NASHUA HIGHWAY ENGINEERS must plan for all kinds of variables — weather, traffic, geology, wetlands, and the occasional beaver or long-eared bat. That’s what the designers and construction crews are dealing with as they work to replace two crumbling 70-year-old bridges over a main source of Nashua’s water supply. Prep work started this spring for a new six-lane bridge spanning Bowers Pond, a reservoir that runs under the F.
E. Everett Turnpike between Exits 8 and 10 in Nashua and Merrimack. Although maintaining traffic flow over the narrowest stretch of the highway widening project from Nashua to Bedford has been a top priority, so has keeping the drinking water safe, as well as protecting the critters who inhabit the undeveloped woods around the reservoir.
“This project is proposing to minimize impacts by only expanding the road and bridge on the east side, widening the highway about 19 feet. In addition, we are constructing the new abutments behind the old abutments so as to disturb less area in and around the water,” said Richard Arcand, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. Right now, that means creating the base for the wider bridge.
Once the northbound lanes for the new bridge are done, crews will work on the middle portion of the bridge. Once that’s done, they’ll shift southbound traffic to the middle and complete the west side of the bridge. The temporary goal is to keep at least two lanes open in each direction throughout the proj.