Conway Bypass (New Hampshire)

The Conway Bypass is a proposed rerouting of New Hampshire Route 16 around the villages of Conway and North Conway. Though it has been in a proposal stage for decades, the project is still slowly moving forward. To date, multiple related early stage projects have been completed, including most recently upgrading the North–South Road near North Conway.

Conway Bypass
(Proposed)
LocationCarroll County, New Hampshire
FromMadison
ToBartlett
BypassingConway, North Conway
AgencyNHDOT

The proposed route is split into three sections: southern, middle, and northern.

Sections
Southern

The southern section is planned to run from the two-lane section of present-day Route 16 near the Conway–Albany border to the US 302–NH 113 intersection, effectively detouring to the south of Conway village. As of March 2020, no major work has been done on this section.

Middle

The middle section of the highway is planned to run from the US 302–NH 113 intersection to near the present day Wal-Mart location, crossing the site of the former White Mountain Airport. Portions of this leg have seen preliminary work, such as clearing.

Northern

The northern section of the highway is planned to run adjacent to the North–South Road near North Conway. Preliminary work has been done to facilitate this, including a leg leading from a new rotary.

Funding

New Hampshire state laws require the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) to propose an improvement plan for the state's transportation system every two years.[1] In practice, these plans look forward 10 years, hence are known as "10-year plans".

On June 25, 2008, then Governor of New Hampshire John Lynch signed the state's 2009–2018 Ten Year Transportation Improvement Plan, which included the southern leg of the Conway Bypass. Construction was planned to start in 2015 and last four years, splitting the southern leg of the bypass into three phases during that time.[2]

The middle and northern sections were not part of the 2009–2018 plan. On April 13, 2010, with doubt of the middle and northern sections being built, Conway voters removed the late-1990s-created overlay district for these sections, allowing for development within 500 feet (150 m) of the state-owned bypass corridor.[3]

On July 2, 2018, Governor Chris Sununu signed the state's 2019–2028 Ten Year Transportation Improvement Plan. That plan contained two sections regarding the Conway bypass:[4]

  • "358:9 Conway. The state aid highway program funding for the project named Conway, project number 40018, for $702,211 shall be removed and replaced with $702,211 in federal funds."
  • "358:17 Department of Transportation; Conway. The projects named Conway, project numbers 11339J, 11339T, and 13339U which were previously removed from the state 10-year transportation plan, are added to the plan using federal funds totaling one dollar."

References
  1. "Ten Year Plan Home Page". NHDOT. Retrieved August 13, 2019 – via NH.gov.
  2. Conway Daily Sun, June 27, 2008
  3. Conway Daily Sun, April 14, 2010
  4. "TEN YEAR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2019 - 2028" (PDF). NHDOT. July 2, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2019 – via NH.gov. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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