Long-awaited interstate project expected to fully open in spring

Come spring, the coronavirus willing, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation will celebrate the completion of the widening of Interstate 93 between Salem and Manchester, which the agency calls “one of the most ambitious projects” it has ever undertaken.

The goal — to hasten the flow of traffic and enhance the safety of motorists — was as simple as the project was complex. When I-93 originally opened in the early 1960s, it carried 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles a day. By the turn of the century, traffic had swelled to near 115,000 vehicles a day and was projected to reach 140,000 by 2020.

The number of accidents rose correspondingly. At the same time, as infrastructure aged, 14 of the 43 bridges on the highway were added to the state’s red list of structurally deficient spans. And at interchanges, ramps were built to unsuitable grades, and deceleration and acceleration lanes to unsuitable lengths.

In the 1980s, the DOT began considering how best to increase the capacity of the highway. State and federal agencies, along with local officials and residents, weighed a half-dozen alternatives at more than 50 meetings before choosing to add two travel lanes in each direction between Salem and Manchester — a distance of 20 miles. By the end of the decade, design, planning and preparation, including right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation and environmental permitting, was underway.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved the project in June 2005, but work stalled before it began. In February 2006, the Conservation Law Foundation filed suit in federal court to halt the project, claiming that traffic volume would soon overtake the widened highway and spill onto secondary roads with adverse impacts on air and water quality throughout the corridor. Instead, the CLF pressed for commuter rail service to alleviate congestion on the highway.

Although work to widen the highway was stayed, the state and CLF agreed that other projects could proceed. To reduce traffic volume during construction and mitigate the impact of the project on air quality, park-and-ride lots were opened at Exits 2, 4, 5 in 2007 and 2008 with total spaces for some 1,600 vehicles. A fourth lot at Windham with 140 spaces opened in 2017. Bus service was expanded, with terminals at Exits 2, 4 and 5, and by November 2008 Boston Express was making 22 round-trips to Boston on weekdays and 18 on weekends.

Quickened pace

At the same time, DOT began advertising and awarding contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of bridges and ramps at the five interchanges along the corridor.

By 2009, work was completed at Exit 1 — where seven bridges were replaced — begun at Exit 5 and contracted at Exit 4. And the new Cross Street Bridge over the highway in Salem, the first of 20 red-list bridges to be replaced, was opened to traffic.

A second environmental impact statement as the result of the CLF suit was completed in 2010, and later that year the FHWA reaffirmed its initial approval of the plan to widen the highway to four lanes. However, completion of the fourth lane was contingent on approval of measures to ensure levels of road salt remained within prescribed limits, particularly in four watersheds between Exits 2 and 5. Consequently, DOT planned to widen the highway incrementally, building the footprint for four lanes, but paving and opening only three.

With the decision, the pace of work quickened.

DOT began advertising and awarding contracts for widening the highway itself while work continued at interchanges and on bridges. Between 2011 and 2015, three lanes in both directions were completed and opened from the Massachusetts border through Exit 3 — a distance of six miles.

Funding needs

Meanwhile, costs had risen. In 2007, as concrete, asphalt and steel prices rose 15% a year for three years, the original estimate for the project of $425 million in 2002 jumped to $781 million, and by 2011 neared $800 million.

The project was funded exclusively with federal dollars, both grants and borrowings. In 2005, the Legislature authorized borrowing $195 million in GARVEE bonds, which are retired with funds from future federal highway grants, to supplement the state’s annual share of federal highway aid, then about $160 million. A second GARVEE bond for $115 million was issued in 2012.

Since the project stalled in 2007, concern grew that investment in I-93 would shrink the share of federal funding needed to sustain maintenance and repair of roads and bridges across the state, without which both the pace of deterioration and the cost of rehabilitation would increase. And dwindling real returns from the state gas tax, last raised in 1991, had begun to crimp returns to the state highway fund. At the time, Rep. Fred King of Colebrook remarked, “The 10-year highway plan that was really a 35-year plan just became a 37-year plan.”

