Bolin Creek greenway sees construction delays

A proposed 10-foot greenway path along Bolin Creek faces delays as complications with the state transportation department surface.

Carrboro Greenways Commission Chairman Robert Kirschner said meeting N.C. Department of Transportation requirements has pushed back the project’s completion date.

“The plan requires the path to be paved,” Kirschner said. “They would prefer concrete because it won’t wash away.”

Voters approved $4.6 million in bonds for sidewalk and greenway projects in 2003, but the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, which initially planned to issue the funds this November, pushed the date back to 2013 at its last meeting.

And Kirschner said it would be at least five to 10 years before construction on the Bolin Creek greenway could even begin because necessary funds haven’t been allocated yet.

Despite the hurdles the greenways commission would need to clear, Kirschner said the proposed path would provide students and bicyclists with a new and improved corridor of transportation.

But some residents are concerned with how greenway and other impending construction will disturb the area’s natural balance.

Recent urbanization in Chapel Hill and Carrboro has hurt Bolin Creek, one of many streams and creeks that flow into Jordan Lake.

Increasing amounts of concrete and asphalt surfaces have created a lack of soil near the creek, leaving runoff with nowhere to go and damaging the stream’s bank.

“Bolin Creek is at a point where we could have a beautiful, healthy stream with full access for anyone, or we can have muddy trickle with no trees,” said Rob Crook, vice-chairman of Friends of Bolin Creek steering committee.

Julie McClintock, chairwoman of the group, said construction could cause problems, and the project still faces other obstacles.

“The Greenways Commission got stuck in one way: you have to take DOT funding,” she said. “And to take DOT funding, you have to meet DOT standards.”

Bolin Creek could also see further damage once the Orange Water and Sewer Authority replaces old pipes and equipment installed in the 1960s and ’70s.

“The purpose of sanitary sewers is to protect the environment by collecting and containing sewage,” said Stuart Carson, OWASA’s Engineering Manager for Capital Projects, in an e-mail. “We need to replace the present sewer before its capacity is exceeded.”

Crook said the construction and digging required for the renovations could badly damage the creek.

“Do I want it there? No,” he said. ?“But unfortunately that’s how our society built in the 1960s.”

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