The Beach Road

Ballenger used the endless supply of sand in the project. The sand was mixed with asphalt and naphtha and applied. When the naphtha evaporated, only the sand-rich asphalt remained.

Sharpe said that the project would go down in history as the only one in which a barge sank where a curb would be on a normal highway. The barge, loaded with trucks and equipment, sank in a December 1947 storm. Using a diver and huge cranes, Ballenger recovered equipment, marking it down to yet another hazard of the contract.

With the opening of the highway came something else: rules.

In 1950, virtually no one on Hatteras Island had a driver's license or vehicle registration. The initial sections of the highway, along the remote southern portion of the island, lacked road signs, and the people took care of themselves along the dead-end highway.

With the opening of the road to Oregon Inlet, however, things had to change.

State officials traveled to Hatteras to administer a mass examination to the 500 or so residents interested in obtaining a driver's license. Unfortunately, with no road signs or experience in ''mainland'' driving, many failed the first test. Undaunted, the majority passed the exam by the time the road opened.

Coupled with the completion of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge across Oregon Inlet in 1964, Highway 12 has played a key role in the development of the Outer Banks. Virtually every part for every house, business and boat has moved along the road as the islands have swelled with development.

But the transient nature of North Carolina's barrier islands has made life miserable for the highway. As the islands continue their inevitable march to the southwest, the road is under relentless assault from the drifting dunes and frequent ocean overwash.

Emergency maintenance to portions of the highway through the problem portions of the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge has become routine. Officials tip their hats to the ocean. They don't really expect to prevail.

''Hatteras Island is the hardest road in the state of North Carolina, bar none,'' says R.V Owens III, Dare County's representative on the North Carolina Board of Transportation. ''In the western part of the state they have rock slides. It's bad, with lots of earth and big boulders across the road. But let's face it, we're talking about the Atlantic Ocean here.''

Highway 12, the vital lifeline of the Outer Banks that has served islanders so well for the last half-century, is approaching a critical point in its life span.

While life on Hatteras Island without the highway might seem inconceivable, officials acknowledge that a critical break could come with any storm. If that occurs, islanders and visitors might once again struggle with the 108 roads to Hatteras.