New audit details $61 million in spending on unbuilt Mid-Currituck Bridge

State Auditor Dave Boliek joined the Currituck County Board of Commissioners on Monday for a specially called meeting to provide an update on the Mid-Currituck Bridge. 

According to the NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the Mid-Currituck Bridge project would create a second crossing over the Currituck Sound with the goal of alleviating congestion during the peak summer tourism season and improve the flow of evacuation traffic in the event of a hurricane. 

A new report from the Office of the State Auditor (OSA), shows more the $61 million worth of NCDOT spending on the project over the last 30 years, with that money being spent on planning, environmental studies, legal work, engineering, and land acquisition despite having no construction contract, approved baseline budget, or finalized construction schedule in place. Construction is not expected to begin before June 2028. 

The report found the bridge’s projected cost has more than doubled since federal approval was granted in 2019. At that time, the project carried an estimated price tag of roughly $491 million. Today, NCDOT estimates the project will cost approximately $1.118 billion, with total delivery costs approaching $1.2 billion. 

“The people of Currituck County following this project have been dragged along for 30 years,” said Boliek. “What the team at the Office of State Auditor found is that despite spending money, no dirt has been moved. Taxpayers are more than $60 million in the hole on a 30-year project that certainly remains far from completion.”

Boliek contrasted the Mid-Currituck Bridge with a Surf City bridge project completed in 2016 at a total cost of $57.7 million. 

“$57.7 million expended on that bridge — maybe that’s a lot of money,” Boliek told the commissioners. “But guess what? I can touch that bridge. I can walk on that bridge. I can ride my bike on that bridge, and I can drive a car over that bridge. My experience traveling across the state of North Carolina is that taxpayers don’t ask a lot of questions necessarily about whether the cost of concrete was correct, the cost of steel was correct, or whether the time something took was the right amount of time, if they’re getting something in return for their tax dollars. In that instance, they got a bridge. Here, more than $61 million in taxpayer money has been spent on the proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge, and not a single piece of dirt has been turned.” 

During the presentation, Deputy State Auditor Charles Dingee pointed to the project’s decades-long history, arguing that despite years of planning and spending, no construction has occurred. 

“Starting in 1995 is when the Federal Highway Administration first published a notice regarding this project,” stated Dingee. “Over 30 years ago now, this project was first envisioned to begin, as the auditor said today. There is no bridge. Not a single shovel of dirt has been moved.” 

The report also found that the project remains hundreds of millions of dollars short of the funding needed to move forward. Even after accounting for $173 million in committed state funding and future toll-backed borrowing, the bridge faces a funding gap ranging from $702 million to $832 million. NCDOT itself acknowledged in a March 2026 financial analysis that the project is “not likely currently financially feasible without additional project funding.” 

“Frankly, 30 years to build a bridge with nothing to show for it,” Dingee said during the presentation. “There needs to be adults in the room. Somebody needs to make a decision. Now, it may not be the folks here that have been around the whole time, but ultimately I think that responsibility rests with the DOT to make a decision to either gain the funding for this or not.” 

The audit found that more than $26 million of the $61 million spent to date was used for environmental work and legal expenses tied to the project. 

Boliek said the audit is part of a broader effort to identify projects across North Carolina where substantial taxpayer investments have been made despite little or no tangible results. 

“So, in the coming weeks and months, you will see a series of these reports about places where taxpayer dollars are being spent in what I believe are material amounts,” Boliek said. “$50 million, $60 million, or more at a time, where there’s actually no ultimate project completed. So, this won’t be the only report that comes out of us.” 

Commissioner Janet Rose thanked the auditor for the report and echoed the skepticism many Currituck residents have expressed about the long-delayed project. 

“I’ve said all along, and so have many citizens in Currituck regarding the bridge: we’ll believe it when we see it,” Rose said. 

While NCDOT requested clarification on some funding details before the report was finalized, the department ultimately concluded that the auditor’s observations were “consistent with the project studies and events that have taken place over the last 30+ years that the project has been under study.”

“New audit details $61 million in spending on unbuilt Mid-Currituck Bridge” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.