Northwest Bypass Plan in West Concord Gets Panned

At the first of three public comment meetings held during the next six weeks, nearly 100 West End residents and public officials met to discuss a potential new roadway that will run from North State Street to Pleasant Street.

Bishop Brady High School offered its space for the first two of the meetings and engineers spent two hours listening to residents and explaining the Northwest Bypass plan, which is the third leg of a roadway linking the southwest and north side of the city, in order to improve access to Concord Hospital.

City Engineer Ed Roberge explained that the two-mile extension, if it gets built, wouldn’t be started until 2018. During the next three years, engineering would work on planning, design, detail, permitting, and then, construction, as part of the city council’s long-term traffic management plan. However, officials were looking for “solid feedback” from the community about what they had, so far.

“We really have a lot of work to go through before this becomes a reality,” he said.

Roberge said that the project would be a public-private partnership, with the city looking for private money, grants, and federal funding (Roberge did file a request for federal funding for the project back in 2011). He called efficiencies involved with the project “profound, it’s a huge benefit,” while adding that there would be sidewalk and bike path areas similar to the roadway between Clinton and Pleasant streets.

Traffic Engineer Robert Mack explained the potential general designs of the project that would include two 12-foot wide paved roads, five foot safety shoulders for bike lane compliance, and a paved multiuse pavement for safety shoulders. A tree-lined median could be built in places to give it a boulevard feel. Along the way, eight intersections would be enhanced – three on the grounds of the hospital and five in the northern part of the roadway. Either roundabouts or traffic signals could be installed at the Auburn Street intersection and the Rumford/Penacook streets intersection. Cul-de-sacs would be installed at places along Penacook Street, creating three mini-dead-ends. An access road would be built at Jennings Drive to get to the parkway.

Roberge said the bypass would have “positive impacts to this community” by eliminating the cut-through traffic to the West End, cutting response time for emergency vehicles, especially ambulances driving to the hospital, by eight to 12 minutes, with more than 200,000 vehicle hours annually cut, 2.6 million fewer vehicle miles traveled, and 75,000 gallons less fuel consumed.

About $35 million could be saved by commuters during the first 20 years of the project.

Residents ask, How do we kill this?

While residents were polite to Roberge and Mack, saying they gave a great presentation, the plans was soundly rejected by residents, with responses ranging from claims that it would split the neighbors apart, would make the streets unsafe for pedestrians and children, and change the character of the area. Others worried that a major roadway through the area would be a detriment to the conservation areas that had become so popular in recent years. A few others suggested building a different connector road more north of the proposed location.

One resident of the neighborhood, who was also a runner, said that Phase 2 of the project, while commended by Roberge as an asset to walkers and runners, was “boring” when compared to the trails in the neighborhood.

“This is very important to us,” she said. “You’re running a major road behind all of these houses. This is significant and there’s a lot people in this room who are concerned about this. If this is a done deal, just say it.”

Both Roberge and later, Deputy City Manager Carlos Baia, denied the project was a done deal, saying that it hadn’t been approved by the council.

David Fox of Penacook Street, who was 175 feet from the project, suggested that officials come by the neighborhood and watch all the activity.

“You are separating one of the most historic streets from itself,” he said. “You’re really only building this road for a single employer, Concord Hospital. Here’s a stupid thought and my wife is going to get upset with me for saying this, but, bury it.”

Catherine Raymond, one of Fox’s neighbors, said there was a huge water problem there, including a large swamp along Auburn Street, and the project would only make flooding problems worse in the area.

“It’s ridiculous now,” she said. “We have the breeding ground for the mosquitoes in the neighborhood. Kids could drown in the amount of water around our property … our house is going to be completely under water.”

Raymond said the project would drive out a lot of the wildlife in the area and suggested that the road be for emergency vehicles only. Others wanted trucks to be banned from a potential road and also limited use of sirens by emergency vehicles.

Allan Herschlag raised the issue of whether or not there would be proper vetting of the project by the public. He noted that despite guarantees by the city council that the vote for the Re-Thinking Main Street proposal was just an acceptance of the report, Roberge then ran with it, landed funding, and the Main Street Complete Streets project was born, without a full discussion of the proposal or whether or not the project should be done. Once the federal money was obtained, it was fast-tracked, he said. Herschlag worried that funding could come up for the bypass and residents would be impossible to stop it.

Charlie Russell also blasted the project saying the city should save the money and instead, synchronize the traffic lighting in order to move people around the intersections.

Later, Ron Rickard, asked for a show of hands of who rejected the project and most hands were raised. He asked for a show of hands of people who supported the project, and only one hand went up. Rickard agreed with Fox that the project should be buried.

A second meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, at Bishop Brady High School on Columbus Avenue. The engineering department will hold another meeting at city council chambers on Nov. 21.