HILLSBOROUGH - Orange County commissioners have approved a roughly $4 million contract to build water and sewer lines in the Buckhorn community in western Orange County.

“We’re excited to begin to market this area with news of the utilities,” county Economic Development Director Steve Brantley said. “There’s already a great deal of interest across the state and internationally about what we’re doing … that we’re serious about pursuing these activities and diversifying this tax base.”

J.F. Wilkerson Contracting will build two sewer lines, totaling about 3 miles, and a 2.65-mile water line. The whole project is expected to cost up to $4.59 million, and construction could begin early next year and be finished in 2014. The county already has an agreement with nearby Mebane for managing the system.

The work is funded in part by the quarter-cent sales tax that Orange County voters passed in November 2011. It will open more than 800 of the 3,000-acre Buckhorn Economic Development District to “clean, high-tech, high-salary, sustainable businesses of all types,” Brantley said. The water lines will support an additional 900 acres, helping improve the water supply and firefighting capabilities.

County Manager Frank Clifton said the project is a huge investment in a lot of land that has the distinction of being located along several miles of interstate highway. The benefits will become apparent over the next 25 to 30 years, he said.