A Clash of Concerns Over Keene Bypass
WASHINGTON, March 14–Deliberations on the redesign of highway intersections along the Route 101 east-west corridor have stalled several construction projects, according to New Hampshire Department of Transportation officials.
Citizens groups and conservationists have been debating with highway engineers over the design of a number of intersections in the $60 million Keene-Swanzey Bypass Expansion Project, citing environmental and aesthetic problems with the current designs for the intersections along Route 101 south of Keene.
“To stay it’s stalled right now is probably accurate,” said Bill Boynton, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation. “We need to hear from the leadership of the city of Keene.”
Concerned Cheshire Citizens, a local advocacy group for highway reform, has touted the merits of using circular traffic intersections, known as roundabouts, to contend with the highway’s increasing traffic flow.
“I looked at the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s design for the highway around Keene, and it seemed to me to be way over-built and over-designed,” said Rebecca Todd, an environmental lawyer who became active with the group several years ago.
Annie Faulkner, the group’s president, agrees that the department’s designs “tend to be big and expensive.”
“They want to have a free-flow system, yet the system they’ve designed has lots of stops. They say it’s a hybrid system, but I would think that in a hybrid system roundabouts would be compatible,” she said.
According to Todd, roundabouts work well because they “move people safely and have a smaller environmental and aesthetic impact” than traditional traffic light intersections.
“Roundabouts don’t need bridges, and they move traffic more efficiently and quickly than traffic signals,” Todd said. Furthermore, concerns that Keene drivers may not be ready for roundabouts would be irrelevant because “a well designed roundabout will teach you how to drive it.”
Jeff Porter, a senior planner with the Southwest Region Planning Commission, said the views of many planners toward roundabouts have warmed with time.
“Most of us who weren’t highway engineers didn’t realize how roundabouts are useful for suburban applications,” he said. “They work really well in those circumstances.”
Roundabouts have also received a thumbs-up from Mayor Michael E. J. Blastos, who endorsed them for being aesthetically superior, for being “user-friendly” once drivers become accustomed to them and for providing “greater flexibility and maneuverability.”
“I think the Council as well as myself have ascertained that we favor the use of them wherever possible and whenever possible,” Blastos said.
The proposal by the Department of Transportation that probably garnered the least support is for the intersection of Interstate 101 and Routes 9, 10 and 12. The T-shaped, or “trumpet,” design would take up a much larger area than a roundabout, the Concerned Cheshire Citizens argue. However, Gil Rogers, assistant commissioner for the department, said that a roundabout “wouldn’t work there,” arguing that the intersection “deserves a flow of traffic similar to the other end of Keene,” which is built with the trumpet design.
The Conservation Law Foundation, a New Hampshire environmental group, filed an appeal last year to nullify a construction permit obtained by the Department of Transportation from the wetlands bureau of the state’s Department of Environmental Services. The permit would allow for highway development on thirty acres of wetlands, including at least one acre of vernal and seasonal pools that serve as breeding grounds for wildlife. The appeal was intended to criticize the issuance of a wetlands permit without the Department of Transportation adequately assessing its environmental impact. The case was heard in Merrimack County Superior Court on February 20 and 21, and the judge is expected to hand down a verdict by the end of next month.
The current design for the Keene bypass would require filling at least twenty-five acres of vegetative wetlands, which transportation officials say could easily be replaced elsewhere.
Tom Irwin, a staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, disagrees. “We don’t think it’s a proper solution. The Department of Transportation did not do an adequate job to assess the impact to wetlands before jumping to the assumption that they can go out and recreate wetlands on their own. The extent to which they can artificially replicate existing wetlands is certainly arguable.”
Not so, Rogers maintained. “We’ve done a couple that turned out magnificently, along Route 101 at Brentwood and at Exeter” as part of efforts by the Department “to minimize the footprint where possible,” Rogers said.
A large and expansive highway intersection could also be “out of scale with the character and needs of a local community,” according to the Conservation Law Foundation’s website.
“I’m concerned that this big project would forever change the character of the region,” Faulkner said. “Like many other citizens, I saw the need to protect what I love about living here,”
The prospect of incorporating roundabouts into the highway design has received widespread support from Keene residents and businesses, and a resolution in favor of roundabouts received unanimous approval of the Keene City Council in November. The Department of Transportation has reconsidered placing roundabouts at several intersections, including one at Optical Avenue.
“Our appeal had the unintended consequence of delaying the project and allowed for more local input into the project,” said Irwin.
“There’s a tendency to trust that the Department of Transportation knows what’s best for us, but state agencies aren’t always up on the latest technologies, and citizens need to be involved to make sure that the best alternatives are chosen,” Faulkner said.
If the appeal to revoke the wetlands permit is approved, transportation officials will need to redesign the intersection with oversight from the Department of Environmental Services, according to Ken Kettenring, until recently the administrator for the department’s wetlands bureau.
Though federal highway guidelines do not include recommendations for multi-lane roundabouts, transportation officials have opposed them, contending that they are not addressed because of a lack of documentation on their safety in this country.
“The Department of Transportation in New Hampshire has a design philosophy that we will support single-lane roundabouts, we will look at two-lane roundabouts but we will not look at three-lane roundabouts,” Keith Cota, the department’s project manager for the Keene bypass, said. “In the future, if they’re proven to be safe and can move the traffic capacity, then it’s possible [we will consider them].”
The three-lane roundabout issue has been used as a “red herring” to deter support for roundabouts, Irwin argues. According to traffic specialists, a two-lane roundabout would be sufficient for Route 101 at least until the year 2030.
Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., offered his assistance at the federal level to Keene residents who might seek increased federal funds for roundabouts.
“If I hear from the City Council of Keene, or the city planner of Keene, that this is the way they’d like to do this, and that’s the consensus position, then I will do everything I can to get language in the transportation bill to accomplish it,” Gregg said. “I haven’t heard that from people in Keene or their representatives, and if that’s the way they want to go, we’ll do everything we can to accomplish it.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire
