WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) announced that the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) will receive a grant of $5,000,000 to replace the Rogers’ Rangers Bridge. The bridge provides travelers on U.S. Route 2 with a crossing of the Connecticut River between New Hampshire and Vermont. The original Rogers’ Rangers Bridge was constructed in 1950 and is critical to the movement of freight and people locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. This funding, provided through the U.S. Department of Transportation, will accelerate the construction of the new bridge and allow New Hampshire and Vermont to move this project forward.
“Local residents and businesses have been anxiously awaiting the replacement of the Rogers’ Rangers Bridge and this new grant provides the funding certainty needed to get this project underway,” said Shaheen. “This new bridge will support the regional economy and speed up community access to local medical and educational facilities. Improving our state’s infrastructure is critical for job creation, economic growth and public safety and that’s why I’ll continue to advocate on behalf of local road and bridge repair projects that Granite Staters depend on.”
"Building a strong, modern transportation infrastructure is critical to the success of our people, our businesses, and our economy, and replacing Rogers' Rangers Bridge is critical to those efforts," Senator Hassan said. "I am pleased to announce the grant to support this project, which I advocated for during my time as Governor, and I will keep working to ensure that New Hampshire has the resources it needs to lead in the 21st century innovation economy."
Senator Shaheen and then-Governor Hassan wrote letters to the secretary of the Department of Transportation requesting this grant funding.
The bridge currently carries 3,500 vehicles per day, 10 percent of which are trucks. With no other nearby east-west freight routes in the northern portions of New Hampshire and Vermont, U.S. Route 2 links the region to two important highways – Interstates 91 and 93 – that connect the area to the Canadian trade markets to the north as well as the larger New England seaports to the south.