The long delayed, often thought dead, Mid Currituck Bridge just got a new lease on life and it truly does look as though it may be built.
A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously and quite vigorously upheld a lower court ruling that held for NCDOT and FHWA in a case that the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) brought seeking to stop the project from moving forward.
The SELC’s argument was that a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was required because of a delay in the project. The EIS was originally approved in 2012 but the state pulled funding from the bridge. The state then decided to again move forward with the project and the 2012 EIS was reissued in 2019 with some notes on changes in traffic projections.
The district and appellate courts reached the same conclusion—that there was no substantive change in circumstances between 2012 and 2019 that would require a supplemental EIS.
If the MCB project does now move forward, it is possible that the original ribbon cutting date of sometime in 2030 could still be met.
The bridge itself will be seven mile project with two bridges. On the mainland side a bridge will bypass Maple Swamp, connecting to the bridge over Currituck Sound. bridge crossing Currituck Sound at Aydlett and landing on the Outer Banks about a mile north of the Food Lion Shopping Center in Corolla.
The bridge will be a toll bridge, although no final decision has been announce on the amount of the toll.
A bridge spanning Currituck Sound has been under discussion since 1978 when a planning document prepared for Currituck County suggested it. There have been a number of almost starts and false starts over the years, but what is happening now is as far along in the process as the bridge has ever been.
Always something new and exciting happening on the Outer Banks. Stop by for a visit in a Brindley Beach Vacations home and see what life on a sandbar is all about.