SPRING HOPE – A large, but diseased and dying, tree in downtown Spring Hope will be removed, necessitating a week-long street closure next week.
A tree-removal company for the N.C. Department of Transportation will need to erect two cranes to safely fell the deciduous hardwood, which is at the corner of North Pine and East Franklin streets. The towering tree stretches 120 feet and measures more than 20 feet in circumference.
A block of North Pine Street around this tree will be closed beginning at 7 a.m. Monday; the contractor estimates finishing and reopening the road by Jan. 10.
The detour will consist of N.C. 581 to Savage Road to Peachtree Hills Road and North Pine Street. People should plan their commute ahead of time due to the detour and be alert if traveling near the work site.
No one is certain of the tree’s age, but it’s the result of two oaks that have fused together. The town’s Spring Hope Public Works Department has removed large limbs from it for public safety in recent years.
Last summer, an arborist with the N.C. Forest Service examined the rotting willow oak, whose roots have been paved over and driven over by traffic. The agency determined the public safety concerns over it were warranted.
The town board, out of concerns for public safety and property damage, requested in a resolution in September that NCDOT remove it.
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