Peverly Hill Road Complete Streets Project

JAN 2023 UPDATE

The City’s Peverly Hill Road Complete Streets project continues to make steady progress through the federally funded and state managed LPA process. The following highlights the major milestones:

• In April 2022 the City’s consultant, McFarland Johnson, submitted the Preliminary Design plans, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document and construction cost estimate to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) for review.
• In late October 2022 the City received review comments from the NHDOT on the Preliminary Design plans.
• In early November 2022 the project received its NEPA approval

and status/next steps:

• Responses to the Preliminary Design comments are being prepared by the City’s consultant and will be submitted to the NHDOT in January 2023.
• After resubmission of the Preliminary Design Plans, the project will need to go before the DOT’s Estimate Review Committee (ERC) due to the large increase in the construction cost estimate, to determine additional funding needs.
• After review and approval of the Preliminary Design Plans, which could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, the DOT will allow the City to develop the Final Design/Plans, Specifications and Estimate (PS&E) package for the project. This is when the City is allowed to begin the Right of Way acquisition process to obtain the necessary land for construction of the project. The PS&E package is then submitted to the DOT for review and approval.
• After review and approval of the PS&E package, the DOT will allow the City to prepare and submit the bid package for review and approval.
• After review and approval of the bid package, the DOT will allow the City to begin advertising for bids on the project.

Public Use & Necessity Hearing, October 14, 2021 (Legal Notice)

Peverly Hill Road Project Public Necessity Hearing Presentation, October 14, 2021

Resolution for Public Necessity Hearing with Addendum A, October 14, 2021

Peverly Hill Road Project preliminary plans, September 2021

Peverly Hill Road Project design details, September 2021

Peverly Hill Road impact detail, September 2021

For all meeting presentation slides and background information, click on the links below.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING MON JUL 12, 2021. For a recording of the meeting, click here.

NEIGHBORHOOD INPUT MEETING MON JUN 28, 2021. For a recording of the meeting, click here.

PEVERLY HILL ROAD PROJECT REPORT BACK TO CITY COUNCIL, Mon Apr 19. For a recording of that meeting, click here. 

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Lack of adequate drainage, narrow road cross section and right of way width have long been significant challenges to reconstruction of this busy roadway. The City has obtained a State/Federal grant to help fund improvements that will link the Middle Road/Portsmouth Plains area to the Route 1 corridor. The State funding for the project comes from the Federal Congestion Management and Air Quality program. The funding requires that the project be separated into distinct phases of Engineering/Conceptual Design, Preliminary Design, Final Design, and Construction. State and Federal review and approval of each phase of the project is required before the City can receive additional funding to proceed on to the next phase of the project.

Based on public comments and feedback during the Conceptual Design stage, the preferred alternative provides a shared-use (bicycle and pedestrian) path on the south side of the roadway, and a sidewalk along the north side of the road.

During the Preliminary Design stage, the City is developing plans to address resident comments received at the last public meeting in March 2019. These revisions required additional field surveying and an increase in the project scope and fee. This request has now been approved by the NH DOT and the revisions are in progress.

As of November 7, 2022, the project has received its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) approval and the City has received comments on the Preliminary Design plans from the NHDOT. Responses to the comments will now be submitted to the NHDOT for their review and approval. 

Then, after NH DOT gives their final approval on the Preliminary Design plans, the right-of-way process can begin to obtain the necessary easements and land required to construct the project. Preparation of the Final Design plans would also commence at this time. It is expected that the right-of-way process and Final Design will take approximately a year, with construction possibly beginning as soon as 2024.