Crossing Oregon Inlet: The history of connecting the Outer Banks PUBLISHED 4:29 PM ET Jun. 01, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:29 PM EDT Jun. 01, 2021
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OUTER BANKS, N.C. Someone on the video gives a countdown, “Four, three, two, one”, before explosives detonate on one of the last remaining stretches of the Bonner Bridge.
The video, shared on social media by the U.S. Coast Guard last week, shows the final days of the bridge that spanned Oregon Inlet and connected Hatteras Island to the neighboring Outer Banks towns to the north.
“Before the bridge came in, the only way to get to Hatteras Island was by ferry, was by boat,” North Carolina Maritime Museums Director Joe Schwarzer said. “It’s connectivity, it’s enormous.
The last remaining center span of one of North Carolina's most famous bridges went up in smoke and flying debris on May 27 as part of a controlled explosion. Contractors blasted the final remaining horizontal section of the old Herbert C.
New railings along the Bonner Bridge section being converted into a fishing pier. [NCDOT photo]
To keep everyone safe, officials are reminding people that the pedestrian pier being constructed from the vestiges of the old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge is currently closed to the public.
Work is expected to be completed later this summer.
However, N.C. Department of Transportation contract crews are constructing a new hard surface walking path from the parking lot to the pier, removing asphalt from the old N.C. 12 at the south end of the pier and installing signs on the pier.
Until work is complete and the pier is opened to the public, people should not walk on the pier and should avoid the construction areas and equipment.
As the president seeks to spend billions to fix the nation’s aging roads and bridges, a long-running project along North Carolina’s Outer Banks illustrates the complexities of transportation infrastructure.
The Marc Basnight Bridge sprawls out from the Outer Banks mainland into the Oregon Inlet. (Courthouse News Photo / Brad Kutner)
KITTY HAWK, N.C. (CN) After being stuck inside for the last year millions of vacationers are expected to cross the Currituck Sound into North Carolina’s Outer Banks this summer.
Gaining access to the barrier islands’ 200 miles of sandy beaches and preserved lands where the Wright brothers launched the first successful motor-operated airplane requires visitors to cross over the Wright Memorial Bridge.
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One person died after one of the last remaining sections of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet collapsed on Wednesday. Emergency responders were called to Oregon Inlet just before 5 p.m., according to OBX Today. One of the two remaining sections of the navigation span in the middle of the inlet appeared to have collapsed.
The Dare County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday evening confirmed that one person was standing on the bridge. At least one other person was reported seriously injured. Other details about the incident were not yet available.
As the bridge was being dismantled, the concrete road deck and guardrails were cut apart and stacked on the support beams, according to the article. It was then loaded onto barges, followed by steel beams. The northern steel sections had been lowered to a barge sometime in the 24 hours prior to the collapse. The southern section was in the process of being unloaded of the