By Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice | A review of gas prices in some Dare County and Currituck County towns seems to reveal what one observer called a “magic line” drawn right after the Wright Memorial Bridge.

So that workers can rehabilitate the supports of the 52-year-old eastbound span, a single lane closure has been in place Monday through Thursday during the summer. The lane closure will be seven days a week after Labor Day.

A disabled pick-up truck was hit by a car, which spun into the path of another car on the eastbound span of the U.S. 158 bridge Saturday morning. A Virginia Beach woman was taken to The Outer Banks Hospital with unspecified injuries.

Workers have had to wait on warmer weather to resume application of a special concrete mixture to 27 more sections of the westbound bridge over the Currituck Sound. It will reopen no later than May 15.

For the second time in two years, U.S. 158 will be reduced to one lane in each direction on the Wright Memorial Bridge starting sometime Monday, so crews can finish taking the bounce out of the span that opened almost 20 years ago.

The SUV burst into flames around 1:20 p.m. about halfway across the span, and traffic on eastbound U.S. 158 was backed up over seven miles to the Powells Point post office.

A man died Wednesday afternoon after jumping from the westbound span of the Wright Memorial Bridge. Authorities are not releasing his name, pending notification of next of kin.

The weekend before Easter was a rough one for motorists on the Wright Memorial Bridge, which is still down to just one lane in each direction. Problems created backups on Saturday and Sunday.

A $6.3 million project to smooth out the ride on the westbound Wright Memorial Bridge that carries U.S. 158 over Currituck Sound is progressing well, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Work was scheduled to start Monday on a project to improve the ride across the Wright Memorial Bridge, closing the westbound span for up to eight months. Lane shifts are expected Wednesday now.

The Mid-Currituck Bridge project will create a crossing of the sound – north of the Wright Memorial Bridge – to help alleviate congestion and improve the flow of evacuation traffic in the event of a hurricane or severe storm. The US Army Corps of Engineers issued the Public Notice for the permit application for the Mid-Currituck Bridge project and comments are being accepted until 5pm, November 21, 2024.

By Brian Tress | Outer Banks Voice
(First in a two-part series)
History is not only about buildings, but also what happens inside them. There’s the kind of history you read about in books, fact-based like the bricks and mortar of the historic beach hotels and motels of the Outer Banks, and there’s the kind we create ourselves over the course of a lifetime, experience-based such as walking across NC12 to get your grandkids, who are frolicking in the motel pool, an ice-cream cone. This is a story of mileposts, measured in the worn plywood of the motels and hotels along the beach road, and the memories of the generations of guests who frequented them.