A dozen years ago, when the Monitor asked Carol Murray, then the commissioner of the state’s Department of Transportation, about the proposed widening of Interstate 93 in Concord, Murray said: “There is no such thing as a crazy idea. Everything should be on the table for discussion.”
Since then, the traffic count on I-93 has increased, the highway has been widened south of Concord, the road through the city is a parking lot at peak commuting and tourist times, and the plan to reduce traffic by a return of passenger rail service seems as far off now as it did then.
But Murray’s words remain true.
The preliminary design for widening the highway through Concord described by David Brooks in Tuesday’s Monitor is just that, preliminary. Every option, at least in theory, remains on the table.
The Concord office of the McFarland Johnson engineering firm has worked on the widening project in the capital city for at least seven years, but it still wants to hear from the public. The firm’s recent presentation to the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce was an invitation to once again think about a project first proposed in the 1980s. A six-lane road will benefit commuters and visitors, but what, if anything, will the city and its residents get out of the deal?
One goal, equal in importance to relieving congestion on the freeway, should be allowing Concord and its downtown to reconnect with its river. Doing so would change the character of the city and draw the occupants of some of those passing cars downtown and into shops and restaurants.
The old practice of siting highways and rail lines along riverbanks because the terrain was flat, the cost lower and most urban rivers little more than sewers is no longer appropriate. Values and needs have changed.
Long term, the higher values – aesthetically, environmentally and economically – make connecting downtown to the river more important than saving money by going with a plan that fails to do so.
Over the many years since the widening was first discussed, several proposals generated interest. One called for lowering I-93 as it passes by downtown to allow a broad walkway or walkways to pass over it to parkland or plazas on the Merrimack. Another called for moving the highway to city-owned land on the other side of the river, from Exit 13 to 14.
That seems unlikely or even impossible, yet something similar was done, largely with federal funds, in Providence, R.I. There, Interstate 195, a main highway to Cape Cod, cut downtown Providence off from several neighborhoods and its historic waterfront. The highway was moved to the city’s outskirts at a cost, estimated in 2009 at $610 million.
The firm’s current design could mean a big change to the Storrs Street shopping center – the road right of way would extend to the middle of the Burlington Coat Factory store. It could also lead to the relocating of the unsightly power station near the Ralph Pill Building, and affect the planned extension of Storrs Street and the fate of the city’s bus station.
So weigh in. Attend the public meetings McFarland Johnson will hold and share your thoughts with the firm and city and state officials. The road will be widened or relocated only once within most residents’ lifetimes.
It’s important to do it right.