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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 01-21-2003-5bORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: January 21, 2003 Action Agenda Item No. !5- SUBJECT: Resolution In Support of Adequate Bridge Length and Vertical Clearance For US 15/501 Crossing of New Hope Creek DEPARTMENT: County Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Draft Resolution INFORMATION CONTACT: Commissioner Brown TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider a Resolution In Support of Adequate Bridge Length and Vertical Clearance for US 15/501 Crossing of New Hope Creek. BACKGROUND: North Carolina Department of Transportation, as part of TIP Project U-4012 to add a northbound and a southbound lane to US 15-501 from north of Mt. Moriah Road to south of Garrett Road, will replace the bridge over New Hope Creek. The NCDOT preferred design, as outlined in the department's Environmental Assessment for the project, includes a 205-foot bridge span with an eight-foot vertical clearance. The NCDOT preferred design is below the recommended height for trail crossings recommended by the State of North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and will impair trail maintenance activities, and will preclude use of the trail for equestrian activities in the future. North Carolina's Natural Heritage program recognizes New Hope Creek Corridor as one of the most significant habitat corridors in the piedmont. The New Hope Creek Open Space Corridor Plan, adopted by the City of Durham, Durham County, the Town of Chapel Hill and Orange County in 1991, calls for the New Hope Creek floodplain to be preserved as a significant wildlife habitat and area recreation amenity. The construction, in 1956, of the present bridge used extensive fill to minimize the length of bridge span needed. The result has been significant deterioration in natural qualities of the floodplain for wildlife habitat and movement, the natural flow of floodwaters and recreational trail use. The new bridge design could avoid those same impacts to the corridor and help remediate the past environmental degradation. Such bridge design would likely require a 300-foot span and average 10-foot vertical clearance. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with approval of the resolution. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve the attached resolution. ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF ADEQUATE BRIDGE LENGTH AND VERTICAL CLEARANCE FOR US 15/501 CROSSING OF NEW HOPE CREEK WHEREAS, the State of North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) in TIP Project U-4012 plans to expand US 15/501 to six lanes between Mt. Moriah Road and Garrett Road and such expansion will require removing and rebuilding the bridge across New Hope Creek in this area; and WHEREAS, the State of North Carolina Department of Transportation has issued an Environmental Assessment dated July 7, 2002 in which the recommended bridge alternative has a height of 8 feet, a length of 205 feet and a width of 122 feet; and WHEREAS, Orange County has adopted the New Hope Creek Corridor Preservation Plan and such plans anticipate the portion of the New Hope Creek corridor crossed by the bridge will provide both recreation trail and wildlife corridor amenities; and WHEREAS, the New Hope Creek Corridor is recognized as providing a regionally significant wildlife corridor in the Piedmont by the State of North Carolina's Natural Heritage Program; and WHEREAS, the NCDOT-recommended alternative combination of bridge length, height and width provides a wildlife crossing that is less protective than other bridges NCDOT has under construction in the New Hope Creek watershed and provides less wildlife protection than that called for in the most recent scientific literature; and WHEREAS, the NCDOT-recommended alternative is less protective than that recommended by the State of North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the City of Durham, Durham County, the Town of Chapel Hill, the New Hope Creek Corridor Advisory Committee, the Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Advisory Committee and others (the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission and the New Hope Audubon Society); and WHEREAS, the NCDOT-recommended alternative bridge height is below that of the existing bridge, is below the recommended height for trail crossings in the Federal Highway Administration Enhancement Program as well as the standards of the American Society of Transportation Officials, is below the height of NCDOT's 1-40 crossing of New Hope Creek that is presently under construction, is below the height recommended by the organizations mentioned in the previous paragraph, will impair trail maintenance activities, will preclude use of the trail for equestrian activities in the future; and WHEREAS, the public and private investments to protect the New Hope Creek Corridor have exceeded $4.5 Million; and WHEREAS, an increase of bridge length of 100 feet could protect public and private preservation investments of over three times the additional construction cost of a longer bridge; and WHEREAS, the original bridge construction over New Hope Creek used large amounts of fill across the New Hope Creek floodplain which impacts the natural hydrologic and wildlife functions of the corridor; and WHEREAS, the NCDOT Environmental Assessment does not consider the potential ecological and recreation advantages that could accrue were the new bridge to be constructed to remediate these extensive and previous environmental impacts; and WHEREAS, the NCDOT Draft Transportation Improvements Budget (TIP) for 2004-2010 budgets $7,325,000 for this construction project, while current NCDOT construction estimates total only $6,850,000 for the project; and WHEREAS, there presently exists an estimated $475,000 in the TIP project budget which could fund approximately one-half of the requested additional bridge length without impacting the project budget; and WHEREAS, the NCDOT proposes to cross one of the most important natural corridor in the Triangle with a bridge that limits the New Hope Creek corridor's trail options and threatens the public and private investments made to establish a wildlife corridor in cooperation with City of Durham, Durham County and the Town of Chapel Hill; NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS requests the North Carolina Department of Transportation revise the Environmental Assessment to give due consideration of alternatives that provide better remediation of past environmental degradation along New Hope Creek; are more protective of Orange County's plans for use of the New Hope Creek Corridor, more protective of the public and private investments made to protect the corridor and more attentive to the environmental improvements associated with a longer bridge length; FURTHERMORE, the Board of Commissioners expresses its support for bridge alternatives with lengths longer than the NCDOT-preferred alternative that would be more cost-effective, protect previous public investments in the corridor, provide more environmental protection for wildlife, and permit trail uses that are flexible and diverse; in particular, expresses support for a bridge that is at least 10 feet high and 300 feet long as well as 122 feet wide; AND FURTHERMORE, the Board of Commissioners requests that the Orange County representatives to the Transportation Advisory Committee convey to the Department of Transportation the above concerns and preferences about the NCDOT-preferred alternative and the associated Environmental Assessment. This the 21 st day of January, 2003.