Portsmouth Herald Sunday 5 April, 1998

Plans to create a network of trails for cyclists, commuters rolling on

By Christine Gillette
Staff Writer

If you work on the Seacoast, you could be biking to the office as soon as next year. By then, a key component of the Seacoast/Great Bay Bicycle Transportation network will likely be completed, linking existing bike paths and roadways around the Seacoast. The bicycle network is the result of years of planning by local residents in conjunction with state and local officials. The chief proponent of the project has been Seacoast Area Bike Routes, also known as SABR, a grassroots organization of local biking enthusiasts.

The group has advocated for nearly a decade for the expansion of existing bike routes and the construction of new paths around the Seacoast that will allow commuters to use their bikes instead of cars to get to work. SABR contends, according to Cameron Wake, the group's president, that the Seacoast can im- prove its air quality by reducing the number of people who use cars to drive to and from work. Wake, a glaciologist at the University of New Hampshire, said the Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Seacoast as an ozone non attainment zone. That means several days a year, usually in the summer, ozone levels on the Seacoast exceed levels considered healthy by the EPA.

The Seacoast's ozone levels are usually at their worst in the summer, when more vehicles are in the area as a result of tourism, Wake said. Reducing the number of cars used for commuting could counter the additional cars of visitors. ..That's where the bike-path network comes in. "We can get 10-15 percent of short trips done by bicycle if we develop a quality bike route network," Wake said.

To achieve that, SABR has worked with municipal planners, state legislators, the Pease Development Authority and the state Department of Transportation to find a way to link existing bike paths and find funding to create new ones to establish a network around the Seacoast.

One of the main challenges to developing a network that will allow travel to and from Portsmouth and the bike paths to the north and west is finding a safe route by which cyclists can cross the Spaulding Turnpike to Pease International Tradeport to connect to those paths.

Currently, the only route between the two that is passable for cyclists is Gosling Road, which Wake described as very narrow, with a lot of traffic. "It's not a very pleasant ride or a very safe one," he said. Enter the centerpiece of the Seacoast/Great Bay Bicycle Transportation Network: the Rockingham Bikeway Bridge. The bridge will allow bicycles to travel from Rockingham Avenue in Portsmouth over the Spaulding Turnpike onto Ashlan-d Road at Pease.

"This overpass really represents a keystone in the bicycle network on the Seacoast," Wake said. Last month, the bridge cleared its final regulatory hurdle, gaining the approval of Portsmouth's Planning Board. With that in place, the final design process can begin on the bridge.

Bob Juliano, a project engineer with the state Department of Transportation, will oversee the final design, something he said could take as long as six months. "It will be approximately 120 feet long, and about 10 feet wide, and it will span the turnpike adjacent to the interstate bridges that are there now," Juliano said, adding that the bridge will look much like a standard highway overpass. "It's not going to change the view much," Wake said. "There's already an overpass there." The bridge will cost $800,000 to construct, combining federal and local funding with money raised from the community, Wake said. Of that $800,000, 80 percent will come from the federal government through the 1992 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. Better known as ISTEA (pronounced like the beverage), local funding will be required to pay for the remaining 20 percent of the bridge's cost, or $160,000. Picking up half of the local share of the project will be the PDA, and the city of Portsmouth will pay a quarter of it. That leaves $40,000 to be raised through contributions, an effort SABR is spearheading. While the design phase can continue, Wake said construction cannot begin without all the funds in place. To date, SABR must raise $23,000 to meet its obligation to the bridge project.

Wake said he has heard some mixed reaction to the price tag on the bridge, but "if you think about what the state spends per year on highways, it's a small amount." He estimated the state's highway budget at $20 million to $30 million.

Once the bridge is in place, it will provide the connecting point for bike paths and roadways that are either in place or will be built during 1998 and 1999. The result will be a network that runs from downtown Portsmouth, over the turnpike to Pease and into Newington. From Newington, cyclists can use the old General Sullivan Bridge to reach the Dover-Durham area, where a new bike path will be built in 1999 that will allow cyclists to access Route 108 and downtown Durham.

There are also proposals to run the bike route network all the way down Route 108 into Exeter, along Routes 101 and 33 from Stratham to Portsmouth, with branches running down to Rye and Hampton, according to SABR's map of the proposed network. "People are very enthusiastic with this project," Wake said, adding that now is the time to put the network in place to avoid future traffic problems. "We don't want to be New Jersey. It's a good time to make sure the infrastructure gets put in."

Wake said he and some of his friends started SABR because they wanted to preserve the quality of life on the Seacoast and make it easier to commute by bicycle. He said he rides his bike to work at UNH often and "just got sick of" how difficult that was to do. Because the group behind the plans consists of cyclists, Wake said the network will likely serve other area biking enthusiasts better. "We came up with these ideas and these plans ... not somebody who sits in an office every day. We're people who ride our bikes." SABR did have the help of some local planners in creating the network, especially the plans for the bridge.

Karen Jacoby, a community development program manager for the city of Portsmouth, helped the group secure its ISTEA funding. She said two other projects related to the network have received funding for the year 2000; one will set up bike racks at 11 different locations around the city, and the other will widen some local roads to better accommodate cyclists.

Jacoby said despite some residents concerns about the bikeway bridge, "it's got to be done and it's got to be done right. The longer we put it off, the more expensive it will be." Along with the city's support, Wake said state Sen. Burt Cohen and state Rep. Martha Fuller Clark have been advocates of the project. "There's so many positive aspects to an improved bike trail Cohen said, adding that he plans to use the network once it's completed "I think there's a lot of people that would like to use bikes more than they do." Cohen, a member of the Scenic Byways Committee that is looking at improving Routes 1A and 1B for all traffic, including bicycles, said the bike network will "really be a benefit to the area that will make it even more desirable." Cohen said his role in the Seacoast/Great Bay network been to speak on its behalf before various legislative committees and be a voice in general for providing room for bicycles on roads that are proposed. "There, are certain roads people would like to bike on, but they are dangerous right now," he said Cohen is in favor of the Pease connection to the bike network, stating that it will help integrate the Tradeport further into the com- munity. "It's a fabulous idea. Pease is growing tremendously and it's very difficult for people to commute (by bicycle) from Pease to Portsmouth now."

Both Cohen and PDA Executive Director George Meyer agree that the bike network also represents a good source for recreation as well as a commuter route. "Companies and the population in general look for those recreational activities," Meyer said In addition to supporting the bike network, Meyer said, the PDA is looking for other ways to pro vide alternative transportation in the area. Currently, the PDA is also working on plans with the city of Portsmouth to establish an alternative-fuel bus shuttle service between Pease and downtown Portsmouth.

Wake said the bike network could be the first in a series of steps towards developing alternative forms of transportation in the region. Wake said, "I really hope that this will be the first step in changing the nature of our transportation system in New Hampshire."

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