In 2013, the funding issue was stalemated in the Legislature. The House passed an increase in the gas tax, which the Senate rejected, and the Senate authorized casino gambling, which the House rejected.

Chris Clement, then commissioner of transportation, feared the failure to find money to sustain the project risked further delays and higher costs as well as prompting contractors to seek work elsewhere. And he added that, without more funds, DOT itself could be in deficit by 2015, which could lead to reducing staff and trimming services. “We cannot let the rest of the state starve on the back of I-93,” Clement said at the time.

The stalemate was broken the next year with legislation authored by Sen. Jim Rausch, R-Derry, who sponsored the bill authorizing the first GARVEE bond to begin the I-93 project.

Senate Bill 367 increased the gas tax from 18 to 22 cents per gallon, raising $34 million a year, and authorized a $200 million borrowing to complete the widening of I-93. The financing package provided $102.5 million for highway and bridge work between 2016 and 2033 as well as $4 million in municipal block grants and $6.8 million for municipal bridge aid each year.

53 contracts, 20 contractors

Two years later, this initiative was restructured and enhanced after the state secured a loan through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (TIFIA).

The loan funded the competition of I-93 while enabling the state to increase investment in other highways and bridges between 2016 and 2025.

The state borrowed $200 million at 1.09% with principal payments deferred for nine years from 2016 to 2025. During the deferral period, between $19.2 million and $23.6 million in revenue from the increased gas tax are being allocated to highway and bridge repair as well as to $4 million in municipal highway block grants and $6.8 million to municipal bridge aid. During the period, DOT expects to resurface 1,800 miles of roadway and remove 23 bridges from the red list. Altogether, the TI- FIA financing will provide $257 million for roads and bridges — more than twice the amount originally projected by SB 367.

“In transportation,” Gov. Maggie Hassan said at the time, “many times the expansion of major facilities comes at the expense of investing in existing infrastructure. TIFIA is allowing us to do both.”

Contracts to continue widening the highway were awarded in 2016, with completion of the fourth lane representing the largest share of the remaining work. At the same time, at the bridge over Route 102 at Exit 4 — the longest span in the corridor — was completed and ramps at the interchange were reconstructed. As 2020 drew to a close, the essential elements of the project were complete.

Altogether, 80 lane miles of highway were built and paved, 45 bridges constructed or rehabilitated and five interchanges restructured and improved. Some 1,000 acres were conserved to offset wetlands impacts, manage stormwater runoff and safeguard water quality. And the corridor was fitted with an intelligent transportation system to provide the traveling public and emergency responders with information about traffic and weather conditions on the highway in real time.

All told, the work was broken into 53 contracts — 29 of them more than $1 million apiece — and undertaken by 20 prime contractors. Among them were R.S. Audley Inc. of Bow, George R. Cairns & Sons Inc. of Windham, Alvin J. Coleman & Sons Inc. of Albany, Weaver Brothers Construction Co. of Bow, E.D. Sweet Inc. of Concord, and Severino Trucking Company of Candia. Continental Paving of Londonderry and Pike Industries of Belmont shared much of the final paving work.

One piece of the puzzle remains: Exit 4A, just north of Exit 4 at Derry, which was not part of the original I-93 project.

The diamond interchange is designed to ease congestion from the traffic spilling into downtown Derry from Exit 4 by providing access to Folsom Road and Tsienneto Road, both of which are slated for improvement as part of the project. The exit also provides access to 200 acres in Londonderry owned by Pillsbury Realty Development, developer of Woodmont Commons.

The 4A project was estimated to cost $56.8 million, but bids exceeded that by $30 million, and, with another $30 million in land acquisition costs, the total cost rose to $120 million. DOT officials have indicated the project, which has been on the drawing board for 30 years, will be stalled for another two.

The expansion of I-93 has taken nearly 40 years of planning.