BOSTON — Five of New Hampshire’s largest environmental groups, outraged by plans to double the size of Interstate 93 south of Manchester to eight lanes, are making a final push to persuade the state transportation department to revitalize an old railroad bed so the widening project can be scaled back, the Boston Globe reported.
The groups, headed by the Conservation Law Foundation of New Hampshire, will attempt to build support tonight at a gathering of southern New Hampshire community leaders and residents at the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn — one of nearly 30 communities that could suffer the effects of growth and pollution from the proposed widening of I-93 between Salem and Manchester, an 18-mile stretch. Construction of the project, which could greatly accelerate Massachusetts’ sprawl into the Granite State, is slated to start in 2004 and would be completed eight years later.
Tonight’s meeting at 7 o’clock comes just as the state Department of Transportation will begin a series of public hearings to discuss the findings of a draft environmental impact statement on the $420 million project, one of the final times the public will be able to weigh in on the project’s design before federal and state environmental agencies make their decisions on wetland permits. The widening requires filling in 70 acres of wetlands.
”A California-style freeway from Boston to Manchester will have a profound effect on our state,” said Charles Niebling, director of policy and land management for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
”Most of the group feels [the Department of Transportation] has given short shrift to rail revitalization.”
The state transportation department contends that a commuter rail line would not entice enough drivers off the highway to make the service cost-effective.
Officials also believe the old Lawrence-to-Manchester corridor – where some right of ways have been sold off, including a 6-mile stretch to Manchester Airport, which extended a runway over a portion of it – is no longer a viable option.
Instead, designs leave space along I-93 for a light-rail corridor that could be built in the future when there is greater demand for a commuter line. The state has said the widening of I-93 to eight lanes, the largest highway construction project since I-93 was built, will be the last time that section of highway can be expanded.
”The commuter train would have some benefits” in reducing traffic, acknowledged Jeff Brillhart, who oversees the I-93 widening project for the transportation department, ”but not so you wouldn’t widen the highway to four lanes” on each side.
About 462,570 annual one-way trips were projected to be made on a restored Lawrence-to-Manchester corridor, with operating costs of between $2.9 million and $5.4 million, according to a state transportation department study two years ago. Travel time on the 28-mile line with four stops was estimated to be 31 minutes. Total time to Boston would average 94 minutes, with a round-trip ticket costing $3.75.
Similarly, commuter rail service along I-93 would attract 453,390 trips a year, with operating costs of $1.9 million to $4 million. Travel time on the 23-mile line with four stops was estimated to be 26 minutes. Travel time to Boston would average 83 minutes, and tickets would cost the same.
By comparison, 110,000 vehicles cross the Salem border each day.
Environmental groups disagree with the transportation department’s ridership numbers, charging that the department holds a bias toward highway travel.
For example, Tom Irwin, a staff attorney with the New Hampshire Conservation Law Foundation, said Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray was quoted in a newspaper article last December – days before the new Downeaster rail service was to start chugging between Portland, Maine, and Boston – that a projected annual ridership of 320,000 may have been overestimated by almost half. The Downeaster is on track to exceed that projection.
”The assumptions they relied on to reject rail are highly suspect,” said Irwin, whose group sent a letter to the transportation department more than a year ago questioning whether car travel costs, parking fees, and highway commute times were lowballed.
If New Hampshire were to expand rail service, the state would need to work with Massachusetts to ensure that its rail system could support additional runs and whether a new corridor would need to be built there. The New Hampshire transportation department has grand visions that the I-93 corridor option could be expanded, allowing it to continue running alongside I-93 in Massachusetts, with a stop in Woburn and then in Boston. US Senator Bob Smith has secured a $1 million appropriation in a Senate subcommittee for New Hampshire to conduct a joint study with Massachusetts on both rail options.
In considering rail service, Peter Griffin, president of the New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association, said the focus should extend beyond commuter use and should encompass other potential benefits such as freight, which could reduce the number of tractor-trailer trucks on I-93, or whether having a train stop in downtown Derry would help with revitalization efforts of that business district.
”We need to use it as a means for economic development,” said Griffin, whose group is leaning toward revitalizing the old railroad bed as the best option because, as designed, it can carry freight and slices through business districts in several communities.
”Transportation is one of the unspoken crisesin New Hampshire. Widening 93 will not solve it alone. What we need is a balanced transportation system, and we have not had that since the 1930s.”