A new sidepath project off Fordham Boulevard and the Little Ridgefield Neighborhood is taking the next steps in development with input from the public.
Following a public information meeting last week, the Town of Chapel Hill hosted two on-site tours of the proposed Fordham Boulevard Sidepath project. The project aims to provide a multi-use path between Cleland Drive and Willow Drive to continue the current bike path off of Ridgefield Road.
The design includes a traffic diverter to restrict right turns from Fordham Boulevard onto Ridgefield Road. It also includes raised crosswalks at Ridgefield Road and Walnut Street to calm traffic and keep pedestrians safe.
Jeff Moore of Kimley Horn is the consulting project manager for the Fordham Boulevard Sidepath. He said because the woods are so thick along the path, they did not have a formal tree survey completed.
“We noticed some pretty significant specimens and oaks that will probably have a meander around those,” Moore said.
He said those trees were marked on the plans. Trees with disease or other problems may have to be removed to not cause further damage in the future.
“I don’t think we can save every single one of them just because there’s a ditch, and there’s drainage, and road challenges there,” Moore said. “But we’ll try to do the best we can.”
Along the path, stakes are placed 10 feet apart, marking the width every 100 feet. The path is designed to be at least 10 feet away from the property lines of houses in the neighborhood.
Alyson Scoltock lives at one of the houses which will back up to the sidepath. She said the neighborhood has been very involved in the process since hearing of the initial plans several years ago.
“We had concerns, we’re not really against it as such, its just that the current path that goes from Cleland to Ridgefield is a mess and it’s trashy and not well maintained,” Scoltock said. “After dark, there’s lots of drug dealing and things that go on there. We weren’t all that happy about having a continuation of that here.”
Another concern the neighborhood shared in previous meetings with the town is the lack of a natural buffer to block the sounds of traffic. Moore said the town is looking to put in a noise dampening fence – called an Acoustifence.
While the fence could provide privacy and noise dampening, some residents like Sylvia Steere are concerned about who will become responsible for maintenance of the fence.
“If the Department of Transportation does not approve it outside of our properties, then their backup plan is to put the Acoustifence one foot onto our properties and make us maintain it, which would not be ideal,” Steere said.
Steere said she is “less unhappy” over the development after seeing the town address concerns the neighborhood brought up throughout the planning.
To better address other concerns, Marcia Purvis, the project manager, said the Town of Chapel Hill is working on lowering the speed limit on Fordham Boulevard and placing lighting along the path for the safety of residents. She said the next steps in developing the pathway are hiring a contractor and going through permitting.
“We’re trying to set up some time with the Department of Transportation to see what additional comments they may have,” Purvis said. “We’re hoping we’ll be out for bid this summer.”
Purvis said it could be conceivable for the state government to hold the funding on this phase of the project which would delay construction. The funding is split 80-20 between the state government and the local government.
Project officials said once construction begins, it could take between six to eight months to fully construct the path.
Photo via Kimley-Horn.
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An alternative plan that would bypass to Little Ridgefield would be to put a path along Bolin creek on the south side parallel to Rainbow soccer.
Go almost to OWASA pump house.
Cross Bolin creek and use the OWASA right of way and come out on Willow drive.
It could also come out to Cleland and incorporate that area of Glen Lennox and the Oaks