Friends of the Ledyard Bridge, a group of area residents, held a public meeting last night to discuss its opposition to a planned replacement bridge that will double the bridge's current width to 68 feet.
Although State Transportation Commissioner Charles O'Leary told the Valley News the $10-million plan was "settled," members of the group said last night they would fight the changes at the federal level if the state would not listen.
Group members, who spoke to about 75 area residents at the Howe Public Library, said they believe the new bridge will create serious traffic problems in Hanover as well as damage the aesthetics of the area.
"The proposed plan trashes both states," said Deborah Boettiger, one of the group's founders, who is from Norwich, Vt., located across Ledyard Bridge from Hanover.
The new bridge will have a lane running in each direction, a 16-foot median down the center and a sidewalk and bicycle path on both sides. It will be approximately eight feet higher than the current structure.
The New Hampshire side of the bridge will be almost 100 feet downstream from its current location, away from the Ledyard Canoe Club. According to a computer-generated image the group commissioned to project what the proposed bridge will look like, Norwich and Interstate 91, which crosses West Wheelock west of the bridge, will be visible from downtown Hanover.
Members are lobbying to reduce of the width and height of the proposed bridge, minimize changes to West Wheelock and keep the location of the new bridge where it is.
The proposed bridge will accommodate the 20,000 to 22,000 vehicle crossings per day that federal officials project for the year 2012. There are currently about 14,000 crossings per day, members said at last night's meeting.
Residents who attended the meeting expressed concern that the average speed of vehicles entering Hanover would increase, traffic bottlenecks now on the west end of the bridge will move into the center of Hanover and the number of trucks passing through town will increase.
No one at the meeting disagreed that the bridge, which is on New Hampshire's "Red List" of most structurally-deficient roadways in the state, needs to be replaced.
But the residents are disappointed that the state did not consider their viewpoints in the planning of the project. "We felt that not only were our voices unheard, but a lot of other people's," group member Fredrick Crory said.
Members of the group said the state made only minor changes in the original plan, reducing the width from 72 feet, after it solicited local opinion at town meetings last year.
The New Hampshire State Executive Council unanimously approved the project last fall and construction on the $10-million project is expected to begin in the fall of 1995.
Though state officials said the residents do not have much chance of success, members of the group disagreed last night, saying that federal officials had assured them it is not too late to change the plans. "If the state won't consider changes, we could go to the federal government because most of the money is from the federal government," Crory said
The federal government will pay for almost 80 percent of the cost, according to the handout, and New Hampshire and Vermont will pay for the rest.
