The Town of Chapel Hill is temporarily closing a portion of the Bolin Creek Trail, located between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Bolinwood Drive, for the removal of soil and low-lying vegetation which contains coal ash deposits.

Construction resumed in January 2020 for the missing 500-foot section of the Bolin Creek Trail connector east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The removal of the coal ash deposits is one of the final steps of the process to be completed.

Trail users are asked to take an alternate route to safely detour the work site, using Bolinwood Drive and Hillsborough Street to walk around the closure.

In an effort to protect trees and their roots, the Town of Chapel Hill asked its contractor to use a vacuum excavator to carefully remove the soil with coal ash deposits in an attempt to save as many large trees as possible.

Upon removing the soil, the town discovered a significant amount of coal ash embedded within the shallow roots of a number of trees. As such, the town will be removing 12 trees and replacing them in the fall when planting conditions are better.

The Town of Chapel Hill said it anticipates reopening this segment of the trail in May.

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