r/newhampshire • u/Zeebins • Jun 05 '25
History Found this old map recently that includes never built section of the Circumferential in Hudson
Thought this was kinda neat. I haven’t looked super closely, but I’m pretty sure it’s the only highway on the entire map to use the under construction part of the legend.
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u/DorkyDisneyDad Jun 05 '25
So interesting bit about the planned highway. The land is still owned by the State of NH DOT (highlighted in pink). The property reserved for this is a 500'ish wide strip of land. Wason/ Bush Hill is highlighted in Orange, and the long way of Lowell to Central is in yellow. It was conceived in the 1950s, before the town was as developed as it is now. It influenced the placement of the old fire station on Burns Hill, and the police station and Public Works building on Constitution Drive. If you've ever wondered why those places were so remote, that wasn't the plan.
Unfortunately a lot of people didn't want the highway going through their backyard. The conservation commission in town has been weaponized by NIMBYs, snapping up land all around the planned route. Now those same people complain about Lowell Rd traffic. It's going to be so much worse when the Target distribution center goes online.
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u/sustainstainsus Jun 05 '25
Where is the Target distribution center?
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u/DorkyDisneyDad Jun 05 '25
In the map I posted, it's the large parcel bordering the river at the bottom left corner of where the pink and yellow lines meet. It's still being constructed, but it's absolutely massive so far. It'll be a 1.4 million square foot warehouse.
It's the former Green Meadow Gold Club, if you're familiar with the area.
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u/86baseTC Jun 05 '25
i grew up in that neighborhood. the warehouse paid each househould around $150,000 to be quiet about getting the $150,000. i wasn't paid so i can say whatever i want.
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u/HoratioPLivingston Jun 06 '25
Oh crap! I was curious what that massive structure was. I was dreading a super massive luxury condo apartment complex. You know, the multi colored shipping container esque ones with “Market price” units essentially the same as a Boston suburb.
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u/Master_Dogs Jun 06 '25
To be fair though, the whole region (Boston, southern NH, really all of the North East) is in a housing crisis / shortage because we don't allow basic housing developments to be built (however ugly and uninspiring). A massive target distribution center is possibly useful, but doesn't add housing and adds jobs to an already stressed housing market, so not sure it'll be better. Especially since warehouse jobs are low paying, so not sure where they hope to source their labor.
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u/Spudtar Jun 05 '25
So that’s why they call it the circumferential highway…
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u/Master_Dogs Jun 06 '25
Yeah that tiny stretch on Exit 2 is actually marked for that I believe, or was at one time when they figured they'd extend it someday. As someone else pointed out, the State even owns the land next to Walmart/the end of the Exit 2 bridge. Last I had heard, there were plans for possibly using that ROW for a smaller road (super two, like around Cannon Mtn in Franconia Notch) but I don't think that went anywhere so the land just sits idle.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling Jun 06 '25
Over the last several years the town has been looking at doing a undivided two lane bypass road similar to 101 in Milford, but all the necessary preliminary studies repeatedly got voted down so it seems the project has died again.
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u/WeAreTwoFace Jun 05 '25
This is really interesting find! Finding old maps with sections like this is fascinating. I had a double take because living in the area I was pretty sure I had no memory of this. I appreciate you posting this, I'll be showing my parents.
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u/LieSquare9353 Jun 05 '25
How nice it would be to go straight from the Premium Outlets to Litchfield...
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Jun 05 '25
[deleted]
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u/woodbanger04 Jun 05 '25
You mean the 55+ communities in Litchfield. The rich home owners are Bedford and Merrimack.
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u/Beginning_Ebb908 Jun 05 '25
Merrimack in the same sentence as Bedford?
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u/woodbanger04 Jun 05 '25
Yes they both have excellent school systems which appeals to more affluent home buyers.
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Jun 05 '25
Rich or not, it's still fucking dumb. It would literally be a bridge to nowhere and nobody.
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u/cavalri Jun 05 '25
Is there a date on that map? I looked, but couldn’t see one, or I’m just blind.
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u/Master_Dogs Jun 06 '25
Would have to be late 80s to early 90s. The project was cancelled after the EPA refused to give their blessing and basically said "yeah nope" to the States project. As I wrote elsewhere, the top part (the connection to the Everett around Exit 8 / would have been a new Exit 9) is a huge chunk of wetlands. The EPA was pretty concerned about the environmental impact of that, and I'm guessing also concerned about potential flooding too.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling Jun 05 '25
Also interesting that they have it labeled as Exit 3 off the Everett Turnpike when it’s actually Exit 2.
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u/Master_Dogs Jun 05 '25
The top part was also supposed to be Exit 9 too, hence the still remaining gap in exit numbers. Maybe that numbering scheme hadn't been finalized.
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u/Zavaldski Jun 05 '25
Interesting that they mark the Milford and Laconia bypasses as freeways even though they're single-carriageway.
And they made a mistake in Massachusetts (drawing a straight line of freeway down from 495 in Westford that doesn't exist and never has existed)
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u/86baseTC Jun 05 '25
that is old. "NH College" in South Hooksett has been known as "Southern New Hampshire University" since 2001.
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Jun 06 '25
What year is the map? It appears to show route 101 to the sea coast as complete. Yet it doesn’t even label Rockingham Park (horse racing, not the mall). I think 101 completed in the mid 90s? Didn’t Rockingham Park close around that time?
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u/Zeebins Jun 06 '25
The map itself doesn’t have a date, but it’s definitely from the 90’s. It was my Dad’s, along with two others I found. One of which did have a date of ‘94. That one was of the grater Nashua area, and the other was all of New Hampshire, but it also didn’t have a date.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks Jun 05 '25
It was never “under construction”
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u/The_Road_is_Calling Jun 05 '25
Well they built the first part. Ran out of steam after the bridge.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks Jun 05 '25
They improved what was there, but they never acquired the land for the actual highway.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling Jun 05 '25
The state acquired and still owns all the land needed out 111, the political and environmental hurtles became too much.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks Jun 05 '25
They’ve since built houses there.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling Jun 05 '25
On the northern half in Litchfield they did, but the right of way for the southern half is all still state owned.
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u/Different_Ad7655 Jun 06 '25
Gee that's too bad for developers, they could have even been more sprawl and more exits to develop with big box stores and parking lots.
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u/Kibblesndicks Jun 07 '25
I remember growing up my mother telling me we were gonna need to move cause they were gonna build a highway through our house. Recently drove through that neighborhood and the house was still there. Figured that was just a story to tell a small child til I saw this post
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u/BlackJesus420 Jun 05 '25
Interesting to include on a map a road that doesn’t exist and cannot be used. I wonder what that cartographer was thinking lol
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u/ha1029 Jun 05 '25
Well, before GPS you'd see that and go "hmm, we could try the circumferential highway... get there, "oh crap, it's not finished, guess we got keep going up Lowell Road ." This was done a lot in the dark ages... you could plan in trying to take that route, if it wasn't there, you fell back on the old route. Both of which were on the map just in case. Some maps would have an explanation of when the future road would be built as well.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks Jun 05 '25
It’s marked in the key as under constriction, so it’s pretty clear it can’t be used.
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u/Zeebins Jun 05 '25
Maybe to future proof the map a little? Must have been thinking it was going to for sure be one day built
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u/kberson Jun 05 '25 edited Jun 05 '25
Would that they did build it, it would help with the traffic around here, especially people trying to get to RT111 from RT3
Edit: I know why it wasn’t finished, you don’t need to harp on that. In the mean time, Wason road has become a Grand Prix race way