[mcdude]

Laconia Daily Sun 9/19/14

MEREDITH — An advisory committee working with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) to improve the flow of traffic through the U.S. Route 3/N.H. Route 25 corridor yesterday rejected two options under consideration but couldn't reach a consensus on what option it will recommend.
Pressed by Selectman Lou Kahn, who chairs the committee, to reach a decision in time for public hearings to be held on whatever plan emerges before selectmen finalize the proposed town budget, only two members of the committee indicated that they were prepared to action one of the three options Kahn says the group faces.
He said that those options included a single-lane roundabout at the Rte. 3-25 intersection, a new intermediate traffic signal at the intersection, or taking no action at all.
In the hope of speeding up the process, Kahn has called for the next meeting of the committee to be held on Thursday, October 9 at 3 p.m.
The committee, which last month had rejected a proposal for a two-lane roundabout which planners from McFarland Johnson, Inc., project manager for DOT, had recommended, deep sixed two other options yesterday.
One was for a bypass which would consist of a new two-lane, one-way road carrying westbound traffic on Rte. 25 from its intersection with Pleasant Street across Hawkins Brook to Rte. 3, north of the US3/NH25 intersection, where a roundabout would be constructed south of the sewer pump station. The other was for a pedestrian tunnel across Rte. 3 from the Mills Falls Marketplace Dover Street parking lot to Hesky Park.
Gene McCarthy of McFarland Johnson, Inc., had recently told the committee the bypass plan had serious traffic flow flaws and would reduce the number of spaces in parking lots owned by the town and Meredith Village Savings Bank by half, as well as requiring significant environmental mitigation.
He told the committee yesterday that the proposed pedestrian tunnel would have to be 13 feet below Rte. 3 and would require relocation of both water and sewer lines. It would also have been eight feet below the level of Lake Winnipesaukee and require sump pumps to keep it dry.
The tunnel would also have been much longer than the distance across Rte. 3 as it would have had to meet federal standards which require a landing for every 18 inches of steps in a series of switchback ramps and would have had to be maintained by the town, including snow removal.
The adverse report prompted Rusty McLear of Hampshire Hospitality Holdings, who had suggested the idea of a tunnel be studied, to say ''that was really dumb idea,'' drawing a laugh from other committee members.
The options which remain under consideration include a single-lane roundabout, which the committee had asked to be designed so that it didn't encroach on the Bootleggers property at the intersection, and an intermediate traffic signal.
McCarthy said that the one option for the roundabout would require taking some of the Zachy's Pizzeria property and that the roundabout would be difficult to align with Main Street. It is also likely that, even if a slip lane to the north is built, it will not improve the current situation.
He said that traffic models through 2035 show that the roundabout will be overwhelmed by the growth in traffic over that time while a signalized intersection will handle traffic better. The traffic signal approach would require construction of a slip lane and a fifth eastbound lane which might encroach on the Inn at Bay point property as well as Scenic Park along Rte. 25.
Other options still under consideration include pedestrian traffic lights on Rte. 3 near Dover Street as well as a possible roundabout or traffic light at Pleasant Street which would prevent left hand turns onto Rte. 25 from the Hannaford parking lot and improve traffic flow.