When it comes to improving the streets of a 400-year-old community, planning is paramount. That’s why the city of Portsmouth, N.H., began preparing for its Islington Street Corridor project more than two decades ago.

“Development on this project literally began in the late 1990s, between the studies that were done originally and how we were going to make everything work for modern times,” said Dave Desfosses, city construction project manager for engineering and operations. “In fact, there were three projects we had to complete in order to get ready for the work on Islington.”

The road to renovation

Named for a neighborhood in London, England, Islington Street is Portsmouth’s main connector road to the outside world and an historic thoroughfare for the city, which was incorporated in 1653. In addition to being home to a number of old buildings and businesses over the years, it is also the main utility corridor for the city and is where the original spring-fed, wooden water mains were installed beginning in the late 18th century. Those historic water lines were subsequently paved over in yellow brick to accommodate carriages as they passed through town.

“It’s true, we actually had a yellow brick road in Portsmouth that ran alongside the city’s trolley tracks,” Desfosses said.

As city leaders began envisioning streetscape improvements along the Islington Street Corridor, they knew they would need to include roadway reconstruction, curbing and sidewalk installation, and landscape improvements. The municipal engineers knew it was also their opportunity to complete a larger underground renovation that would replace the gas, water and sewer lines while creating a stormwater drainage system that the city previously did not have.

That meant that crews had to systematically work on the adjacent roads to install stormwater infrastructure and bring that infrastructure up to Islington, so that when the corridor project began, everything would be in place.

“We had to realign all sorts of utility infrastructure on the side roads before we could even that to build this project,” Desfosses said.

Another reason for the long planning process was to make the project affordable for the folks who live in the area. Situated along the Piscataqua River in Rockingham County, Portsmouth is a city of nearly 22,000 that swells to 100,000 periodically thanks to seasonal tourism, as well as the portion of the Pease Air Force Base that is still in use by the Air National Guard. While Islington Street is used by any number of travelers and commuters, it is the residents who pick up the tab for any improvements, so it was important to public works officials to work incrementally and intentionally in order to get the biggest bang for the buck.

“It’s mainly local money that was funded, using local bonding,” Desfosses said. “I think we are up to about $17 million from soup to nuts at this point, and we have been trying to work in $4-$7 million chunks so that we are not over-bonding ourselves.”

A plan of action

According to the city of Portsmouth, the Islington Street Corridor Project design incorporated the recommendations of several planning studies that were conducted over the years, including the 2009 Islington Street Improvement Action Plan, the 2014 Bicycle/Pedestrian Plan, and the “character-based” zoning public charette held in 2015. The design effort also included improvements to parking and vehicular and pedestrian uses to determine proper lane widths, sidewalk widths and intersection and roadbed designs, as well as pavement types and thicknesses.

The work was completed by Severin Construction of Candia, N.H., in two phases across fiscal year 2024 and 2025, with Phase 2B to be finished this summer.

Desfosses said that the work was carried out in discrete sections to limit the impact the project had on residents and businesses alike, while creating a “complete street” that everyone can enjoy.

“Naturally, there is always some pushback, especially when you are working on a main road,” he said. “You have to do things very methodically so that you are not driving out businesses, and you have to communicate with the public to let them know what is going on so that they can plan their travel routes accordingly. We used a lot of thoughtful signage so that people who didn’t want to drive through the construction zone didn’t have to, but at the same time, we didn’t want to discourage them from using their local businesses.”

As the last traffic signals, sidewalks and finishing touches are being installed on the Islington Street Corridor project, Desfosses said it has been a fairly smooth process thanks to the city’s careful planning over the past two decades.

“Thoughtful planning is 90 percent of the process,” he said. “Planning and communication with your residents. You can’t overly communicate with people. When folks know what the plan is and how it will impact them, they are less likely to get anxious about what is happening.”

Next Article: Pickleball holds court in Boerne, Texas