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OCRACOKE – The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division will resume service on Pamlico Sound between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter and Ocracoke today. Service will begin with a two-boat, alternate schedule while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to mitigate shoaling issues in Bigfoot Slough.

The schedule for April 13 – 16, weather permitting, is as follows:

• Ocracoke to Cedar Island:  7:30 a.m., 1 p.m.
• Cedar Island to Ocracoke: 10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
• Ocracoke to Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
• Swan Quarter to Ocracoke: 10 a.m., 4:30 p.m.

Shoaling occurs when sand and sediment fill into a ferry channel, making water depths too shallow and the channel too narrow for safe operation of the ferry system’s largest vessels.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ Dredge Murden and Dredge Merritt will continue working in the Bigfoot Slough channel throughout the week to clear the shoaling, but dredging operations are dependent on weather and tides. Once the dredging work is complete and water depths and channel widths return to acceptable levels, the Ferry Division will resume its regular, three-boat schedule on both routes.

For up-to-the-minute information on schedule changes on the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter routes, please follow @NCFerryPamSound on Twitter.