Interstate 393 (I-393) is a east–west

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 ...

extending from

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 ...

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 ...

to Pembroke, New Hampshire. The primary purpose of the road is to bypass a densely built commercial strip on

New Hampshire Route 9 New Hampshire Route 9 (abbreviated NH 9 and also known as the Franklin Pierce Highwayhttp://franklinpierce.ws/highway.pdf ) is a state highway located in southern New Hampshire. It runs across the state from west to east and is a multi-state rout ...

(NH 9) in the eastern part of Concord. Several times a year, I-393 also serves traffic to events at

New Hampshire Motor Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a Oval track racing, oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire, which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1990, as well as the longest-running motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nickna ...

in Loudon. I-393 runs concurrently with US Route 4 (US 4) and US 202 for its entire length.

Route description

I-393 begins at

's exit 15 interchange, where US 4 east leaves its concurrency with I-93 south and the I-393/US 4/ US 202 concurrency begins. The four-lane freeway actually begins a short distance west of I-93 at the north end of Concord's Main Street where US 202 turns east from US 3. From there, the road then intersects Commercial Street just before the exit 15 interchange. Just east of the exit 15 cloverleaf is I-393's exit 1 to Fort Eddy Road. This exit provides access to NHTI – Concord's Community College, which is home to the

McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is a science museum located in Concord, New Hampshire, United States, next door to the NHTI, Concord's Community College, NHTI campus. The museum is dedicated to Christa McAuliffe, the Concord High School ( ...

, an air and space science center. I-393 crosses 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 ...

and continues east to exit 2, connecting to New Hampshire's State Office Park East and the area known locally as the Concord Heights via East Side Drive ( NH 132). Further east is exit 3, I-393's last, to NH 106, which runs south past the commercial area around the

Steeplegate Mall Steeplegate Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Concord, New Hampshire, United States. Opened in 1990, it has struggled with high vacancy rates throughout its existence. Its largest retailer is JCPenney, the only traditional store left alongside ...

, and north to

and the

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia ( el, Λακωνία, , ) is a historical and administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparta. The word ''laconic''—to speak in a blunt, c ...

region. After exit 3, the road turns northward, crossing the

Soucook River The Soucook River is a river located in central New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Merrimack River, which flows to the Gulf of Maine. The Soucook River begins at the outlet of Rocky Pond on the border between the towns ...

into Pembroke. Beyond the bridge, I-393 ends and US 4 and US 202 merge down to a single lane before joining NH 9 and continuing eastward.

History

When I-393 was first completed , it ended at an at-grade intersection with NH 9 and NH 106 just west of where exit 3 now stands. Exit 3 and the extension beyond were completed in the late 1980s. A feasibility study conducted in the 1980s proposed a number of alignments that would have extended I-393 beyond its eastern terminus to a new interchange (exit 10) on the

Spaulding Turnpike The Spaulding Turnpike is a north-south toll road in eastern New Hampshire. Nearly its entire length is overlapped by New Hampshire Route 16. Its southern terminus is at the Portsmouth Traffic Circle (Interstate 95 / U.S. Route 1 Bypass) in Port ...

between

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

and

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

. This project studied the possibility of creating an east–west highway between

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

. After much work, it was deemed impossible and an upgrade of US 4, a road which closely follows the route of the first New Hampshire turnpike from the early 1800s, was studied and completed. The intersection of Commercial Street and US 202 used to be a four-way crossing, but, in recent years,

Jersey barrier A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...

s have been installed and a short bypass under US 202 has been constructed to prevent traffic from crossing the freeway, although the traffic lights remain. The lights on the westbound side have since been modified to become warning lights for the traffic signal at the intersection with US 3.

Exit list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Interstate 93-3 1979 establishments in New Hampshire

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

393 93-3 93-3 U.S. Route 202 U.S. Route 4 Transportation in Merrimack County, New Hampshire