Conference 7.286::digital

How have they done this?

1.  A guard on the back road who checks for badges?

2.  A locked gate across the back road?

3.  A cement roadblock across the back road?

Also, have they prevented traffic through the front parking lots from one
side to the other?


No matter what, I've always assumed that Digital owned the road behind HL,
and so they are pretty much free to do what they want with it. I assume the
constant traffic by residents in the Lakeview development east of the
plant, and the attendant risk of being involved in lawsuits from an auto
accident was never viewed as a good side to the road.
				/AHM/THX

Yes, the traffic on "Tank Farm Road" has been a minor problem to HLO
over the years, but that is not why it was closed.  In order to
support the expanding Semiconductor fab facilities, it was necessary
to have room to place more tanks (of hydrogen and the like) on or near
the area of the road.  For this reason, at some inconvenience to
residents and employees alike, the road has been permanently closed.  
They closed it by extending fences from the edge of the building out
across the other side of the road, enclosing the area needed for the
new facilities.  The recommended bypass is Reed Road.  In fact, DEC
delayed the closing of Tank Farm Road until Reed Road was repaved.  It
is still possible to 'cut through' the plant, by driving through both
parking lots.  However, to control traffic problems thru the lots,
rubber speed bumps have been strategically located.   My impression is
that HLO manufacturing wasn't overjoyed about closing the road, but it
was where they needed the space. 

    Yes, Alan, what Jeff says is basically what they did.  I wrote a
    long memo to the facilities people when this was announced about
    what was going to happen if a lot of additional traffic suddenly
    appeared on Reed Rd., which, although it is paved over its entire
    length these days, is still a windy, hilly road that is very narrow
    in places and which I don't drive on in the winter.  Of course,
    any accidents that happen there due to more traffic on it are not
    on DEC property.  Since I live in Lakeview and work in HLO2, I
    frequently used "tank farm road" to get to and from 495, whether
    or not it happened to be a work day.  The current situation may
    be a necessity, but it is a nuisance, and will be a worse on ein
    the winter when I am not going to drive on Reed Road (which is somewhat
    worse than the way you would remember it because there is now a
    day-care center at the end of it near HLO, so it is now a narrow,
    windy, hilly, badly-banked road with cars stopping at one end
    disgorging small kids).  The speed bumps are rubber bumpers stuck
    to the parking lot in several places - you can't go through without
    going over at least two of them.  I don't know if they will survive
    the plows in the winter though - you recall that the asphalt speed
    bumps on "tank farm road" lasted, thank goodness, only a few weeks
    - they were so abrupt that you would bottom out on them even at
    less than 5 mph.
    
    I really wish DEC had foreseen what a useful connection that driveway
    was to the local residents as well as the employees (remember, I'm
    both), and designed things a bit differently so that it could have
    been made a useful public road with the DEC buildings off to one
    side, rather than a driveway skirting one side of the plant.  When
    Reed Road is not safe to drive on, the alternative to going through
    the parking lots now is to go into the center of town (the traffic
    circle - what a pain) or way down by Keepers II over the causeway
    and back up 85 if you are trying to get to 495 - way out of the
    way.
    
    I believe there was a similar "useful non-road" that connected one
    of the NH DEC facilities (MKO, maybe) to some toll road, bypassing
    one of the toll gates, and that this was also closed off.
    

I occasionally visit HLO, but I don't know the names of the roads
around the plant.

I was surprised two weeks ago when I arrived (as I always do) on the extension
road from I290.  I was headed to HLO2, but the road I always took there was
blocked off.  Is that "Tank Farm Road"?  So I had to drive through the 
maze-like parking lot to get to the HLO2 end of the complex.  (And, to add
injury to insult, drove over an obscene number of speed bumps.) 

Is this the route I have to take to get to HLO2 on a permanent basis?
(I am not aware of any other way of getting there, although there is
obviously a back entrance beyond HLO2, but no obvious way of getting there
from I495/I290.)

Could somebody draw a map?

Thanks,
Bob

    re .3
    Last time I was up in MKO, the entrance to the toll road behind
    MK was working fine.  The decision to build this was made by the
    highway dept. I believe.  It was either that, or DEC would choke
    the toll exit each night at 4:30 PM.
    
