Informational session on Broad Street Parkway held in Nashua

NASHUA – A drop-in informational session about the Broad Street Parkway on Thursday evening drew some familiar opponents to the roadway but also drew curious residents wanting to learn more.

Held at the state-run Welcome Center near Exit 6 of the F.E. Everett Turnpike, the session included charts, maps spread across a long table and a computerized model that simulated traffic flow along the road. On hand to explain aspects of the roadway and to answer questions were officials from the city, the Nashua Regional Planning Commission and consultants Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin Inc. of Bedford.

The informational meeting drew a share of homeowners whose properties abut the proposed route and had questions or concerns about the project, noted Leon Kenison, the city’s public works director.

“That’s what we want,” Kenison said.

But not all the people who dropped into the Welcome Center between 6 and 8 p.m. had properties that would be directly affected by the parkway.

“We’ve had a few people come in who have heard about the project and didn’t know much about it,” said Tim Roache, the NRPC’s assistant director.

One of those was Matthew Plante, a lifelong city resident who lives off of East Dunstable Road well south of the proposed roadway.

“I wanted to learn a little more about it,” Plante said.

After examining the maps and talking with other residents and officials, Plante noted two details of the project that caught him off-guard.

“I’m kind of surprised it’s become a two-lane road. I thought it was still wider,” he said.

Plante said he was concerned the parkway didn’t include a sidewalk or pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists. Adding that he jogs through the area, Plante said he worried the portion of the parkway that passes through the Millyard would cut off access for people who jog through Mine Falls Park.

Another resident who doesn’t live near the parkway’s path is Galen Rose.

“I’ve been following it from Day 1,” Rose said.

An electrical engineer, Rose said he’s interested in the parkway from an engineering standpoint.

Rose said he can’t speak to how the parkway will affect abutters but added that he likes the idea of having another road downtown to ease traffic.

Rose said he was also glad to see the proposed route now preserves some businesses that would have had to be taken under previous routes, Gate City Fence in particular.

The parkway isn’t worth the estimated cost of $60.4 million to $68.1 million because it doesn’t solve what a past study identified as the city’s biggest traffic problem, the east-west flow of vehicles, said Daniel Gleneck of 34 Tampa St., a parkway opponent.

“Unfortunately, I live beside it,” Gleneck said of the route.

He also wasn’t impressed with the informational meeting.

“It’s not a public hearing. I want a public hearing on the final plan,” Gleneck said, noting that officials still haven’t answered questions posed at a previous public hearing.

Currently, Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin is slightly more than a quarter of the way through the process of reviewing environmental data. VHB is expected to complete its work and federal highway officials to decide in spring of 2010 whether an additional environmental study is needed.

Until then, the city can make sure “basic preparatory work continues to go well,” Kenison said.

“It has so far, but it’s not over till it’s over,” he said.

Patrick Meighan can be reached at 594-6518 or pmeighan@nashuatelegraph.com.