Lebanon's New Roundabout Is Open. The Construction Isn't Over Yet.
Lebanon opened the roundabout at Mechanic, High and Mascoma streets to traffic in late September. The city's schedule puts final completion on June 15, 2027. Anyone driving that corner this winter will be using a working intersection that is still partway through its build. The surface is base pavement, flaggers are still on site, and a detour is still in place for people on foot and on bikes.
That gap matters for anyone who passes through every day. The circle you drive this November is an in-progress version, and the finished one arrives next summer.
The roundabout looks sudden only if you missed the first twelve years. Valley News reported in February that the city launched a study in 2013 of the "Mechanic Street Corridor," from Exit 19 off Interstate 89 to the High Street intersection. That study called the intersection, which sits on a curve, "confusing" and "poorly functioning." The City Council voted to move forward after consultants finished the study in 2018, and City Engineer Rod Finley told the paper that pieces of the planning, including what to do about the building at 1 High St., took time.
The city describes the goal plainly. The project is meant "to improve safety, increase capacity, and address operational deficiencies," replacing what it calls a "dangerous and confusing" intersection.
The money came together the same way, in stages. The city put the job out for bids in October 2025, received three bids that November, and awarded it to Notts Excavating for $3,864,005. The low bid needed more funding, which NHDOT and the City Council approved. The cost is split 80% NHDOT and 20% city, and the city's share comes from the Downtown Lebanon TIF District.
Here is the project's timeline from the city's updates and Valley News coverage.
Count it out and the opening landed about five months into a project scheduled to run more than thirteen. Opening to traffic means the circle can carry cars. It doesn't mean the intersection is complete.
The road surface is the clearest sign of where the project stands. What you drive on now is base pavement, and according to Valley News, the city's public works project page says crews are scheduled to finish paving next spring. So the first winter of plowing and freeze-thaw on this circle happens on the base layer, before the finished surface goes down.
The city's driving guidance is the same now as it will be once the job is done. When it announced the opening, the city wrote:
"Vehicles already circulating within the roundabout have the right‑of‑way. Enter the roundabout only when there is a safe gap in traffic, following the circular flow. Use your turn signal to indicate your exit as you approach it."
The city also asked drivers approaching the circle to slow down and watch for pedestrians and cyclists. Its weekly alerts still tell drivers to expect delays and use caution in the work zone. Until crews pack up, the alerts at LebanonNH.gov/Roundabout are the best way to know what a given week looks like.
For drivers, the change came on one day in September. For people walking or biking the Mascoma River Greenway, the crossing has changed shape all season, and the Greenway has posted each version.
In April, as work got underway, the Mascoma River Greenway set up a temporary sidewalk detour to the crosswalk that leads to the trail. On July 7, it reported that the Greenway entrance at High Street was open again. By Aug. 13, work on the Mechanic Street side had changed the detour again, and pedestrians were being sent across through the center of the roundabout with flaggers. That same update listed drainage structures, utility cable transfers, a water main relocation on Mascoma Street and the stone retaining wall as active work. A week later, the Greenway described the setup as "a combination of detours around the site, or flaggers guiding bikers and pedestrians through the intersection, depending on the construction activities at the moment," and asked travelers to use extreme caution.
That's where things stand heading into November. The city's alert for the week of Oct. 19 says Rail Trail access stays open at the intersection, with flaggers there during active construction, and asks everyone to keep following the detour in place. The concrete wall and curbing on this fall's work list shape the edges that people on foot will eventually walk along. For anyone heading to the Greenway, the posted detour is the route until the city says otherwise.
The roundabout sits on ground that was a lunch counter for about ten years. Phnom Penh Sandwich Station owner Sarin Tin started out at the Hanover Farmers Market in 2015, later bought a food truck, and opened the Lebanon storefront at 1 High St. in 2016. Valley News reported a regular lunch crowd there, with customers coming back once or twice a week. The shop's last day was Feb. 14.
"We're ready to move on to the next chapter," Tin told the paper.
That next chapter is on the same street. Tin bought the 2,500-square-foot building at 129 Mechanic St., a former dermatology office, and it needed a full renovation to work as a takeout restaurant. The city's August update names High Meadow Builders on the work at 129 Mechanic St., with fit-up scheduled from mid-March through September 2026.
So the corner's restaurant and the corner's roundabout ran on the same clock. For now, Phnom Penh's website lists its White River Junction shop at 7 S Main St., the location Tin opened in 2018. The restaurant's own channels are the place to check for a Mechanic Street opening date.
Next year is when the pieces start to look permanent. Final paving is set for spring, and the city lists June 15, 2027, as final completion.
Greenway users have a second 2027 project ahead. In August, Public Works reopened the trail tunnel with a single lane under scaffolding at the Mascoma River end, there to protect people from debris that could fall from the ceiling under the Hanover Street bridge. The Greenway reports that the NH120 Hanover Street bridge is scheduled for replacement in 2027. For people who walk or ride between downtown and the river, the roundabout's final stretch and the bridge replacement both fall in the same year.
The circle has carried cars since September. By the city's schedule, the finished version of this corner, with its final pavement, completed walls and a crossing without flaggers, arrives in summer 2027.
Jaime Durell keeps up with projects like the Mechanic Street roundabout around Lebanon all year. If you're wondering how the Mechanic Street work and the projects behind it fit into your own plans in Lebanon, reach out to Jaime Durell for a relaxed conversation, or request a free home valuation whenever the timing feels right.
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