By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
HAMPTON – To reduce crossover crashes on Interstate 95 in the Seacoast – which sees close to 100,000 vehicles per day – the Executive Council is expected to vote Wednesday to spend almost $5 million on a protective median for five miles.
It is expected to be the first segment to attempt to block head-on collisions in median crossovers from Portsmouth to the Massachusetts state line.
Sargent Corporation of Orono, Maine, was the winning and lowest of three bidders for installation starting at mile marker 8.0 in North Hampton, just north of the NH 151 bridge and continuing north through Greenland to mile marker 13.3 just north of the Sherburne Road bridge in Portsmouth.
Executive Councilor Janet Stevens, R-Rye, has been urging the Department of Transportation to do something now about the many fatal and catastrophic accidents over the past few years.
Commissioner of Transportation William Cass wrote that the recent crashes “prompted a focus on this route.”
https://media.sos.nh.gov/govcouncil/2025/0827/14B%20GC%20Agenda%20082725.pdf.
Consideration of the use of median barriers is recommended for roads with high daily traffic and medians more than 50 feet wide, he said, noting that the provisions had changed. In previous years, the stretch of road did not qualify for a federally funded buffer.
In this section, Cass said, the median is 66 to 75 feet wide and there is an Annual Daily Traffic census of between 85,000 and 100,000 vehicles per day.
While the bids came in higher than the department estimate, Cass said it would only cost more to rebid and take more time.
He recommended it as a “prudent safety” item which will be paid for with federal funds and tolls.
The contract includes a $500,000 cushion for latent conditions which may appear and the contract is effective immediately and through Sept. 18, 2026.
These and other contracts are on the table when the Executive Council sits down at the Seashell building overlooking Hampton Beach State Park Wednesday. The “roadshow” tour of the council each summer has the governor and councilors going to each district for a local meeting and Stevens said she is expecting a breakfast meeting preview of the infrastructure of the region.
A focus will be on the I-95 bridge to Maine.
It is possible that the governor could nominate someone to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice James Bassett.
Discussion about the purchase of a Nashua industrial property to a Chinese company is expected at the table with focus on what the state did to recruit the business. Three councilors have asked for a better understanding of what occurred.
The meetings are open to the public beginning at 10 a.m. and the agenda is here:https://www.sos.nh.gov/meeting/august-27-2025-gc-agenda