By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

For many Hooksett residents, the massive construction project further congesting the town's busiest intersection, Route 3/28 and the 28 Bypass, is little more than a nuisance.

Drivers pile up on Hooksett Road at the intersection with Londonderry Turnpike as construction continues. If all goes well, the Y-shaped intersection will be turned into a T-shape by this fall. Businesses in the construction area are suffering. (Nicholas Brown Photo)

Yet for some, including several business owners working adjacent to construction sites, construction creates severe consequences.

"Business is down 35 to 40 percent," said Kim Goodwin, owner of Song's Cleaners, a small dry-cleaning store on Route 3 just north of the 28 Bypass. "People told me they're tired of the traffic. They told me they're taking another road and not going by here anymore."

Goodwin said that, in a town with two dry-cleaning stores, regular customers are at a premium. Goodwin's daughter, Oumi, added that even visits from regular customers are less frequent since construction resumed in the spring.

"We have customers that would come in once a week," she said. "Now they might just come once a month."

Ray Verley, one of two employees at the Route 3 Mobil station, echoed similar sentiments.

"Business has been lousy," said Verley. "People will come into the store and say, 'I didn't know if you were open or closed.'"

Businesses like Song's and the Hooksett Mobil may have some time to wait before sales are back to normal.

Tim Chapman, the contract administrator for the construction project, said completion has been tentatively slated for fall, but a recent snag may cause delays that could push the project into next year. Work originally began at the intersection last fall.

Chapman said construction has been indefinitely postponed until the Verizon company can splice and replace some telephone wires running alongside Route 3.

"We can't do anything until that utility work gets done," said Chapman, who's job is to monitor the project's progress and oversee contractors and subcontractors.

Chapman said no time has been set for Verizon to begin work, and subsequently no time can be set for its exit. He stressed that utility companies tend to shy away from setting strict timetables since they often deal with emergency work.

"When they get done, we'll be back in there as soon as we can," said Chapman. "If it's a couple of weeks, great. If it's a lot longer than that, that's not good."

Once utility work is complete, Chapman said, regular work will resume. He said 800 feet of gas line, running from the Mobil station to the intersection leading to the Granite State Marketplace, needs to be lowered. Also, Chapman said, some drainage work has yet to be done on the west side of Route 3, just north of the 99 Restaurant. The final phase of the project will include doing some curbing and applying three layers of paving.

"Will we get the top on this year?" Chapman asked, rhetorically. "I don't know. That will depend on how quickly we can get back out there. I'm still optimistic that we can get this done this year."

In the meantime, local business owners have some skepticism about the project. Verley, who works the night shift as a manager, wondered why work is done during the day, when traffic volumes are higher.

"I don't see why they can't work out here at night," he said. "It's like a ghost town around here."

Chapman said night work creates higher cost and reduces the quality of work.

"Nobody typically wants to work at night, and you don't get as many people who want to bid on contracts," he said. "And it doesn't matter how high a quality artificial lights you have, you just can't see as well."

Chapman said he's made every effort to alleviate traffic delays, including hiring both state and local police officers - who can be seen on site daily - and scheduling more invasive work around heavy traffic times, like morning and afternoon rush hours.

"We try to make sure everybody can get exactly to where they want to go," he said. "The thing a lot of people don't understand is that we're not slowing people down just to slow them down. We want to finish and get to the next job too."

Yet as construction lumbers through summer, stifling some local businesses and creating often interminable traffic delays, some Hooksett residents are feeling the strain.

Josh Durham, a Manchester High School Central student, said he often bears the brunt of traffic-jam-induced road rage. The 16-year-old, who regularly rides his bicycle along Route 3 to visit friends, said, "You can't ride through here without people yelling at you. I can't stand it."