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Carolina North ductbank concerns some

Clearing for a 40-foot-wide corridor necessary to install wiring through Carolina North Forest is scheduled to begin within the next two weeks.

But some residents, who said they felt left out of the planning process, worry about the corridor’s effects on the forest and trails.

The cleared corridor will hold an underground ductbank for electrical cables that will improve power and communications reliability for critical University buildings and eventually serve as the electrical backbone to the planned Carolina North campus.

The ductbank will run near existing trails and intersect the Pumpkin Loop, a forest trail, several times.

“Even if they plant vegetation, it will end up looking like the Bolin Creek trail where there’s still quite a scar,” said Patrick Brandt, who works at the University and is a frequent user of the forest trails.

An alternative route along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was rejected by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

“It was going to present a significant traffic impact during construction as well as after construction for maintenance,” said Chuck Edwards, district engineer for the department.

Residents question why the ductbank can’t run along existing trails to minimize harm to nature.

“I’m wondering if instead of intersecting in all those areas, if they can just widen the Pumpkin Loop trail, where trees have already been knocked down,” Brandt said. “It’s a 10-foot-wide gravel road that parallels more than two-thirds of the ductbank proposed route.”

But Carolina North forest manager Greg Kopsch said the existing paths would have to be widened, and they don’t run in a straight line to the planned site.

“If we were to use the existing corridors, it would involve more clearing,” Kopsch said.

Residents are also concerned about how the cleared corridor will affect the atmosphere of the forest.

Once the ductbank is constructed some kind of surfaced path will run over it, Kopsch said.

“There will be a 14-foot or so corridor left open but the remaining 13 feet on either side will be re-vegetated and possibly reforested,” he said.

Groups who said they were involved in planning for Carolina North said they were surprised by the exact details of the ductbank.

“It’s like we’re getting the details right at the point when the thing’s going to be built,” said Julie McClintock, Friends of Bolin Creek president and a member of Neighbors for Responsible Growth.

The ductbank project is part of the Carolina North Development Agreement and has been discussed at various meetings. Details are also available in annual reports.

But McClintock said the Sept. 13 public meeting was too late to change the plan significantly.

“There’s so much attention being directed to the 2020 plan and that’s very important,” McClintock said. “But we shouldn’t be distracted from the big issues right in front of us.”

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.

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