The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) proposes to improve the transportation system in the Currituck Sound area of Currituck and Dare counties to meet the travel needs of this coastal resort community. NC 12 and US 158 are the existing major thoroughfares within this area. Existing traffic volumes exceed the capacity of
NC 12 in a few locations in the summer months during peak travel hours. Future traffic volumes (2025) during peak travel hours will exceed the road capacity on all of US 158 in the summer months and on most of NC 12 year round. These traffic capacity deficiencies will increase travel times during summer peak travel periods. The time it takes to evacuate the area and reach a point of safety during storm events will also increase.

In order to address these issues, the NCDOT studied, during the mid-1990s, the possibility of a new bridge over Currituck Sound in Currituck County. The NCDOT recognized that a new bridge could not fully serve future daily and emergency travel demand in Currituck and Dare counties north of the Wright Memorial Bridge. So the project study area was expanded to include US 158 from the US 158/NC 168 intersection at Barco to the US 158/NC 12 intersection at Kitty Hawk, and NC 12 from the US 158/NC 12 intersection to the northern terminus of NC 12 north of Corolla. The expanded study was renamed the Currituck Sound Area Transportation Study and will examine several possible alternatives for improving the transportation system, including alternatives that incorporate a new bridge across Currituck Sound.

This website includes information about the project's history, purpose and need, work plan, schedule, study area and stakeholder outreach program, and provides avenues to contact the project team.