diff --git a/tds/src/main/java/thredds/server/config/TdsInit.java b/tds/src/main/java/thredds/server/config/TdsInit.java
index eee7589ee1..f156a60749 100644
--- a/tds/src/main/java/thredds/server/config/TdsInit.java
+++ b/tds/src/main/java/thredds/server/config/TdsInit.java
@@ -149,7 +149,8 @@ public void onApplicationEvent(ContextRefreshedEvent event) {
           configCatalogInitializer.init(readMode, (PreferencesExt) mainPrefs.node("configCatalog"));
 
           // set epsg database location for edal-java (comes from apache-sis)
-          EpsgDatabasePath.DB_PATH = (new File(tdsContext.getThreddsDirectory(), "/cache/edal-java/epsg/").getPath());
+          EpsgDatabasePath.DB_PATH =
+              (new File(tdsContext.getThreddsDirectory(), "/cache/edal-java/epsg/").toURI().toString());
           startupLog.info("EPSG database path: " + EpsgDatabasePath.DB_PATH);
           startupLog.info("TdsInit complete");
         }