If you want to know the drawbacks of driving on Bog Road, an infamously banged-up street in north Concord, local business owners can give you plenty of examples, ranging from the practical to the silly.
Here’s practical: “Why would you send somebody down that road? A $100,000 delivery truck is going to bust an axle,” said Todd Larocque of Carter Hill Orchard, who has plenty of stories of customers, friends and suppliers who go out of their way to avoid Bog Road.
And here’s silly: “When you get out of the car – if you’ve got dentures, they’ll be out. They’ll be in the back seat,” said Pat Malfait, owner of Contoocook River Canoe Co.
Malfait doesn’t really think the condition of the road is silly because it costs him money when a delivery of high-end canoes or kayaks gets banged up. Malfait said he has had boats arrive broken after a tractor-trailer or truck bringing a shipment from as far away as South Carolina rattles over Bog Road.
“They’ve driven 1,000 miles but it’s the last mile that gives them all the problems,” he said. “You open the truck and (the boats) are all over the place.”
Malfait and Laroque are among more than 350 people who have signed a petition asking the Concord City Council to add Bog Road to the list of roads to be resurfaced this year. A hearing is slated on Monday night for what is known as the Annual Highway Improvement Program Project.
The petition, which gathered a lot of its signatures at the Riverhill Market at the west end of Bog Road, was started by David Murray, owner of Murray Farms Greenhouses, one of the four businesses near or on the road who say it affects their customers and suppliers.
The ebullient Murray says he wants to ask every single city councilor to take a ride with him on the road, which runs a little less than two miles between the Contoocook River and Fisherville Road or Route 3.
“I want to do it so I can watch their face. If everybody can smile while they ride Bog Road, it’s fair that they fix every other road in the city first,” he said.
Ward 2 Councilor Erle Pierce said he got an earful about the road last year during his first campaign.
“It’s what I heard most when running for office: The Merrimack Valley School District Tax and what can I do to get Bog Road paved. Those were the two biggest issues,” he said.
Bog Road has been around almost as long as Concord has. It’s mentioned in the 1856 official “History of Concord,” where author Nathaniel Bouton calls it “the Bog road.” As the name reflects it was built in a wet area, and since water undermines roadbeds it is perhaps no surprise that as of this week it is dotted by at least six signs warning of frost heaves.
This is also a bad time of year for roads as we enter an early mud season, which affects even paved roads like Bog Road. Both the state Department of Transportation and the city of Concord last week issued weight limit warnings on roads that are “vulnerable to pavement breaking up as the frost leaves the underlying road base.”
Locals say Bog Road traffic appears to have been affected by a number of housing developments at the east end of the road in the past few years, such as The Vineyards, a condominium development.
“For my whole 63 years, Bog Road has been my primary road, driving to school on a bus, as an adult going to town,” said Murray. “It has never been spectacular but it has been more than 20 years since it received some maintenance or upgrades … and it’s gotten worse.”
“It’s used a lot more than 20 years ago,” agreed Larocque, who grew up here.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
