to a partially data-driven scoring system. Still, local politicians who insist the $over $1B bridge be constructed have doubled down on setting aside almost the entire transportation budget for North Carolina’s coastal region to construct the bridge, tying up scarce funds needed for more pressing transportation needs, including needed improvements to stretches of NC 12 that frequently wash out.
NCDOT is ignoring concerns and bulldozing ahead with an unnecessary bridge, wasting taxpayer money, and causing more damage to the Sound and fragile coastline that continues to be impacted by rising sea levels and destructive climate change fueled storms.
Julie Youngman, SELC Senior Attorney
Fighting to protect the Sound
The state Division of Coastal Management recently granted a Coastal Area Management Act permit for the more than $1B project despite a flawed and outdated analysis and laws requiring permit applications be denied if there is a less environmentally damaging alternative.
On behalf of community group “No Mid-Currituck Bridge,” SELC sued the DCM for issuing the state permit. Continuing the project threatens the Sound, water quality, and wildlife in the area. In addition, if the project is removed from state transportation plans, it will free up money for other much-needed transportation projects in the region.
SELC will continue to advocate for better alternatives that don’t rely on new development projects that harm public and environmental resources.
