Agenda

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

A two-lane cross-section will reduce the
cost of the roadway significantly yet will
not reduce its effectiveness.

The Parkway should incorporate trail
elements that substantially implement
the City's Master Plan for trails and
greenways.

All efforts should be made to pre-
serve and protect the Tree Streets Neigh-
borhood, located at the road's southern
terminus. The greatest impacts will likely

occur on Elm Street between Hollis and

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

neighborhoods, and creation of new
neighborhood fabric, particularly at
the southern end of the Parkway. The
preferred alternative does this
through a downsized street, the
adoption of urban street design
guidelines, and the connection to the
existing street system at numerous

points.

+ Multi-Modal The preferred design is
multi-modal, providing connections
to the regional trail system and

extension of the local trail system.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

UREAN

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

should not be provided. A two-lane
roadway provides an increment of
capacity that is far more than ade-
quate for any reasonable projection of
new downtown growth in Nashua.

+ Address Value The design features
of the preferred Parkway — specifi-
cally its accessibility, design speed
and size — should add to the value of

the road as an address. Supporting

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

City policies (zoning, redevelopment Bo
initiatives, etc.) should foster the role

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

render a number of land parcels into
unusable fragments. Such land
gained in excess of real footprint is
not suitable for other uses, such as
park land or an adjacent trail. The
intersections (particularly at Ledge
Street, with its seven-lane approach)
are notably larger than anything now
existing on any surface street within
the City of Nashua.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

would be highly valuable in redirect-
ing east/west traffic now on Amherst
Street through Railroad Square to
other locations (most obviously, to
Franklin Street, thereby crossing
Main Street away from Railroad
Square).

UREAN

Broad Street Park-
way: “An armature
for everything”
Hf designed well, the
road can provide (A)
access to redevelopment
parcels, (B) connections
to a regional trail
system, (C) an
extension of a local trail
system, and (D}
improvements to signal
operations at Railroad

Square,

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

design speed is incompatible with the
densely developed urban fabric (or
what should be such fabric) in the
road corridor. Design speeds in the
40-50 miles per hour range are
appropriate for suburban arterials, in
which mobility is the highest consid-
eration. For urban streets for which
access and urban street values are the
primary consideration, design speeds
of around half this amount (i.e., 25 to
30 miles-per-hour) are more appro-

priate.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

allel alternate route to the Main
Street crossing of the Nashua River,
one of the most problematical traffic
“bottlenecks” in the City.

* The proposed Parkway provides a
large increment of new access to the
Millyard district, enabling travel
between the Millyard and the north
side of the Nashua River without

requiring the use of Main Street.

However the Master Plan team
developed an alternative which better
meets the goals of the City and Down-
town.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

To this end, the planning team
reviewed and analyzed the current pro-
posal, interviewed the community devel-
opment staff, public works staff, and the
regional planning commission staff, con-
ducted a field examination, and applied
national experience from other similar
projects to the design of the Broad Street
Parkway.