A schematic showing the recommended two additional roundabouts on Winchester Street (Route 10) along with the raised medians. The Keene City Council is slated to vote on the proposal on Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. at Keene City Hall. (Courtesy photo)
The Keene City Council is poised to vote on the upcoming lower Winchester Street project, plans for which include two new roundabouts along the corridor connecting the Elm City to Swanzey.
The council’s Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee is recommending the two roundabouts, as well as raised medians along the roadway, also known as Route 10, to prevent motorists from taking left turns onto and out of intersecting side streets.
Slated to begin in 2026, the project aims to improve traffic and safety from the Route 101 roundabout in Keene to the Market Basket intersection in Swanzey to the south. Officials anticipate that automobile congestion will only increase in the coming years, and they hope the project addresses those projections.
The proposed upgrades to the roadway are part of joint efforts by Keene and Swanzey to decide what changes should be made in their respective communities.
City Engineer Donald Lussier expects the construction to last two years.
Last Tuesday, the MSFI Committee unanimously recommended that the full council approve changes that came out of a project steering committee. The list of recommendations are:
Gene McCarthy, a project manager for the city’s consultant MacFarland Johnson, told members of the MSFI Committee that, while the raised medians will prevent left turns, drivers will be able to continue into the rotary and loop around to head in the opposite direction.
“In the proposed action, they would only be able to make a right turn, then they would use the roundabout to turn around and switch directions if that was the way they wanted to go,” he said.
Prior to the committee’s vote, Councilor Kris Roberts said he’s in favor of all the recommendations proposed by the steering committee, adding that left turns tend to back up traffic.
“That’s why I support the (raised) median because when no one’s looking, people will make a left turn there, so the median reinforces the need to help prevent people from taking a left turn and also (helps prevent people) from tying up traffic.”
Councilor Catherine “Catt” Workman added her support for the new rotaries at Krif and Matthews roads.
“I know we’re going to get a lot of heat from the public about the number of roundabouts we’re adding, but anyone who has driven through our newly constructed Key Road (roundabout) and the (roundabout) at Winchester, Pearl and Island streets, now that all lanes are opened, you can see it really does move traffic along.”
Center Street resident Laura Tobin, recently elected to the City Council representing Ward 4, said she was hesitant about more roundabouts in Keene. She added that she works on Kit Street, where it is “pretty impossible” to turn left onto Winchester Street.
Tobin asked whether it would be viable to put a lighted intersection at Kit Street instead of installing a median to restrict left turns.
Lussier responded that the NH Department of Transportation would not permit Keene to put a signalized intersection so close to the Route 101 roundabout, located just to the north.
“It would inevitably cause traffic to back up into the roundabout at Route 101 and pretty much stymie the intersection, so that’s not one of the options available for discussion,” he said.
Keene Mayor George Hansel told The Keene Sentinel that traffic volumes on Winchester Street between now and 2045 are expected to increase 20% to 30%, and the changes to the roadway would be made with that in mind.
In Swanzey, recommendations had included a third roundabout for the project, where the stretch of Route 10 intersects with the Market Basket driveway, to replace the signalized intersection, as well as pedestrian improvements. Also initially proposed for that stretch of roadway is one lane of travel in either direction with a dual-use turning lane to allow for left turns.
The Swanzey Select Board voted Sept. 27 to not include a roundabout, but they did approve the addition of sidewalks and one lane of travel for north and south with a dual-use lane in the middle, according to meeting minutes.
The work, and its cost, will be split between the two communities. The Keene–Swanzey line is just north of Market Basket.
The work in Keene carries an estimated cost of $8.6 million, Lussier has projected. However, Keene will be responsible for only 20% of that cost, with the state transportation department footing the rest of the bill.
The MSFI Committee’s recommendations are now headed to the full council for a vote. That meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. at Keene City Hall.
This article is being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
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