Interstate 293

A view of the city of Manchester, N.H. when traveling southbound on I-293

Interstate 293 begins at a directional T interchange in the southeast of Manchester, where NH 101 West leaves I-93.[3] I-293 is signed as a north–south road, but along the section concurrent with NH 101, the road travels in an entirely westerly direction. Exits 1 and 2 provide access to the Mall of New Hampshire area and the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport respectively. After crossing the Merrimack River, I-293 enters the modified cloverleaf exit 3 interchange where I-293, NH 101, and the Everett Turnpike intersect. At exit 3, NH 101 leaves I-293 and continues west as a four-lane freeway to its junction with NH 114. I-293 makes a nearly 90-degree turn here, joining the Everett Turnpike and traveling north along the west bank of the Merrimack. The I-293/Everett Turnpike concurrency heads in to downtown Manchester, and is joined by NH 3A at exit 4. Exits 5 and 6 intersect local roads near bridges across the Merrimack, allowing travelers access to both east and west sides of Manchester. At exit 7, NH 3A leaves the concurrency, while I-293 and the Turnpike continue north to the end of I-293 at another interchange with I-93, just south of the Hooksett barrier toll plaza.[4] From here I-93 and the Everett Turnpike are concurrent to the Turnpike's northern end in Concord.

As of June 16, 2008, the project to complete Exit 5 as a full interchange was complete. Drivers are now able to exit and enter Exit 5 both southbound and northbound. This exit is a single-point urban interchange (SPUI), the third in New Hampshire.

View from I-93 northbound approaching the southern terminus of I-293.

Like Interstate 393, the other auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Hampshire, I-293 is signed in concurrency with other routes along its entire length, and never runs alone other than on transition ramps between Route 101 and the Everett Turnpike. This is due to the I-293 designation having been added to already existing routes, Route 101 and the Everett Turnpike.

This image, from the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways book published by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads in 1955, also known as the Yellow Book, shows I-93's proposed route to have been west of where it was eventually built, more closely paralleling (or replacing) US 3 and very similar to the actual route of the Everett Turnpike. It also shows a spur which would have likely been designated I-193. This spur is further north than the I-193 that was eventually built, and was probably intended to link the proposed I-93 to downtown Manchester via the Queen City Bridge or a new river crossing in that area.

I-293 overlays portions of two earlier routes that were upgraded to provide the route an interstate designation. NH 101 was the main east-west route across southern New Hampshire, connecting Keene with (at the time) Portsmouth, and passed through southern Manchester. The Everett Turnpike was an early toll highway connecting the three cities of the Merrimack Valley, Nashua, Manchester, and Concord. When it was accepted into the Interstate Highway System, the short NH 101 freeway from I-93 to the Everett Turnpike was numbered I-193 from 1961-1977. When I-93 was completed in 1977, the Everett Turnpike from NH 101 to I-93 was added to the route and it was renumbered as I-293. The NH 101 to Everett Turnpike interchange was later rebuilt to provide a free-flowing transition between the two legs.[5][6]