ONLINESALEM.COM Route 111 Bypass News:

Lawrence Eagle Tribune
Friday, July 18, 2003

Cash lack delaying Route 111 bypass

By James A. Kimble
Staff Writer

SALEM -- The completion of the Route 111 bypass from Exit 3 of Interstate 93 in Windham to North Salem will be delayed for about a year under the state's latest transportation improvement plan.

Work began on the $32 million project in May with the start of construction of a bridge across Flatrock Brook in Windham. But connecting that work with existing Route 111 will be put off until at least 2005 under the plan, which was reviewed for the Executive Council in Concord Wednesday. The entire project was originally to be completed in late 2005 or early 2006.

Coming at a time when the widening of I-93 to four lanes between the Massachusetts state line and Manchester is being pushed forward, the delay leaves residents and town officials bracing for more traffic bottlenecks over the next couple of years.

"There's going to be a lot of traffic in town and it's going to be over a long, extended period of time," said Al Turner, Windham's community development director.

State officials are pushing to get the I-93 project moving. The state can save millions of dollars and complete work four years earlier than planned if it borrows money to pay for the project, state Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray told the executive council Wednesday in updating them on the 10-year highway plan.

Murray said bonding the project also would free $420 million in the highway budget for other projects, such as the Manchester Airport access road.

Murray said there is not enough money from the gasoline tax to pay for the widening and road work elsewhere in the state, with no plans to raise the tax. The tax is used to pay for the 10-year plan.

Murray said she is working with the state treasurer on bonding options for the $420 million cost of the project. Bonding would require legislative approval; the House Public Works Committee will study the idea.

The project, designed to free traffic that now slows to a crawl during commuting hours to and from Boston, is to begin in the next few years and could take until 2014 to complete. It will consume almost half of about $1 billion the state has available during that time for state road projects, which include renovating bridges and guardrails.

State officials say the new bypass, which will eventually run from Exit 3 to North Broadway in Salem, will relieve the long-standing congestion along Route 111 and at its intersection with Route 28, a four-way juncture notorious for backups at rush hour.

But the relief will come at a cost to several landowners in Salem and Windham.

The state expects to buy approximately 15 business properties and nine residences through negotiations with homeowners, or as a last resort, take them by eminent domain through legal proceedings. In all, 120 properties in both towns will have some of their land bought or taken to make way for the work.

"We've had to buy a substantial amount of property. Right now we're in the process of bargaining for the right-of-way along Flat Rock Brook," said Bill Cass, chief project manager for the state Department of Transportation.

Just north of the Route 111/28 intersection, Dennis Rogers, who owns Roger's Auto Body & Repair with his two brothers, recalled yesterday that when he started working for his father's garage years ago, the intersection didn't need traffic lights.

"You didn't need them then, but now you'd get killed if you drove through there without lights," said Rogers. "I drive through it too and it's terrible."

State traffic studies have shown between 18,000 to 23,000 vehicles on Route 111 per day, and about 20,000 to 26,000 cars passing through the intersection with Route 28.

Roger's father, George, started the family garage in 1956 before zoning requirements came to Windham and most of New Hampshire's cities and towns.

And now, with the family being forced to relocate its business to property they bought across the street, it will lose the ability to sell gas because of wetlands restrictions and have to absorb some of the cost from building a new 6,000-square-foot building.

"I think (the road) is needed as much as I hate to see it from a business standpoint," said Rogers. Even though the state is paying landowners for their properties, finding a piece of land along Route 28 and building within the codes of current zoning laws can add to expenses of businesses forced to relocate.

"They don't pay replacement costs. We came to an agreement with the state. 'Why do that?' you may ask. If not, then they can take it with eminent domain and you can sit on it until you have nothing. You need the money they give you to pay for relocating," said Rogers.

When the garage relocated on Oct. 1, two of the Rogers family co-owners, Bob and George Jr., are retiring, and two of Dennis' sons, Jason and David, are taking their place.

Not all business enterprises affected by the project are able to start anew.

In Salem, an approved subdivision off Elizabeth Lane, owned by Merrill Excavating, was taken by the state through eminent domain after a court battle with the family business, said business co-owner Gary Merrill.

"It was all approved by the Planning Board," said Merrill. "My father had to go to court," and the state resorted to taking the property by eminent domain.

Regardless of what the company was paid, they weren't able to substitute the project.

"It's not the type of thing you can replace," said Merrill.

Cass said the state has made efforts to work with landowners, and showed examples of where originally the state was going to take a whole parcel, then later scaled back on land purchases so businesses could stay in their existing space.

Cass said the state agency is also doing what it can to alleviate whatever traffic burdens may be caused from construction, and noted work such as construction at Flatrock Brook is off-site from the current grid of roads.

"I think the congestion and backups you see today will very much be relieved," said Cass. And he's hoping landowners and drivers alike will be patient with the process of construction.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.