Interstate 393 (I-393) is a east–west

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a subset of highways within the United States' Interstate Highway System. The 323 auxiliary routes generally fall into three types: spur routes, which connect to or i ...

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" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...

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 Highway) is a state highway located in southern New Hampshire. It runs across the state from west to east and is a multi-state route with Vermont and Maine, part of 1 ...

(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 (formerly known as the New Hampshire International Speedway from 1989 to 2007, the Bryar Motorsports Park from 1965 to 1989, and as the 106 Midway Raceway from 1961 to 1964) is a oval track in Loudon, New Hampshir ...

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 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 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, 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 M ...

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 a largely shuttered enclosed shopping mall in Concord, New Hampshire, United States. Opened in 1990, it has struggled with high vacancy rates throughout its existence. It is slated to be torn down and replaced by a mixed-use ...

, and north to

and the

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...

region. After exit 3, the road turns northward, crossing the Soucook River 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 controlled-access toll road in eastern New Hampshire. Its entire length is overlapped by New Hampshire Route 16 (NH 16). Its southern terminus is at the Portsmouth Traffic Circle (I-95/ US 1 Byp.) in Portsmouth, a ...

between

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

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

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, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

393 __NOTOC__ Year 393 ( CCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Augustus (or, less frequently, year 1146 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominati ...

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