    It has an automatic gate which takes only tokens, which can be
    purchased in the lobby of MK.
    

  I think the town goofed by not building a town road all the way
from Route 85 to the opposite side of HLO. 
  A month ago I read the memo about "Tank Farm Road closing" and
asked myself "where the hell is Tank Farm Road"? However, I could
tell from the tenor of the memo that this closure would inconveni-
ence a lot of people.
  It is possible to get from the Lakeview development to the I-290
connector without going thru the infamous Hudson rotary or double-
crossing the reservoir, but it's still much longer than the HLO
route. I'll send the directions by mail if you want.

    Bob - Yes, that is how you get to HLO2 now if you are coming from
    the west (remember, I live just EAST of here).  Like I said, the
    driveway ("tank farm road", although there is no tank farm and no
    one I know ever called it that until it was closed off) made a very
    convenient "non-road".  You can avoid most of the speed bumps (you
    will get one asphalt one and two rubber ones) by taking the set
    of driveways closest to the buildings here as you thread the "maze".
    
    They actually *DID* do *ONE* of things I mentionned in my memo to
    Facilities when the announcement first came out - so, they really
    do listen to us employee-types, about some things anyhow.  Part of
    that driveway near the east entrance to HLO is very badly graded.
    It is graded towards the OUTSIDE of the curve.  At one point where
    the wrong-way grading is especially bad, there just happens to be
    a light pole.  I mentionned in my memo that they ought to do something
    about that even if they were going to close the driveway off just
    beyond the entrance to the HLO2 parking lot (as they did - I wasn't
    sure exactly how they were going to do it until they did), since
    everyone who drives out that way during slippery weather has nearly
    cracked into that pole.  I wish I could say that they regraded.
    They did, though, install a guard rail, so if you lose it during
    a storm this winter on your way out of here, you will graze a guard
    rail rather than taking out the light pole.
    
    For what it's worth...
                                   

    Isn't there a NO LEFT TURN sign at Reed Road departing HLO1?  If
    so that makes Reed Road useless when departing HLO unless you ignore
    it or go past it and make a U-turn.

    None of the alternate routes are likely to take on the many of us
    who come from one direction and park in the other, i.e. from the
    west to HLO2 and east to HLO1. The new routing to the parking areas
    forces very much moving traffic past hundreds of parked cars and
    also pedestrian traffic.
    
    Considering the increasing activity and population at HLO this creates
    a safety hazard.
    
    Is there room below the HLO1 lot to extend the buffer road? 

>    Isn't there a NO LEFT TURN sign at Reed Road departing HLO1?

Yes, there's a "NO LEFT TURN" sign on the corner of Reed Road and
Technology Drive facing HLO1.  I don't understand it but it doesn't
affect me since I work in HLO2 and would only want to turn right onto
Reed Road or left off of it.  But it does seem to mean that you can't
get from HLO1 to "the other side" by using Reed Road.

I too wonder how many pedestrians will be hurt as a result of closing
the road.  Since seeing this topic I've been trying Reed Road, and it
works.  It's probably longer and slower, but less annoying than weaving
through the parking lots.
							Larry

    It's pretty silly, but I have seen cars coming out of HLO1 down
    Technology Drive, make a u-turn on Tech. Drive, and then (legally)
    turn right to go down Reed Rd., I guess to avoid making the (illegal)
    left turn.  I don't know why that sign is there, to tell you the
    truth - I am never turning that way anyhow since if I am leaving
    HLO1 rather than HLO2 where I work it is because I wanted to go
    west anyhow rather than east.
    
    I think that "below the parking lots" is where HLO3 is scheduled
    to be built "real soon now", so I doubt if a real road will appear
    there.  I'll try to dredge up the email address of the facilities
    person I sent my memo to, and put it here, so you can all voice
    your concerns.  I'm not crazy about all the traffic going through
    the parking lots either; it may even be an "official" fire hazard,
    since a truck couldn't get to HLO1 from the east side (where the
    town fire station is) now except by going all around the parking
    lots.

