For two decades, Boscawen resident John Keegan’s daily commute to Concord involved navigating the tricky merge from Route 4 onto King Street.
Now Keegan, 80, takes a detour to avoid it.
“I no longer feel safe going through that intersection,” he said. “As you age, your neck doesn’t move as well, your eyes aren’t what they should be, and at least on three occasions, I’ve been close to being sideswiped.”
Though no one has died or been seriously injured recently at the sharp Y-shaped intersection that connects Routes 3 and 4 in front of the Boscawen Congregational Church, many have long viewed it as among the most dangerous in the area.
“I think we’ve been lucky; I think it’s just a matter of time,” said Shawn Brechtel, the chief of the Penacook Rescue Squad, which has responded to a number of accidents there over the years.
After more than two decades of contemplating a fix, the state is recommending the installation of a roundabout, which would be part of a $9.7 million slate of upgrades to a 1.5-mile stretch of King Street.
Not everyone is on board.
At a meeting with the Department of Transportation this month, some residents argued the roundabout could pose an existential threat to the culture of the community.
“You put a rotary on that end of town, the next thing you know, everybody moves out, because they’re going to take as much money as they can right now,” Boscawen resident Sarah Millard said. “They’ll all be replaced by commercial properties, and then there’s no town left for that street.”
Though most residents agree that the intersection is dangerous, some said there are far less invasive and costly options that could also be more effective.
“It’s scary, there are lots of close calls, but do some signage, cut down the bush and try a couple things that cost $5,000, not $10 million,” Millard said, referring to some greenery that further obstructs drivers’ view when they merge.
Millard and others urged the state to start by making the yield sign that greets drivers as they turn onto King Street clearer.
Currently, roughly 12,000 vehicles travel along the King Street corridor per day, a volume the Department of Transportation expects will grow to about 15,000 over the next 20 years. It’s a popular route for Concord drivers headed toward Salisbury, Franklin, or out to Andover, and vice versa.
On a typical weekday morning, about 500 cars per hour make the turn Keegan avoids from Route 4 south onto King Street. Another 170 cars per hour cut left across a lane of oncoming traffic as they travel northwest on Route 4 toward Salisbury, according to department data. In the afternoon, the distribution is roughly reversed.
What makes the intersection so dangerous is the fact that Routes 3 and 4 are nearly parallel to each other as they converge. With no traffic lights or stop signs, drivers operate at challenging angles as they calculate the time they have before oncoming traffic arrives.
“The heavily skewed nature of that intersection has all the familiar symptoms of leading up to something that could be serious; it just hasn’t happened yet,” said Curtis Morrill, the project manager for the state Department of Transportation. “And it may not happen, but when it does, it could be bad.”
There were 105 car crashes across the King Street corridor from 2011 to 2020, about 20% of which occurred at the intersection during a three-year subset of that time period, according to the department.
Though Morrill presented a pair of alternatives that would involve re-routing the road to create more traditional 90-degree intersections, he said the roundabout would be the safest and most efficient option, because it would both slow drivers down and keep traffic moving.
While some residents proposed adding stoplights in the current configuration, Morrill said that would not be sensible, primarily because of the prospect of a head-on crash if someone were to run a red light.
Some of the most vehement opponents of the roundabout are the residents who would live closest to it. None would be more affected than Jeffrey Wallace, whose driveway would feed directly into the proposed traffic circle. The location under consideration is roughly 600 feet north of the current intersection.
“They are proposing to bring 11,000 cars across the front of my driveway for the purpose of what the math says is two or three accidents per year,” Wallace said. “Nothing that they do there is going to lower that number with the level of distracted drivers.”
Wallace was planning a major renovation to his home when he heard about the prospect of the roundabout. That project is now on hold.
“How do I go ahead and put $200,000 into my property when the state wants to cost me $200,000 with the scenery in my front yard?” Wallace said. “Why would I put any more money into that project?”
Morrill said he didn’t have a great answer for those who worried a roundabout would affect the value of their property.
Even if the decision-makers involved in the project reach consensus on the best approach, it is not certain to come to fruition. Facing a fiscal shortage, the state is proposing the removal of all construction funding for the project in the most recent iteration of its ten-year plan.
There is still engineering money allocated, so Morrill said his team will continue to proceed, but he acknowledged they must secure funding eventually.
“We still have life here,” he said, “but it is a concern, and it is a challenge.”
The project, as it is currently envisioned, also involves adding a center left-turn lane in a section of King Street and sidewalks in certain places.
Under the current timeline and assuming funding, the project would not begin until late 2028 or early 2029.
The department plans to return to the Boscawen Select Board in the coming months to share the feedback it has received.