Lakes Region Planning Commission Whittles Highway Priorities

WOLFEBORO — With further reductions in road construction funding in the offing, the Lakes Region Planning Commission met last night to approve the 2011 Lakes Region Transportation Improvement Program.

During the past few years, as fiscal constraints have prompted changes to the state's 2009-2018 ten year highway plan, a dozen projects with an aggregate value of $88.5-million slated for the Lakes Region have been shelved and those that remain have been both reduced in scale and pushed far into the future. Meanwhile, in response to cuts in the coming biennium included in the budget proposed by the House of Representatives, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) has prepared a list of projects that could be dropped from the ten year plan, including the remaining five in the Lakes Region with an estimated cost of $28.2-million.

Among the projects already eliminated from the 2009-2018 plan are improvements to the NH Route 11 bypass in Alton and Gilford, reconstruction of NH Route 106 in Meredith, and improvements to NH Route 140 in Belmont, NH Route 104 between New Hampton and Meredith and US Route 3 from The Weirs to Meredith.

The proposed Lakes Region 2011 Transportation Improvement Plan lists the five remaining projects — improvements to the intersection of NH Route 28 and Stockbridge Corner Road in Alton at $1.5-million, to NH Routes 106 and 107 in Laconia and Belmont at $3.2-million, reconstruction of NH Route 25 between Center Harbor and Meredith at $5-million and three projects in Ossipee— as its highest priorities.

Although all five are currently included in the ten year plan the DOT warned that they would be eliminated or jeopardized if the cuts recommended by the House are not restored.

Mike Izard of the Lakes Region Planning Commission said that despite recurrent reductions in funding the Transportation Advisory Committee has consistently pursued its priorities. He explained that the commission has concentrated on so-called "lifeline corridors," or the primary east-west and north-south routes carrying the bulk of the traffic through and within the region.

At the same time, Izard said that as funding has shrunk, the commission has broken projects into their component parts to match available resources. For example, some seven miles of NH Route 28 in Barnstead and Alton is listed as "major work required/poor condition," but when the original cost of reconstruction was more than halved, the project was pared to improving the intersection at Stockbridge Corner Road.

Likewise, addressing the convergence of US Route 3, NH Route 104 and NH Route 25 in downtown Meredith, which represents the most significant source of congestion in the region, was originally slated to be a $14-million project. The improvements were envisioned to stretch from the junction of NH Route 104 and US Route 3 northward along NH Route 25 to the Center Harbor town line. The current funding of $5-million, itself at risk, will severely limit the extent of the improvements.

In addition to the highest priorities, the Transportation Improvement Plan includes improvements to NH Route 28 between Alton and Wolfeboro Falls, NH Route 104 easterly from I-93 to Meredith Center Road and NH Route 104 westerly from I-93 to downtown Bristol as secondary priorities.