It was an idea decades in the making — and decades in the unraveling. In 1993, New Hampshire Executive Councilor Ray Burton unveiled the “Conway bypass”: a planned extension of Route 16 to circumvent Conway and North Conway and reduce traffic.
The plan targeted congestion concerns dating back to the 1950s, according to the Conway Daily Sun. But years of surging cost estimates, statewide funding shortages, and changing traffic estimates hobbled the proposal, and when the state formally scrapped the plan in 2020, the town manager called it a “fait accompli.”
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