A map shows the proposed emergency/bus connector road between Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Sachem Village in Lebanon, N.H. (Courtesy of the City of Lebanon)
A connector road between Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Sachem Village, a Dartmouth graduate student housing community, is under discussion by city officials once again.
As proposed, the limited-access road would create a shortcut between Sachem Village, which is off of Route 10 near Hanover, and the DHMC campus that could potentially be used by emergency services, Advance Transit, Dartmouth College’s private shuttle system and bicycle commuters.
The college owns Sachem Village and a large portion of surrounding land. The 255-unit housing complex is primarily for graduate students with their partners and families. A small section of the forest on the east side is owned by Dartmouth Health. There are currently trails on the conserved land between the two properties.
Lebanon Mayor Tim McNamara, who is the associate director of facilities operations and management at Dartmouth, pitched the road idea during an Oct. 2 City Council meeting. He emphasized that the project is in very early stages and is still “conceptual.”
“There’s a lot of things that need to be looked at; how much value would it provide, is it feasible to construct with the topography, to what extent are the easements and conservation things that exist there going to be a factor in determining alignment or laying out the road,” Deputy City Manager David Brooks said in a Thursday interview. “There’s a lot of things to study before we can really determine whether it makes sense to do.”
The biggest barriers to getting a connector project off the ground seem to be that the property is in a conservation area and the uneven terrain would make construction difficult, Brooks said.
McNamara’s current idea would expand on the existing network of walking trails connecting the two properties to create a gated, limited access road that could only be used by approved vehicles. The road would not be publicly accessible for all vehicles, but there could be a multi-use path alongside the road for bicyclists and pedestrians.
The road would be roughly 4,000-feet long and cross through Indian Ridge conservation area just above Boston Lot, according to a mock-up of a path created by City Engineer Rod Finley. The mocked-up road does not cross through buffer areas around protected wetlands, conservation easement land or ecologically significant areas, McNamara said.
Familiar concept
This is far from the first time a connector road has come up.
McNamara, himself, first explored the connector project while working as project manager for the reconstruction of Sachem Village, beginning in 2005, but it didn’t get off the ground.
Much has changed since then, he said, particularly with the expansion of public transportation, Dartmouth’s own shuttle service and bicycle commuting.
While he does not know how far the discussion dates back, the oldest mention Brooks — who has been with the city since 2005 — knows of a connector road was in the mid to late ’80s, when the conservation easement for Indian Ridge, a protected area between Sachem Village and DHMC, was written.
Indian Ridge includes an existing trail network over forested, uneven terrain. It also connects to the DHMC trail system and the city-owned Boston Lot.
Indian Ridge is protected in a conservation easement between Dartmouth College and the town of Hanover. The 1987 deed that includes the easement mentions that “at some time in the future” there may be a road or roads between Route 10 and Route 120 in the conserved area. In that case, the easements can be relocated to accommodate a road and this will be discussed between the College and Town of Hanover.
The topic of a connector road also came up in 1986, when DHMC was planning its move from Hanover to Lebanon.
“Each time Dartmouth Health has had a big project come along, it sort of raises the point of how can we get people up to the top of the hill there without just cramming more people onto Route 120,” Brooks said.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, planners discussed building a direct traffic connection between Route 120 and Route 10 during Route 120 corridor traffic improvement studies, Brooks said. In addition to a road, planners discussed other options, including a tunnel and a gondola. The planning team dropped the idea at the time because it did not seem like “a quick fix,” and it was difficult to model the benefits.
The Lebanon Planning and Development Department is currently working on another Route 120 corridor study, but the study area ends just past the DHMC campus and does not include Sachem Village nor Route 10.
‘Further investigation’
Dartmouth College and DHMC, the primary land owners in the proposed area, and Advance Transit all seem open to McNamara’s idea.
The college could use the road to connect Sachem Village, Summit on Juniper — another student housing complex in Lebanon on the other side of the forested area from Sachem — and Dartmouth College on one route of their shuttle system. The path would allow the college to create a looping route instead of the two separate routes that currently connect the housing units to the college, McNamara said.
Dartmouth supports improving the “overall sustainability, efficiency and reliability of public transportation in our region,” Josh Keniston, senior vice president for capital planning and campus operations, said in an email statement this week.
“The connector could potentially address all three elements, and we support further investigation of the concept and are open to being a partner in the work if it proves to be a viable option,” Keniston said.
Meanwhile, David Duncan, vice president of facilities systems at Dartmouth Health, “is generally supportive of this concept because Dartmouth Health is always open to exploring any road projects that could enhance connectivity and reduce travel times around our campus to improve patient experience,” Audra Burns, a DH spokeswoman, said in a Thursday email.
Creating such a road would significantly reduce the distance emergency vehicles have to travel between the west side of Lebanon and the hospital. Currently, to go from the west side of town near Sachem Village to the hospital, emergency vehicles must go up through downtown Hanover where there are multiple traffic lights and often congestion.
It is important that the city continues to assess how this project may benefit emergency services, Councilor George Sykes said in the meeting recording.
“We already know that our resources for the fire services are stretched and if we can get people back in service quicker, I see a great value in that because it means they’re more readily available for the next patient,” Sykes said.
Advance Transit is also interested in the project. The nonprofit organization is currently applying for a grant to study how this connector might improve their service, which could take several months.
“If AT finds that this does not or would not improve their service significantly, then there may be no reason to go any further,” McNamara said.
Councilor Devin Wilkie, the governing board’s representative on the Advance Transit board, said in the meeting recording that he supports continuing to look into the project as long as no city funds are used at this time, given “dire financial situations for the city.” McNamara assured him that no city funds would be devoted to the project at this time. Given the conceptual state of the discussion, costs are not yet available.
“I’m not quite sure I see a clear benefit to Advance Transit but … I definitely recognize the potential benefit,” Wilkie said.
Costs and return
While the project is in Lebanon, the land the road would cross is held in easement by Hanover and the project may impact traffic patterns in the town. Hanover Town Manager Rob Houseman said he has not yet been brought into the discussion and has only heard about the project “in a sidebar conversation.”
There are potential benefits for Hanover, but like any project it is important to weight the costs and return on investment, Houseman said.
“Certainly transit linkage and shuttle linkage to Mount Support (Road) and the hospital, it’s our largest single employer in the state and in addition to bike and walk connection would be, I’m sure, a welcome improvement to what we currently have,” Houseman said.
Potential benefits from Houseman’s perspective include “reduction in traffic, ease of transportation, improved safety (and) secondary access to the hospital. All those things have high value.”
McNamara emphasized the proposal may change as the project moves forward and is far from a final presentation.
“This is not a tomorrow thing, (it is) likely not a next year thing, but I still feel that it’s a concept worth looking at,” he said.
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