Have you ever heard of the Circumferential Highway or the Broad Street Parkway? If you are new to Nashua, you probably have no idea what I am talking about. Both are transportation projects in and around Nashua that have had long and not so successful histories.

The Circumferential Highway was originally planned to create a loop around Nashua extending from Exit 2 on the F.E. Everett Turnpike over to Hudson and up through Lichtfield before curving back to the Everett Turnpike near Merrimack to create what would have been exit 9. Mainly because of environmental concerns and some funding issues, the actual building of the Circumferential Highway was delayed for decades. Eventually, the first half of the Circumferential Highway was built, but the second half never was.

The plan for the Broad Street Parkway was also driven by the desire to alleviate traffic in and around Nashua and to facilitate the city's further growth. This project has been in the works for more than twenty years, and large parcels of land have been acquired by the City in order to make the road a reality. Yet no pavement has been put down, and stakeholders of various persuasions continue to hold conflicting views.

You can read more about these troubled projects in a new library publication that is planned to be made available in May 2008. The publication will serve as an addendum to The Nashua Experience : History in the Making which covers the history of Nashua from 1673-1978. More news on that later.

In my next blog entry, I will go into more detail about these two troubled transportation projects, and point you towards some electronic resources where you learn more about the projects' future.