DPW Press Releases

Paving throughout the Elwyn Park neighborhood will begin this month. A public meeting to review paving and sidewalk plans for this area will be held at the Department of Public Works on Tuesday, April 10th at 6:30 p.m.

Minor impacts are expected during this work which will take about a month to complete. For full details on the scope of this project (shown below), please visit the Pavement Maintenance projects on our construction map.

Construction activity at the Chestnut Street block, which includes The Music Hall, will resume on Monday, April 9th. Currently, preparation work such as roof drain downspout connections, subsurface brick work on the sewer manholes and some brick work restoration is taking place.

Heavier construction for this project will include the installation of the new streetscape components including seat walls, site lighting, installation of granite banding at crosswalks, and decorative pavement.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s contractor, Northeast Earth Mechanics, Inc., will be reconstructing the railroad crossing on Green Street beginning on April 2nd. The roadway at the track crossing will be closed during the construction activity, detour routes will be established.

The Portsmouth Department of Public Works will be hosting a public meeting to discuss the last phase of the McDonough Street Neighborhood Area project on Wednesday, March 28th beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Conference Room A in City Hall, 1 Junkins Ave.

On Wednesday evening, March 28th, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., the Portsmouth Water Department will be shutting off the water main on Green Street. The purpose of this shut down is to allow crews to install a new valve, and cut and cap the main on both sides of the railroad tracks for the NH DOT replacement of the tracks at the road crossing.

When the water mains are turned back on, those within that area may experience some air or discoloration. Please run your COLD water for a few minutes and it should clear; there is no danger associated with this color. 

Frank Jones Neighborhood Meeting  (Powerpoint Presentation)

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Beginning at 7:30 p.m. this evening, March 15th, Public Works crews will be conducting a downtown snow load out in order to clear streets and improve safety. These operations will continue throughout the night into early Friday morning. Therefore, all vehicles must be removed off downtown City streets prior to the times displayed per area on the map below. This map indicates the planned routes crews will be addressing in phases throughout the evening. 

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s contractor, Northeast Earth Mechanics, Inc. of Pittsfield, NH will soon be reconstructing the railroad crossings on both Barberry Lane and Green Street. The project is tentatively scheduled to start around April 2nd and will be ongoing through the end of May, with a final contract completion date of August 17, 2018. 

Due to tomorrow’s weather forecast, City Hall, the Library and all Recreation facilities will be closed for the day tomorrow, March 13, 2018.

A citywide parking ban will go into effect at 9 p.m. tonight, March 12th; the Downtown Business District parking ban will go into effect at 1 a.m., March 13th.

To better keep residents apprised of occurrences of combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the Portsmouth Sewer Division has introduced a Twitter feed, @PortsmouthCSOs, which will alert the community of overflows in real time.