So what’s the future of building a desperately needed sound wall for the children at the New Franklin School? Not as grim as you may have heard. Just because the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) social and environmental justice requirements prevent Portsmouth paying for the construction a sound wall in the I-95 right of way, (see the three links below), there is nothing to stop Portsmouth from constructing its own sound wall on its own property at the New Franklin School.
September 14, 2022 New Franklin School Portsmouth sound wall request letter: Portsmouth to NHDOT SKM_C550i22091416020 (cityofportsmouth.com)
December 20, 2022 New Franklin School sound wall NHDOT response letter: NHDOT to Portsmouth Microsoft Word – Portsmouth 43760 letter to City (cityofportsmouth.com)
Disappointed in letter supporting rights of racists: Letters (seacoastonline.com) Scroll to second letter to editor by legendary Portsmouth community activist emeritus Mark Brighton
The need for highway noise sound abatement at the New Franklin School has been well documented by parents and teachers. The I-95 traffic there has skyrocketed from 32,000 vehicles per day in 1982 to over 70,000 vehicles per day in 2023. Plus on the other side of the school, the US-1 Bypass contributes additional noise from close to 10,000 vehicles per day.
Using unit construction costs for the recently approved sound wall project on the west side of I-95, a sound wall running along the entire 1,100 foot I-95 frontage at New Franklin School would only cost about $3.44 million dollars.
Providentially, Portsmouth at one time had allocated $3.6 million dollars for sound walls in the 2023-2028 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Mysteriously since then, about $3 million dollars set aside for sound walls has disappeared as the most recent Capital Improvement Plan only has $650,000 dollars budgeted for sound wall projects.
CAPITAL BUDGET (cityofportsmouth.com) Soundwalls CIP 2023-2028 page 92 $3.6 million
CAPITAL BUDGET (cityofportsmouth.com) Soundwalls Current CIP 2025-2030 page 107 $650,000.00
New Franklin School Sound Wall advocates need only to convince the City to fund the sound wall project CIP budget to its full amount and restore the $3 million dollars that was recently transferred elsewhere.
Portsmouth’s children at Little Harbor and Dondero schools are not suffering from highway noise exposure. New Franklin school children need not suffer either.
I-95 WEST SIDE SOUND WALL UNIT COSTS
Pannaway Sound Wall length: 2,340 ft (a little less than a half mile).
Jewels / Rockingham Ave Neighborhood Sound Wall: 3,118 ft (about six tenths of a mile, Maplewood to NH-16)
Total Project Sound Wall Length = 5,458 ft (slightly over a mile)
Contract Construction Price = $18.8 million
I-95 Sound Wall Price per foot: $3,444 / ft
New Franklin School I-95 Frontage: 1,000 +/- ft
New Franklin School Sound Wall Estimated Cost: $3,444 / ft X 1,000 ft = $3.44 million +/-
Sound Barriers | City of Portsmouth Portsmouth Sound Barrier Webpage
