Where Does the Neck Road Pathway Break, and How Much of the Gap Will Phase 3 Close?

The Moultonborough Neck Pathway was planned as a single route from the Moultonborough Recreation Area to Long Island Beach, one of the town's two beaches. It has instead been two separate pieces since Phase II opened in 2007. Between the end of one piece and the start of the other, walkers and cyclists share the road with traffic.

That could start to change the week of October 19, 2026. A public notice the town posted on October 9 says Phase 3 construction begins that week, weather permitting. The work will run along the road shoulder, and the road will stay open, though it may drop to one lane at times. On paper, Phase 3 is the link that joins the two finished sections. The town's own records describe that link two different ways, and the notice doesn't say where the fall work starts or stops.

Two Finished Pieces Built to Be Joined

The pathway was built in phases, with federal Transportation Enhancement money and local funds behind each one. The history below comes from Moultonborough's 2021 Transportation Alternatives Program application to NHDOT.

The table's third column is the gap. Phase II runs out at Kona Road, and Phase I doesn't pick up until just past Jo-Jo's. The 2021 application put the distance between them at about 9,800 feet, or roughly 1.86 miles, about four-fifths the length of Phase II.

Neighbors did much of the work behind the first two phases. The application says the Moultonborough Pathway Committee started because residents asked for it. The committee later became the Moultonborough Pathway Association, a 501(c)(3), and it had raised and spent more than $150,000 in private donations since 2000.

Why the Middle Is the Busiest Part to Fix

The 2021 application gave traffic as the main reason for the pathway. On weekdays from May 1 through October 30, Moultonborough Neck Road carried more than 7,000 vehicles a day, and the application said weekend volume doubled. The stated goal was to get people walking and cycling instead of driving, and to give them a safer way to travel along a narrow, heavily used road.

The 2021 design followed the eastbound lane on the south side of Neck Road, from Kona Farm Road to just past Jo-Jo's and the Neck Fire Station. Near the start, it would have left the roadside briefly and used Schoolhouse Hill Road. The application called for a five-foot-wide path, paved everywhere except the Schoolhouse Hill Road section.

Here is how the $700,000 budget broke down:

• $105,000 for design and engineering
• $30,000 for right-of-way
• $525,000 for construction
• $40,000 for construction engineering

The town asked for $560,000 in federal TAP money, 80% of the total, and planned a $140,000 local match. No record reviewed for this post shows that money was awarded. Moultonborough does not appear among the funded projects listed on NHDOT's Transportation Alternatives Program page.

By 2025, the Board Was Describing the Project Differently

The town had already been saving for this phase on its own. Voters created a Phase III construction capital reserve, CR158, under Article 11 at the March 17, 2018 Town Meeting, with an initial deposit of $100,000. The Capital Improvements Program Committee's April 13, 2025 report on capital reserve funds listed the fund at $237,000 as of December 31, 2024. The committee recommended keeping the reserve open until the Select Board settled on final plans, then closing it.

Those plans came up a month earlier, at the Select Board's March 20, 2025 meeting. The minutes list the item as a pathway "extension," and the board talked through more than one option. Recreation Director Dan Sturgeon passed along a question from a pathway user. There was a stretch of about 1,000 feet the town wasn't able to complete, and the user wanted to know whether the shoulder could be extended there. Sturgeon also said the Friends of the Moultonborough Pathway had about $30,000 to put toward the project.

The project received support and an offer to help with land and benches. The board then voted 5-0 "to move forwarded with proposed proposal from JoJo's to Smith Road," citing a March 17, 2025 letter from Interim Town Administrator Carter Terenzini. Sturgeon had asked for permission to spend from the Pathway Capital Reserve Fund.

So in 2021, Phase III was a roughly 9,800-foot link between Kona Farm Road and Jo-Jo's. In 2025, the board approved a plan described as running from Jo-Jo's to Smith Road, and it discussed a 1,000-foot section it couldn't complete. The two descriptions share an endpoint at Jo-Jo's. Nothing in the public record reviewed here confirms they cover the same ground.

What the Contract and the Notice Say

On July 7, 2026, the Select Board voted 3-0 to accept Peckham Road Corp (GMI)'s bid of $1,139,397.50 for the "FY2027 Road Program & Pathway Phase 3 Construction." That one figure covers the year's road program and the pathway together. The July 7 minutes don't separate the pathway's share. The town's staff report on the bid was posted, but it could not be read in a form that shows the breakdown.

The October 9 notice adds the start week and the fact that the work happens on the shoulder. It doesn't give endpoints, a length, which side of the road is involved, whether the work is a separate path or a wider paved shoulder, or a completion date. Here is what the record does and doesn't establish:

Driving and Walking Neck Road From October 19

During construction, Moultonboro Neck Road stays open. Expect possible one-lane stretches and some delays while crews work the shoulder. The town lists Public Works Director Chris Theriault as the contact for questions, at 253-7445 or [email protected]. Public Works is at 68 Highway Garage Road.

People who already use the finished sections can still walk Phase II between Playground Drive and Kona Road, and Phase I from just past Jo-Jo's. The section between them is where the fall work will show up, and also where the 2021 plan and the 2025 vote disagree. Several things will settle which version is being built:

1. Where the crews are working. Whether the construction zone stretches back toward Kona Farm Road or stays nearer Jo-Jo's and Smith Road will show the actual limits before any map does.
2. A completion date. The October notice doesn't give one. Shoulder work starting in late October may also run into weather, and the notice itself says "weather permitting."
3. The 1,000-foot section. The March 2025 discussion described a stretch the town couldn't complete and a user's request for a wider shoulder there. How that spot is handled will decide whether the route feels continuous.
4. Benches. Benches came up at the March 2025 meeting, including on a small piece of road frontage the town already owns. None of the documents reviewed show whether benches are part of the project.
5. The CR158 reserve. The capital committee recommended closing the fund once the board settled on plans. Its closure in a future warrant would mean the town considers the Phase III funding question settled.

The pathway took two federal grants, more than $150,000 in private fundraising, and a capital reserve that grew from $100,000 in 2018 to $237,000 by the end of 2024. Phase 3 is the first construction on the missing middle since Phase II was dedicated on July 14, 2007.

Gail McCarthy follows Moultonborough's Select Board decisions and road projects, the Neck Road Pathway included. If you have questions about how the Phase 3 work along Moultonboro Neck Road affects your property, Let's Connect.