  Does DEC have a definite site in mind on which to build HLO3?
How firm are the plans to build it?

Re .9:

I think Digital owns some land all the way downhill to Forest St, by
the power station.

Re .11:

There is a fire station on the east side of Hudson; but it isn't as
close as the one in the middle of town, and I'm not sure if it is currently
occupied or not.

Considering where you live, you should be delighted that traffic no longer
passes near the H2 tank(s).
				/AHM

    Where does Reed Road come out ?  I used to go through HLO
    to get from 495 to Stow, but now I just avoid HLO altogether,
    go right down before the Big D, which brings you out by the
    Citgo in the center (rt. 62, avoids the rotary) -
    I couldn't deal with those speed bumps anymore after a few weeks
    Does Reed road come out down closer to the resevoir ? (would
    I be backtracking, is my way better?)
    
    

    You meanm SHELL station, don't you?

    Used to live there.  Reed Road comes out about 1/4 mile after
    [travelling towards Marlboro] DEC on the same road as the
    back access road leads into.  Take a left at the end of Reed Road
    and you will see what I mean.

    It just a LITTLE more than going through Digital.  In fact, going
    through DIGITAL has always been a pain in the ass, what with the
    stop signs and the bumps.

  If I were a resident of (pre-1979) Reed Road I would be mad at
DEC. This road is not fit to carry thru traffic. It may be faster
than going thru the parking lots now, but it will be a nightmare
in the winter. 
  As I said in an earlier reply, I think the town blew it by not
insisting that a modern town-owned road exist all the way across
before HLO opened. I think the town fathers assumed that DEC would
keep their road permanently open to the public 24 hours a day, and
therefore an ironclad agreement between DEC and the town was not
necessary. They were wrong.

    re .16
    I agree. I don't think that town thought that far ahead (THIS town??
    OF COURSE they didn't....) and realized that a road through there
    would be as useful as the locals knew it would be.
    
    Before HLO was built, Reed Rd. was a dirt road, and dead-ended at
    the house which is now the daycare center.  There was only one other
    house on it (another has since been built).  It wouldn't be so bad
    except that the road is just like it was before only paved, except
    for the wide, straight section from the daycare center to Tech.
    Drive, which is new.  It sure gets a LOT of traffic now!

  I just read in Mountain Views that DEC is building the western sector of a
loop road (really a 2/3 loop) around HLO and it could be finished before long
(may be finished now. The loop starts at corner of Technology Drive and "Tank
Farm Road" (turns it into a four-way corner), runs around the HLO1 parking lot,
and connects with the existing loop road around the HLO2 parking lot.
  The article says some of the speed bumps will be removed after the loop road
is open. It doesn't say whether the loop road will be open to thru traffic 24
hours a day.

Yes, I personally can't believe its worth the expense, but they are 
building a loop all the way around both HLO parking lots.  Looks like 
it will be open in the next 2-3 weeks.  I have also been told that the
direct access to the front of HL01 past the helipad will be closed off 
after the loop road is built.  So, coming from Technology drive, you 
will have to go to the HL1 lobby entrance via the back of the parking 
lot.

As for speed bumps, I'm told that the loop road will have them, but 
they may remove them from the parking lots.  My guess would be, for 
the road to serve its purpose, it should be open 24 hours/day.  But 
that's just <my> conception of common sense (:-)).  

We'll see what they do with it....

    From Technology Drive, do you go past the helipad and then turn
    to use the loop road?
    
    Reed Road is really bad during snow/ice, as I found yesterday, sliding
    my way around its curves.
    
    

>    From Technology Drive, do you go past the helipad and then turn
>    to use the loop road?
    
No, the access is before the helipad, across from the old bypass.
its not open yet.    
    

    As of Friday morning, the loop is open for traffic.
    
    Guard rails, speed bumps and everything.

>    As of Friday morning, the loop is open for traffic.
>    
>    Guard rails, speed bumps and everything.
>

2 observations:

1) the road has a curve to its entire length, thus, speeders may be less 
of a problem (by design?)

2) Watch out for blind-surprise traffic jams at the top of technology 
drive as those 'passing through' line up to turn left onto the loop.