McCrory, state officials break ground on long-awaited Bonner Bridge project

Preliminary work, which included clearing vegetation at the south end of the bridge along both sides of N.C. Highway 12, began in February, but McCrory said Tuesday that the groundbreaking represents a long-awaited milestone for people who live, work and visit the Outer Banks.

The new bridge is designed to have a 100-year life span and is scheduled to open to traffic in November 2018, officials said. The overall project, including the demolition of the existing bridge, is scheduled to be completed in September 2019.

Another benefit of the new bridge, according to state officials, is that the high rise will be 3,500 feet long and have seven navigational spans, each averaging about 300 feet in width.

That will provide more options for navigation under the bridge.

Built in 1963, the existing bridge replaced an hour-long ferry ride over Oregon Inlet that could not operate in inclement weather or carry the growing population of islanders and tourists who sought to enjoy the southern Outer Banks.

Today, the bridge carries tens of thousands of residents and visitors daily, helping support the state's tourism industry and providing a critical evacuation route.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation began working with the local community, as well as state and federal resource agencies, on plans to replace the existing bridge with a parallel one in 1989.

After reaching agreement on how and where to build the bridge, a contract was signed in 2011 for the design and construction of the new bridge, but construction was stalled by litigation.

In June 2015, after four years of delay, DOT reached a settlement agreement with environmental groups that allowed the state to move forward with replacing the Bonner Bridge.