Engineers from the state Department of Transportation met with the Board of Selectmen to update them on the progress of the I-93 and Route 111 improvements, a project that is chugging rather than gliding forward at this point, due to deep gouges in the state’s budget.

The Windham section of the project, which includes adding lanes to I-93, shifting Route 111A to the north and reshaping the interchange of Route 111 and I-93 by Exit 3 and exchanging the loop ramps for a diamond-shaped design, is projected to be completed by 2015, said project manager Peter Stamnas. The entire I-93 project is supposed to be complete by 2017.

The Board of Selectmen pondered issues of limited access to Route 111, landscaping and future surplus land that could eventually be sold to bring commercial development to Windham.

When Route 111A is moved north, motorists will only be able to make a right hand turn onto it from I-93, said Stamnas. The remaining part of it would become a town-owned road.

“One of our biggest issues in this town is economic development. By making that limited access, that kind of bars us from doing stuff in the future,” said Selectmen Chairman Dennis Senibaldi.

Selectman Roger Hohenberger voiced concern over the transition from four lanes down to two on I-93, which will also take place by Exit 3.

“Now we’re going to be the bottleneck where Salem used to be the bottleneck. It didn’t work in Salem, what you guys did, so I was just wondering how you’re going to make it work in Windham,” Hohenberger asked Stamnas.

Stamnas said the location of the bottleneck allows ample time for people to merge and that it is the least complex way of doing it. “We looked at three or four different versions and we came up with one that we feel is best suited not only for traffic volume but also for finance,” Stamnas said.

Hohenberger said the change is going to cause commuters coming up I-93 to detour onto back roads through Windham.

The state is also still trying to figure out where to install one or more conduits for sewer and electricity through I-93, a piece of the project that has become tricky with the grading associated with the added lanes.

Stamnas said the state has some ideas for the installation, but said the DOT and Selectmen need to meet “immediately” to discuss where, when and how to install that conduit.

“I don’t have any information for size. There really isn’t a great spot,” Stamnas said. “It’s not going to be an inexpensive piece of work. The town would have to pay for the installation,” he said.

Hohenberger said the state promised to pay for the installation several years ago, and Selectman Charles McMahon said if something has changed since that promise, Stamnas should look into it and inform the town right away.

Stamnas was also trying to get the board’s feelings on a $225,000 landscaping layout that would surround the interchange by exit 3. The plan includes hundreds of trees which Stamnas described as low-maintenance.

The state would install all the greenery for that plan, but after a year the town would take on ownership and responsibility for maintaining them.

Both McMahon and Hohenberger thought the money the town would have to spend to maintain the landscape each year would be too much. Final maintenance costs have not been calculated yet.

Senibaldi said the board needs to sit down with a professional to go through the plans and get the best estimate for how much the maintenance wold cost the town each year.

“We’re making a decision for the future taxpayers of Windham, and we need to be sensitive to that,” Senibaldi said.

Breton said the board should go with the landscaping plan, as previous boards had approved it and the location is the gateway to the Windham community.

“We spend money on other projects that don’t have the magnitude of what this project is,” said Breton.