Press Releases/What’s New

Wednesday, October 10th is International Walk to School Day. To celebrate, three Portsmouth Schools are participating this year with their own Walk to School Day events, including:

Beginning Tuesday, October 9th, paving operations will continue throughout the week on Islington Street spanning Dover Street to Maplewood Avenue.

 The schedule of work will go as follows:

The intersection of US Route 1 (Lafayette Road) and Lang Road has been a safety concern for the City of Portsmouth, the Town of Rye and the State of New Hampshire for some time. Given that Lang Road is a City road and US Route 1 is a State road, both the City and NHDOT worked together on a Road Safety Audit of the intersection to analyze hazards and potential improvements. The Audit identified a preferred option of a connector roadway between Longmeadow Road and Lang Road in order to alleviate the Lang Road intersection safety issues.

As part of the Maplewood Avenue reconstruction project, Maplewood Avenue spanning Edmond Avenue to Woodbury Avenue will be shut down to traffic starting on September 17th and lasting through mid-December.

The Middle Street and Lafayette Road corridor bike lane project has been awarded to Hi-Way Safety Systems, and is required to be completed by the end of September 2018. The project, which also received funding from a NHDOT Safe Routes to School Grant, will extend from the High School to the downtown and is intended to create a safer and more convenient path for those traveling by bike or foot to the schools, Library and more.

Portsmouth residents interested in taking advantage of the City’s Zagster bike share program can now use the promotional code “ilivehere” to obtain a $10 annual membership, normally a price of $25.

City Officials want to remind motorists to be aware that crossing guards will be stationed at positions throughout the City in conjunction with the start of the new school season Monday, August 27, 2018. Crossing guards assist students and parents walking and biking to school. Drivers are urged to use an abundance of caution near school neighborhoods, plan travel routes away from heavy school traffic, and obey posted school speed limits, and crossing guard signals.

As part of the City’s Lafayette Road and Andrew Jarvis Drive intersection improvement project, extensive utility work resulting in traffic delays will occur Thursday, August 9th through Monday, August 13th; this will include a complete road closure of Lafayette Road, between Greenleaf Avenue and the Route 1 bypass, on Monday, August 13th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The City of Portsmouth and Wilcox Industries will be sponsoring the annual fireworks display on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at the South Mill Pond across from the Portsmouth City Hall beginning at 9:15 p.m. sharp; the rain date is scheduled for Thursday, July 5th at the same time. This celebration is an alcohol-free, family event. 

The Foundry Place Garage on Deer Street is scheduled to open in October 2018. In addition to lower hourly rates, the monthly pass holder rates at Foundry Place will be a reduced cost of $100 for City of Portsmouth residents, and $125 for non-residents.