Do you ever find yourself wanting Tito’s Taqueria or Domino’s? Maybe you want to take Island Street to get to Dunkin’ or Starbucks. Personally, I often use the street to get to CVS, picking up any medications as one does. Unfortunately, you’d have to take Pearl Street or get to West Street through downtown because somehow, Island Street seems to almost always have construction.
In my almost three years here at Keene State, only one of those years was I able to drive down the first exit at the Winchester Street roundabout towards Walmart. In my first year, the city was doing construction on the Island Street bridge. Then, by some miracle, they finally finished construction when I arrived for my sophomore year.
Much to my dismay, the construction is back again to torment me as a junior. Only this time, the entire road is being repaved, including the sidewalks.
While construction has only occurred between seven o’clock in the morning and five o’clock in the afternoon Monday through Friday, driving on the dirt road has been a nightmare, despite my Subaru being built for off-road adventures.
If you don’t have a car on campus and rely on walking everywhere, I’m sure you aren’t opting to walk down a dirt road covered in construction debris with no sidewalk.
According to a news release from the city’s public works department, crews will shut down one lane and alternating one-way traffic will be in place. While this could be accurate, I have seen road work signs blocking the entrance at the roundabout and the exit on West Street this whole semester. I wouldn’t say that’s alternating.
The road work does actually seem to be making progress as of recently. The sidewalks are still being constructed, but at least now the road is paved, so when you drive after 5 p.m., it’s not insanely bumpy.
My Keene Now reported that the construction team will pause for the winter and resume in spring 2026, “Temporary asphalt sidewalks will be installed before winter sets in. Those will be replaced with permanent concrete sidewalks when construction resumes in spring 2026.”
While I understand that we need warmer weather to put down concrete sidewalks, I am heavily annoyed that we’ll only get the street back for maybe a few months before construction starts again. I didn’t think the road was that bad to begin with when driving last academic year, but clearly it was bad enough for the city to rip up the whole thing.
For future reference, the city of Keene should utilize more time in the summer to work on streets, roads and sidewalks. Instead of starting late June like they did this past summer, perhaps they should consider starting when approximately 7 percent of the Keene population leaves when the academic year finishes.
Hopefully, by the springtime, I won’t have to worry about the street being inaccessible ever again before I graduate in 2027. But who knows, I thought they were done the first time but I was wrong then, and I could be wrong now.
Madelyn Marabella can be contacted at
mmarabella@kscequinox.com
