Fredericton city police are investigating after equipment was vandalized this week at a controversial construction site in the University of New Brunswick's forest woodlot.

After crews clearing land for a road through the lot left the site Monday evening, someone cut hydraulic lines on three construction machines.

Work on the road connecting Knowledge Drive to Alison Boulevard was stopped for most of Tuesday while the sabotage was repaired and the hydraulic oil spilled because of it was cleaned up.

The project drew about 80 people to the site to protest against clearing the woodlot a popular place for nature walks in the city.

Police have no suspects in the vandalism.

Neville Peasley, UNB's forest lands manager, says if the vandalism was linked to environmental protest, he questions the logic.

"It seems ironic that the very thing that someone wasn't very happy about, which was the supposed environmental degradation in the loss of the trees, that very same person would come out and cut hydraulic lines and have hydraulic oil fall on the ground and seep into the ground," Peasley said Wednesday.

Kathryn Downton, who took part in last month's protest, says she doesn't agree with vandalism. But she says the way the university went ahead with the woodlot project without listening to opponents could make some overreaction understandable.

"The process of building a road has begun and that's irreversible, so people say they may have no other recourse," Downton said Wednesday. "Again, that's not condoning it."

Peasley says repairs to the log loader and two skidders and the cleanup of the hydraulic oil spills cost several thousand dollars.