May 5—CARY — Raleigh-Durham International Airport has received a state environmental permit that it needs to build a security fence near William B. Umstead State Park, though it's not clear when construction might begin.
RDU says it needs the eight-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire to keep off-road cyclists and others from trespassing on its property off Old Reedy Creek Road. Airport officials say the trails, jumps and obstacles that cyclists have built through the woods pose a legal liability for the airport and have degraded streams on the property.
The six-mile fence is among several projects that RDU has put on hold after the COVID-19 pandemic decimated air travel and airport revenue. In late 2019, RDU officials estimated the fence would cost $2.4 million to build.
Staff at the Airport Authority will decide when to bring a proposed construction contract to RDU's governing board, said spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco.
"The perimeter fence is one of many important projects the Authority will prioritize as passenger traffic recovers," Hawco wrote in an email.
Opponents of the fence say it's unnecessary, because existing fences keep people away from runways and other parts of the airport, and that it will do more damage to the environment than it would prevent. The airport plans to cut and maintain a 10- to 30-foot cleared area along the fence that it can use for maintenance.
Jean Spooner, leader of the Umstead Coalition, the advocacy group for the park, calls the planned fence "an embarrassment and insult to our community" and the park. Spooner said the Airport Authority should find a solution the public supports.
"This is sadly the opposite," Spooner wrote in an email Wednesday. "We request that the RDUAA Board put an end to this extreme blow to the airport's community relations."
Much of the fence will follow the western border of Umstead State Park. The state Division of Parks and Recreation has argued against the barrier, saying it would impede the movement of wildlife, help introduce invasive plant species and reduce water quality in streams in the park.
The fence will require Umstead to re-route a section of the decades-old Reedy Creek multi-use trail, where it makes a 45-degree turn near the airport. That turn is actually on airport property, and the fence would cross the trail there in two places.
John Fullwood, the former acting director of state parks, also argued that the miles of chain-link and barbed wire would do less tangible damage to Umstead.
"By creating a permanent eyesore along the park border and marring the look and 'feel' of the park, the proposed fence would greatly harm a fundamental purpose of the park, namely, to provide public access to a natural setting for people to enjoy nature and improve their physical and mental health," Fullwood wrote in a letter to the state Division of Water Resources in January.
RDU gets the permit it needs
Last summer, the Division of Water Resources denied RDU's request to build the fence, saying it violated rules meant to protect water quality in the Neuse River basin. But RDU tweaked its application and tried again.
On Tuesday, the agency issued a permit allowing RDU to build the fence through riparian buffer areas around streams and wetlands covered by the Neuse River rules. Once it is built, the permit allows only foot traffic along the fence and forbids RDU from using chemicals to control vegetation. Where the fence crosses streams, RDU will have to build gates that it can open every time a flooding rain is forecast, to prevent leaves and debris from getting trapped.
Hawco, the RDU spokeswoman, said the airport doesn't need any additional permits to begin construction.
Originally, RDU proposed building a section of the fence around 105 acres it has leased for a quarry on the east side of Old Reedy Creek Road. RDU dropped that fence from its second request.
In announcing approval of the permit, the state Department of Environmental Quality noted that the decision does not indicate whether it will allow Wake Stone Corp. to build the rock quarry. A different DEQ agency, the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, is still reviewing the company's application to create a 400-foot-deep open pit mine between Old Reedy Creek Road and its existing quarry off North Harrison Avenue.
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