Since state Highway funds are scarce these days, the Department of Transportation wants to let private investors build a new bridge over the Merrimack River.
For commuters, news of the proposed new crossing from Nashua to Litchfield brings relief, almost joy.
But for one group of Nashua citizens, the proposal creates frustration and shock.
NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich Kern files this report.
Colorful detailed maps line the worn paneled walls in the conference room at the Nashua Regional Planning Commission.
Steve Williams is the group’s director.
Paper rustling
He rolls out the latest proposal for Nashua’s north end.
Fade in, fade out
And it extends from exit 7 on FE Everett Turnpike, goes to Henri Burke Highway…
Williams outlines this new route: a four-mile road that begins in North Nashua, crosses the Merrimack River, and heads into 102 in Litchfield.
Cost of the project: 120 million dollars. Cost to taxpayers: zip.
But commuters will have to pay a one dollar toll to drive on the Nashua-to-Hudson bridge.
Instead of using state and federal funds to build the roadway, we’re proposing to use private investor funds. At the end, it will still be a state roadway; it will be built for public benefit.
Williams says the bottom line is that the state’s highway funds are not keeping up with the state’s needs.
Other states have adopted this private/public model, but for New Hampshire, he says, this would be a first.
Chuck Hotchkiss is a professor at Southern New Hampshire University’s community economic development program.
I think it makes sense, especially here in NH where we say we want small government. Unless that also means we don’t want economic growth. If we’re going to keep government small, we have to find alternative ways to finance public improvements. This seems to be an appropriate one.
But before the Department of Transportation moves forward, the legislature needs to pass a bill that allows private money to build a public bridge.
That bill is expected to be introduced next month.
But before anything can be built, the DOT has to clear a significant hurdle:
Remove the North Nashua homes blocking the way of the proposed road.
Up to ? homeowners received letters from the planning commission only a few weeks ago.
Jerry Burns, 37 Syracuse Road, Nashua.
Burns lives next to an abutter, and wonders about his own home, which he’s owned for the past 23 years.
The last house is being slated for takeover and we think the one directly across from me is also being slated for takeover. Are we worried? Absolutely. I find it difficult to accept that this could even happen.
It can happen, because the New Hampshire constitution, article 12, permits the taking of property by eminent domain.
But Burt Janz, another homeowner on Syracuse Drive, says
The end purpose of the road is to make the Beazer property available to development.
Janz is talking about the 90-acre parcel of contaminated land behind his house that local developers have wanted to buy since 2003.
He says eminent domain shouldn’t apply here.
If the same developers are building the road and building the development, they are directly benefiting from the taking of those homes. And that’s where I see the transfer from one private ownership to another private ownership, and that’s a violation of article 12.
Janz also points out the proposed bill allows for what’s called a – quote- concession agreement.
In other words, the private developer can collect the tolls, and then pay the state for police, plowing, and other services.
Janz: If the road fee was 100 percent going back to the DOT, and the DOT was then taking that money to repay a bond that they had floated, then it would be public.
State officials say New Hampshire owns most of the property it needs to build the four-mile road, and insist it is a public undertaking.
Nashua Regional Planning Commission Director Steve Williams hopes to settle with property owners by June.
But he doesn’t think anyone will be crossing the Merrimack River in north Nashua – at least by automobile – before 2011.
For NHPR news in Nashua, this is Sheryl Rich-Kern.
