While the New Hampshire Department of Transportation pushes forward on plans to widen Interstate 93 through Concord, city officials see an opportunity to finally do what has long been envisioned – link downtown to the Merrimack River.
Both sides say there is one chance to get the I-93 widening project right, and the city hopes that the DOT will recognize its goals in developing the final plan.
City Manager Tom Aspell says the potential for Concord to incorporate pedestrian access to the river from downtown hinges on how the interstate expansion project proceeds.
Speaking on behalf of Mayor Jim Bouley and Concord’s elected officials, including state Sen. Dan Feltes, Aspell said at a public hearing on the project Wednesday that the current plan being proposed “misses an opportunity to be truly transformative.”
“Until we have access to the river from downtown Concord, the vision of our community remains incomplete,” Aspell said, reading from a statement. “Let’s figure out a way to make this more than simply a road project and use it to unify both halves of our community, to reconnect to our greatest local natural resource and to continue to reinvigorate economic development.”
The long and winding process of widening I-93 through its Concord corridor took another step last week as the project inches toward its final design phase.
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the special legislative committee studying this project held its first formal public hearing at the Hazen Drive state office complex Wednesday night, drawing a crowd well over 100 people who testified a mix of support, opposition, concerns and questions.
The project plans to build upon and refine the highway structure already in place that snakes north through Bow and the south end of Concord, across Loudon Road and beyond the I-393 bridge.
Construction is still years away – DOT anticipates work to begin in 2024 at the earliest – and much of the funding for the $268 million project has yet to be appropriated. Once work starts, the construction phase could last a decade.
The main goal for DOT is to add another lane in each direction to free up the flow of traffic. Gene McCarthy, a senior engineer and project manager for the consulting firm McFarland Johnson, reported Wednesday night that traffic volume along the corridor has tripled since it was first built in the late 1950s and has increased by about 10 percent since 2012.
“This has resulted in frequent congestion,” McCarthy said.
Drivers along this route know that well, particularly during heavy tourism seasons in the summer and fall.
Don Lyford, project manager for DOT, said issues were first brought up in the 1990s, but the project did not officially get going until 2002 when the department began conceptualizing improvements or even a total rebuild.
Two concepts that were screened out due to high cost included moving the interstate to the west side of the Merrimack River or tunneling it underground.
Lyford said those two ideas “weren’t reasonable.” Aspell said DOT should be more imaginative with the project while collaborating with the city.
“We want to work with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to creatively come up with an I-93 plan that’s ambitious, yet possible,” Aspell said.
The plans DOT are presenting now include creating sidewalks and bicycle lanes along Loudon Road where it runs beneath the interstate, a tweak to the plan the city suggested and DOT incorporated.
But the city wants more to be included in the state’s project, such as clearing the brush that runs along the interstate for a clearer view of the Merrimack River and building pedestrian bridges for access between the river and the downtown area.
Aspell said he realizes the city’s request may be outside of DOT’s normal scope, “but we are certain that this project through the heart of Concord is unique to the state’s I-93 inventory,” he said.
The 5-mile Concord/Bow corridor differs from other interstate projects, such as the ongoing 20-mile I-93 expansion between Salem and Manchester.
The Concord segment cuts right along a densely populated area, which will create traffic challenges while construction is underway.
“That will be tough,” Lyford said. “We should be able to maintain at least two lanes of traffic in each direction all the time during construction.”
The Exit 13 area was redesigned in 2002 and included extra space in the middle in anticipation of accommodating additional lanes in the future, McCarthy said.
There was a lull in activity for a few years until 2008, when the department entered an eight-year phase of addressing some of the red-listed bridges along the corridor, including rehabbing the bridge that crosses Loudon Road and replacing the bridge over Interstate 89 and the bridge that carries Route 3A over I-93 at Exit 12.
The project remains in Part B for the time being as DOT seeks approval to move forward to the final design phase.
“A lot of people see the need for it,” Lyford said. “There are some concerns with some of the ramp entrances or exits and whether (drivers) will be able to figure out the I-393 interchange, but I think that overall there’s pretty good support.”
The design presented last week focuses on eliminating most instances of “weaving” along the corridor where cars are entering and exiting the highway flow together. DOT’s approach, designed by McFarland Johnson, is to add several bridges and ramps that would carry traffic directly to their destined route.
Two of the most challenging areas of weaving are the I-93 to I-89 interchange in Bow – including the area of Exit 1 on I-89 in Bow – and the I-93 to I-393 interchange at Exit 15.
For Bow, the plan proposes significant changes to the area known as Bow Mills. The bridge that carries I-89 over South Street/Logging Hill Road is red-listed and will be replaced. Direct access from I-89 South to Route 3A would be eliminated to avoid weaving. New local roads would be built to connect South Street, Logging Hill Road and Route 3A.
The Exit 15 and I-393 interchange would also undergo a significant overhaul. The plan eliminates one exit ramp directly from the highway on each side. The exit ramp that remains would eventually split and take drivers either east or west on 393. The northbound on-ramp at Exit 14 would be removed to eliminate weaving with the Exit 15 to the I-393 on-ramp.
Visit i93bowconcord.com to view maps and watch a video showing a three-dimensional rendering of the proposed plan.
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3321, nstoico@ cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ NickStoico.)