Concord Downtown Complete Streets Improvements Project

The American Public Works Association established the Small Cities/Rural Communities Project of the Year award to recognize creativity, ingenuity, and efficiency by public agencies that serve 75,000 or fewer people. New Hampshire’s capital city demonstrated proficiency in all three when transforming its central business district.

Concord is a pre-Revolutionary War community that’s now home to 43,000 people living within 68 square miles. With 60 buildings dating to the 1800s and early 1900s that house nearly 200 stores and restaurants and 30 offices and government agencies, Concord is considered to have the most diverse downtown in the state. In 1997, the city published a master plan for dedicating one of Main Street’s four lanes to multimodal use. That was followed by a 2020 Vision Report in 2001, a corridor study in 2005, a streetscaping plan in 2006, an economic development and transportation enhancement study in 2011, and a $4.7 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant application in 2012.

With buy-in from the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission Transportation Improvement Plan, which advocates Complete Streets principles, the grant application was successful. The city ultimately accommodated bicycles, motorists, pedestrians, and public transportation via Super Two lane configuration, a design that maximizes the capacity, mobility, and safety of existing two-lane roads. Widening the sidewalks to provide space for outdoor seating, public art, and more accessible business entrances meant losing parking spaces, but the city council supported the move. With residents repeatedly asked to help brainstorm solutions, their thoughts turned from road and parking capacity to shared allocation of space and economic vitality.

Balancing so many new uses within the same footprint earned the project team — the city as managing agency, Serverino Trucking Co. Inc. as primary contractor, and McFarland Johnson Inc. as primary consultant — an American Public Works Association 2017 Public Works Project of the Year award in the Small Cities/Rural Communities – Transportation category, which includes historical restoration, preservation, and adaptive reuse of buildings, structures, and facilities.

By remaining focused on the benefits Complete Streets solutions offer to multiple stakeholders, the improvements are enhancing mobility and safety and driving economic renewal.