Interstate 293 (I-293) is an

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...

surrounding

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...

, roughly shaped like two sides of a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

. Completing the loop in the northeast (the third side of the triangle) is

I-93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

. The southern portion of the loop shares the road with

New Hampshire Route 101 New Hampshire Route 101 (NH 101) is a state-maintained highway in southern New Hampshire extending from Keene to Hampton Beach. It is the major east–west highway in the southern portion of the state. The western terminus of NH 101 is in Keene ...

(NH 101) and passes near

Manchester–Boston Regional Airport Manchester–Boston Regional Airport , commonly referred to as Manchester Airport, is a public use airport south of the central business district of Manchester, New Hampshire, United States on the border of Hillsborough and Rockingham countie ...

and The Mall of New Hampshire. The western portion of the loop shares the road with the

Everett Turnpike The Frederick E. Everett Turnpike, also called the Central New Hampshire Turnpike, is a toll road in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, running from the Massachusetts border at Nashua north to Concord. The Everett Turnpike is named for Frederick ...

, but there are no tolls on this portion of the turnpike.

Route description

I-293 begins at a

directional T interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

in the southeast of Manchester, where NH 101 west leaves

. I-293 is signed as a north–south road, but, along the section

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with NH 101, the road travels in an entirely westerly direction. Exits 1 and 2 provide access to The Mall of New Hampshire area and

respectively. After crossing the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

, I-293 enters the modified cloverleaf exit 3 interchange where I-293, NH 101, and the

intersect. At exit 3, NH 101 leaves I-293 and continues west as a four-lane freeway to its junction with NH 114. I-293 makes a nearly 90-degree turn here, joining the Everett Turnpike and traveling north along the west bank of the

. The I-293/Everett Turnpike concurrency heads in to downtown Manchester and is joined by NH 3A at exit 4. Exits 5 and 6 intersect local roads near bridges across the Merrimack River, allowing travelers access to both east and west sides of Manchester. At exit 7, NH 3A leaves the concurrency, while I-293 and the turnpike continue north to the end of I-293 at another interchange with I-93, just south of the Hooksett barrier

toll plaza A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

. From here, I-93 and the Everett Turnpike are concurrent to the turnpike's northern end in

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

. As of June 16, 2008, the project to complete exit 5 as a full interchange was complete. Drivers are now able to exit and enter exit 5 both southbound and northbound. This exit is a

single-point urban interchange A single-point urban interchange (SPUI, or ), also called a single-point interchange (SPI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI), is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic thro ...

, the third in New Hampshire. Like

I-393 Interstate 393 (I-393) is a east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway extending from I-93 at Concord to Pembroke, New Hampshire. The primary purpose of the road is to bypass a densely built commercial strip on New Hampshire Route 9 (NH&nb ...

, the other auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Hampshire, I-293 is signed in concurrency with other routes along its entire length and never runs alone other than on transition ramps between NH 101 and the Everett Turnpike. This is due to the I-293 designation having been added to already existing routes, NH 101, and the Everett Turnpike.

History

I-293 overlays portions of two earlier routes that were upgraded to provide the route an Interstate designation. NH 101 was the main east–west route across southern New Hampshire, connecting Keene with (at the time)

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, and passed through southern Manchester. The

was an early toll highway connecting the three cities of the

Merrimack Valley The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those l ...

Nashua Nashua may refer to: * Nashaway people, Native American tribe living in 17th-century New England Places In Australia: * Nashua, New South Wales In the United States: * Nashua, California * Nashua, Iowa * Nashua, Minnesota * Nashua, Kansas City ...

, Manchester, and Concord. When it was accepted into the Interstate Highway System, the short NH 101 freeway from I-93 to the Everett Turnpike was numbered I-193 from 1961–1977. When I-93 was completed in 1977, the Everett Turnpike from NH 101 to I-93 was added to the route and it was renumbered as I-293. The NH 101 to Everett Turnpike interchange was later rebuilt to provide a free-flowing transition between the two legs.

Exit list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Interstate 93-2 93-2 93-2

293 __NOTOC__ Year 293 ( CCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, less frequently, ...

Transportation in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Transportation in Merrimack County, New Hampshire