From this angle, the rotary construction project at the intersection of Main and Winchester/Marlboro Streets in downtown Keene doesn’t look terribly different from when they started detouring traffic back in May. Yesterday I was back in Keene after more than two weeks away, and I was hoping to be able to drive on the new rotary. Instead, I found freshly painted directionals on new pavement, but Main Street itself is still closed, at least if you’re driving in a car rather than riding a bike.
It takes a surprisingly long time to turn an angular intersection into a circular roundabout. In the meantime, residents have had to withstand a summer of construction noise, re-routed traffic, and dead-ends. Being more off-road-worthy than cars, pedestrians have already tested the fresh pavement, crossing this usually-busy intersection as if there were no construction getting in the way.
Viewed from another angle, rotary construction looks more like deconstruction, the segment of Winchester Street that borders the northeastern corner of the Keene State College campus being an unpaved, dusty mess right now.
Considering that parents will be moving their students back to campus next weekend, you have to hope construction will be completed by then. Otherwise, frustrated families will have to yield to construction headaches.
Aug 19, 2007 at 6:30 am
Yikes.
Sep 7, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Funny, a group of us were sitting in the teacher’s lounge today talking of KSC memories. Randall Hall came up and poof - here it is. I’d like to take a drive to Keene. It’s been awhile.