19970093 Ver 1_General Correspondence_20081218

GTPRa^em NC Department of Transportation Rail Division
,7_*,V? North Carolina Global Transpark Rail Access
December 18, 2008
PROJECT UPDATE - November/December 2008
The Global Transpark Rail Access Project is moving rapidly from concept to reality In order to
expedite the project, team members have continued to coordinate closely with agencies and
stakeholders to insure that concurrent activities run as smoothly as possible Below is a
summary of the mayor environmental and design project elements and next steps
Environmental Assessment
The Environmental Assessment (EA) document is nearing completion In order to compress the
overall schedule, information ultimately needed for the environmental permitting phase is being
coordinated and gathered during the preparation of the environmental document Natural
Resources field work has been completed and a final Jurisdictional Determination (JD) was
received from the U S Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) this month The JD is a USACE
confirmation on the streams and wetland areas delineated in the field Therefore, stream and
wetland impacts for the Recommended Alternative (Alternative G) are being calculated based
on this information At the same time, the alignment and detailed design of the Recommended
Alternative has been refined to avoid and minimize these impacts to the extent possible
Coordination between the NCDOT Rail Division and the USACE has been on-going this period,
including a meeting at the USACE Washington, NC office to review the current design in relation
to stream and wetland features Coordination with the NC Division of Water Quality was also
progressed since the last update The NCDWQ indicates that a modification to the existing
GTP permit is their preferred direction
Based on comments from the September 11, 2008 public workshop, as well as comments
received subsequent to the workshop, the design of the Recommended Alternative has been
refined to minimize concerns expressed by the public to the extent possible As previously
reported, the majority of comments regarded access and impacts to Barnet Park, and proximity
impacts to the Hillcrest subdivision The Recommended Alternative is located as far as
feasible, within the study corridor, from the Hdlcrest subdivision and maintains the existing
access to Barnet Park without impacting the park
As previously reported, an historic architecture survey identified the Dobbs School property
located on Dobbs Farm Road as the sole property eligible for the National Register of Historic
Properties within the project study area A meeting on the historic boundary and the effects of
the project was held with the State Historic Preservation Office on December 8th Although this
critical meeting was delayed from its originally scheduled date of November 14, the meeting had
positive results for the project A determination of the historic boundary was made and it was
concluded that the proposed project has "no adverse effect" on the property This "effects"
conclusion means that no further coordination or design work is necessary for this project in
relation to historic architecture
Protect Design
With the environmental inputs and analysis in-hand, conceptual design is now complete The
designers have prepared a detailed public hearing map illustrating the Recommended
Alternative This map illustrates all the design elements that affect the project footprint,
including expected right-of-way widths This map will be displayed at the formal public hearing
The project engineers have completed their feasibility study of a grade separation where the rail
line will cross C F Harvey Parkway The analysis concluded that a structure at this location
would add approximately $12 Million to the cost of the project, increase impacts, and cause
considerable delay to the schedule In addition, only marginal cost savings could be realized by
building the roadway bridge with the initial railroad construction versus delaying the grade
separation until traffic volumes warrant With the analysis complete, it was determined that the
initial construction would be an at-grade crossing and that a roadway bridge could be pursued
as part of a separate project at a later date
The field work to finalize property surveys and obtain soil core borings has been completed
This information is now being incorporated into the final design process
The project design is now progressing towards final plans that will be used for right-of-way
acquisition Plans at the 25 percent level will be distributed to reviewers this week The 25
percent plans include the track and roadway layouts and set the groundwork for the upcoming
detailed design of drainage structures, roadway crossings, utility relocations, and other
elements These design elements establish the final project footprint and will insure that
adequate right-of-way is acquired for construction and maintenance of the railroad
Next Steps
The EA document will be completed for Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) review this
week Following FHWA sign-off on the document, a formal public hearing is now expected to
occur in February 2009 The hearing will provide stakeholders and the public a final opportunity
to comment on the Recommended Alternative Comments received from the hearing process
will be incorporated into the final design where possible
Plans necessary for right-of-way acquisition are expected to be complete in March 2009 The
project team is continuing to work closely with the NCDOT Right-of-Way Branch to insure that
the plan development flows seamlessly into the property acquisition phase In addition,
coordination with utility companies and public utilities regarding potential utility impacts and
solutions will begin in January
Thank you again for your assistance and continued coordination with our project team If you
have any questions, please feel free to call me at 919-715-7894 or email at jorthner@ncdot gov
Jason T Orthner, P E
GTP Rail Access Project Manager
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