Route 53 Corridor

Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) was retained by the Town of Hanover to evaluate the Route 53 corridor and develop potential conceptual improvement options from Old Washington Street/ Pond Street to the Pembroke Town Line. The evaluation focuses on how potential long-term land use growth could increase traffic volumes and impact traffic operations along the Route 53 corridor. This report presents the findings and recommendations of the study, which assessed nine intersections along Route 53.

This report consists of the following six chapters:

  1. Chapter 1 - Introduction - discusses the study methodology and summarizes the key findings.
  2. Chapter 2 - 2014 Existing Conditions - presents traffic data, an assessment of how well the roadways and intersections handle peak traffic demands and where bottlenecks occur, and establishes a baseline for evaluating potential improvement options;
  3. Chapter 3 - Future Conditions - presents a 2024 No-Build forecast of future traffic demands based on known developments in the area; and discusses the development and analysis of a Maximum Build-out scenario for currently vacant or underdeveloped parcels along or immediately ad jacent to the Route 53 corrid or;
  4. Chapter 4 - Traffic Operations - presents traffic operations analysis of the 2014 Existing, 2024 No-Build, and Build -Out conditions;
  5. Chapter 5 - Conceptual Improvements - summarizes several actions that the Town could consider in the near-term to improve traffic flow; presents two long-term corrid or improvement options for the Town’s consideration; and
  6. Chapter 6 - Conclusions and Next Steps - provides an overview of the study conclusions and actions needed to implement the improvements evaluated in this study.