Loudon Road from Branch Turnpike to Hazen Drive and Airport Road has one of the highest accident rates for any roadway in the New Hampshire.
Almost every component of the roadway is substandard for the volume of traffic it carries. This is the reason for the unprecedented contribution by the state of New Hampshire to fund this project.
Loudon Road, with its 44-foot-wide pavement section, marked out with four 11-foot lanes, was converted in the early 1970s from a rural, two-lane road with 12-foot-wide lanes and 10-foot-wide shoulders. This conversion was completed by the state of New Hampshire before the Department of Transportation turned over the roadway to the city.
Curbing and storm drains were added by DOT because ditches and swales would not fit within the 66-foot right-of-way.
I have had to drive Loudon Road multiple times a day for the past 29 years, since it is the only way in and out of my neighborhood. Driving along Loudon Road is uncomfortable at best, and entering and exiting from any side street or driveway is even worse.
Most people I know have been in an accident on this road or have had a friend or a relative involved in one. The proposed “road diet” is an attempt to make the travel on Loudon Road safer for cars, bikes and pedestrians.
I have been involved in every study undertaken on Loudon Road in the past 28 years and strongly recommend this as the most feasible solution.
The city engineering department has done an excellent job of explaining its reasoning for this project. They had to convince both the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration on the merits of this project.
Is the “road diet” going to make Loudon Road less congested? Probably not. Is it going to make it worse? Highly unlikely.
If Loudon Road is going to be congested, how do you want it to be congested?
The reasons for supporting the road diet are substantial:
• Safety for vehicles entering and exiting the street. Only one lane has to be crossed to make left turns; the center turn lane provides a place of refuge for turning vehicles. The shoulders provided will make right turns safer by providing a turning radius that doesn’t exist today.
• Speed control. The overall speed of vehicles on the road will be controlled by the more prudent drivers rather than those trying to reduce their travel time by a few seconds. Most delays along the corridor are caused at intersections with traffic lights and by vehicles stopped in the travel lanes trying to make turns. In past studies of the road, up to 80 percent of the vehicles travel in the outside lanes to avoid getting stopped behind left-turning traffic.
• Ninety percent of the cost of the project will be paid for by federal highway safety improvement funds. If the project is not constructed, the additional cost to the city to undertake the needed resurfacing of Loudon Road will be over $1 million. The resurfacing of Loudon Road is within the project limits and is included in the road diet project.
• If the city council votes to rescind the already approved and funded project, the cost of the needed resurfacing of this roadway will be covered entirely by the city property tax payer.
(Steve Henninger lives in Concord.)