Route 1 road project may bring roundabouts
PORTSMOUTH – A major improvement project planned for a 1.7-mile stretch of the busy Route 1 corridor is aimed at improving traffic safety and flow along the roadway.
Eric Eby, the city of Portsmouth’s engineer for parking, transportation and planning, said the project area will run from the Lafayette Road/Route 1 intersection with Wilson Road near Market Basket to Ocean Road on the Rye town line.
“What they’re looking to do is improve the roadway for traffic flow and for pedestrian and bicycle accommodations to make it a complete street and smooth out some of the areas where it goes from two lanes down to one back to two and to one,” Eby recently told the city’s Parking, Traffic and Safety Committee. It is a New Hampshire Department of Transportation project.
The project could potentially include the creation of one or two roundabouts, Eby said.
The state DOT is scheduled to hold a public informational meeting sometime this spring on its preferred plan for the project, although it hasn’t been scheduled yet, Eby said.
State officials will be seeking public input on the project at the meeting, he added.
Concerned about safety on Route 1 in Portsmouth
The Route 1 improvement project is aimed at improving “safety and traffic flow,” Eby told the committee, and to “keep traffic from using other roads, such as Banfield,” while improving pedestrian and bike access, along with bus stops.
“There’s some crash rates they want to deal with,” Eby stated, along with dealing with the “difficulty of turning in and out of driveways” off Route 1.
70 properties could be affected by Route 1 project
Eby acknowledged the project comes with challenges that could delay the start of construction for several years.
“The right-of-way process would be lengthy, there’s about 70 properties that will be affected by this project,” Eby told the committee.
Those rights-of-way will be needed “in order to accommodate everything we’d like to see in this project,” Eby said.
That includes “a multi-use path on both sides of the roadway separated from the roadway, a 10-foot wide, multiuse path for pedestrians and bikes separated from the roadway, plus a 5-foot shoulder in the roadway,” he said.
Acquiring the rights-of-way “could probably take a couple of years to get through,” Eby said.
“So best-case scenario we’re looking at construction beginning in 2028,” Eby said.
What to know about possible roundabouts on Route 1 in Portsmouth
Roundabouts “at the intersection of McKinnon’s and at Walmart,” are being considered, Eby said.
“One of the problems they’re trying to address with this project is the left turns in and out of Constitution Ave.,” he explained. “It’s a pinch point there with a historic cemetery and a historic building on the other side of the roadway, so roundabouts would provide a great way of providing safety at that location by putting a median between the two intersections, forcing Constitution Ave. to be right turn in and right turn out.”
State officials are “looking forward to having the public meeting …to get public feedback on these ideas. DOT really wants to keep this project going now that it’s started up again.”
The project would also include improving how stormwater is handled, he said, “because right now water just runs off the roadway to the sides.”
All state highways like Route 1 are required to have a 5-foot shoulder, Eby said in response to a committee question, which means experienced bikers “could use that shoulder as a bike lane.”
“People who are less comfortable being in the street could use the 10-foot multi-use paths on either side,” Eby said.