NC Department of Transportation maintenance crews continue to restore the protective dunes that Hurricane Florence washed over NC 12 on the Outer Banks.

However, one section of NC 12, the main road traversing North Carolina’s popular barrier islands, remains closed because of sand from ocean overwash and resulting pavement damage on the northern parts of Ocracoke Island, from the Pony Pen north to the ferry dock.

NCDOT crews are working to clear sand from the pavement and build a protective berm. A contract is expected to be awarded in the next few days for work to restore the protective dunes and repair damage to the pavement. A timeline for completing that work on Ocracoke Island has not yet been determined. In the meantime, the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry isn’t running. Access to Ocracoke Island is available via the Swan Quarter ferry.

Elsewhere in NCDOT’s Division 1, which includes the Outer Banks and 14 counties in northeastern North Carolina, state transportation workers have successfully cleared roads of downed debris.

Tidal flooding has subsided in most of the divisions, although some areas of standing water may remain in low lying secondary routes in Hyde, Tyrrell, Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck and Dare counties.

Bridges in the division were not impacted by the storm.

State transportation employees in Division 1 have been deployed with equipment and road signs to help restore roads in the coastal counties in Division 2, which includes some of the state’s hardest hit communities such as New Bern and Kinston.