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Public Works and Highways Committee agrees to add Albany Route 16/113 project to draft 10-year transportation plan
Summary
At a committee work session, members straw-polled in favor of adding the Albany Route 16/113 intersection project—estimated at about $7.5 million—to the state 10-year transportation plan and instructed DOT to draft an amendment to HB 2026; members also agreed to remove two Manchester projects (Exits 6 and 7).
Chairman Mills convened the Public Works and Highways Committee work session and introduced HB 2026 and the state 10-year transportation improvement plan. Senator Mark McConkie asked the committee to restore the Albany Route 16/113 intersection project to the region’s top position, saying the location "has the highest traffic of any location in the region, a higher accident history," and that the Albany project would be less costly than the Randolph alternative.
Toby Reynolds, director of project development at the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, told members regional projects were not carried into the current draft because of federal overprogramming and that projects from regional planning commissions normally would be placed in the outer two years. Reynolds said the North Country Council estimated the Albany project at "approximately $7,500,000" in current dollars.
Assistant Commissioner and Chief Engineer David Rodrigue said adding the $7.5 million project would keep the 10-year plan "relatively financially constrained" within the scale of the roughly $4.5 billion plan and that DOT could "work that in." Members asked whether the Albany item would replace another regional project; the chair and members clarified it would be an addition because the Randolph project was not currently in the draft plan.
Chairman Mills conducted a straw poll on adding the Albany project; members signaled agreement. Mills also noted committee agreement to remove two Manchester turnpike-funded projects (Exits 6 and 7) that had been included by the executive council. The chair directed DOT to draft a formal amendment to HB 2026 reflecting the working additions and removals and to provide a project number and titling information for the amendment.
Next steps: DOT will prepare the formal amendment language and project number for the committee; members requested safety and accident data for the Albany intersection before final action. The committee tentatively scheduled an executive session to finalize the amendment for next Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.
