After crossing the already messy five-way intersection in Derry where Tsienneto Road becomes Folsom Road, drivers are greeted with dump trucks, flaggers, bucket loaders and frequent one-way lane delays. The cause is Exit 4A, a road project that was on the state’s 10-Year Transportation Plan in 2016 and slated to be completed in 2022. This is a complicated project, but one that is underway. Many other proposed projects get put on ice, mostly because of lack of funding.
As the state’s $4.5 billion draft 2027–2036 10-Year Transportation Plan moves through legislative hearings, there is a clear—and familiar—message that there is not enough money to do everything the state and municipalities say is needed.
Transportation planners know delays lead to increased costs down the road, but they have no choice. The state’s highway system is divided into two parts. State-owned roads and bridges are primarily funded through the highway fund, which draws revenue from the state gas tax as well as motor vehicle registration fees, federal grants and other sources. The turnpike system, which includes major highways such as I-93 and I-95, is designed to operate as a self-funded enterprise supported by toll revenue.
The problem, planners say, is that neither revenue stream has kept pace with costs.
New Hampshire’s gas tax was last permanently increased in 1991. Today, based on the consumer price index, the base tax of 18 cents per gallon is worth roughly 8 cents in real terms after inflation. A temporary gas tax increase of 4.2 cents approved in 2014 to help fund the widening of I-93 as well as hundreds of other bridge and road projects will sunset after those projects are paid off and is worth about 3 cents today.
Tolls face a similar erosion. The last toll increase on I-93 occurred in 2007, and the last increase on I-95 in Hampton came in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, those increases are worth significantly less today.
“The biggest challenge we face is that costs keep going up, and our revenue does not,” says William Cass, commissioner of the NH Department of Transportation (NHDOT). “We always try to honor the priorities in the 10-Year Plan. But if costs go up and delays happen, it’s typically the projects at the end of plan that get bumped. Projects for 2027 through 2029 already have some resources.”
To bring the plan into balance, the NHDOT and the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Intermodal Transportation (GACIT) cut roughly $300 million from the latest draft, removing or deferring dozens of projects across the state. Thirty-four projects were eliminated entirely, 15 were delayed, and no new major projects were added in the outer years of the plan. The changes reflect years of stagnant revenue, rising construction costs, and inflation that have eroded the buying power of the gas tax and tolls.
The $300 million in cuts to the state’s Ten-Year Plan do not account for the value of turnpike improvements that were deferred, including projects on 293 in Manchester, Nashua, and at the Bow-Concord junction on I-93. “If these were taken into account that number would be higher,” says J.B. Mack, assistant director and head of transportation planning at the Southwest Region Planning Commission (SWRPC).
A Plan Under Pressure
New Hampshire’s 10-Year Transportation Plan is updated every two years and serves as the state’s roadmap for transportation spending. While roads and bridges make up most of the investment, the plan includes all major state-funded projects involving roads, bridges, transit, aviation, and multimodal infrastructure. By law it must be fiscally constrained, meaning projects included in the plan must align with realistic revenue projections.
This year’s update covers 2027 through 2036, and it arrives at a moment when revenue projections are far from robust. “We are looking at very significant restraint,” Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill said at a public hearing in Keene last fall, one of 26 hearings held statewide to solicit public input on the plan.
In a letter to David Milz, chairman of the House Public Works and Highways Committee, Gov. Kelly Ayotte acknowledged the elimination of federally-funded individual projects and capital projects, while endorsing the updated plan. The letter states: “[The plan] prioritizes preservation and maintenance of existing roads and bridges and continues to address the state’s core system needs above other projects.”
According to NHDOT, construction costs have risen sharply in recent years due to inflation, labor shortages, and material price volatility, while state transportation revenue has remained largely flat. Federal funding is assumed to remain steady, but the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—passed in 2021 and responsible for recent funding increases—expires next year, adding further uncertainty.
Those conditions led to an updated, leaner plan. In the Monadnock Region, Mack has watched long-prioritized projects fall out of the plan.
Mack says NHDOT typically sets aside $50 million to $60 million in federal revenue to regional planning commissions to work with municipalities to prioritize the most important local and regional projects. “It’s a big process that includes many hours of deliberations and every two years that results in prioritized lists,” he says, noting that the current review recommended cutting several projects in the region. “Now we have to start over.”
Among the projects removed is a $7 million safety improvement on Route 10 in Swanzey, originally scheduled to begin in 2033. The project would have addressed safety concerns along a stretch of highway that now runs past new housing developments.
“There are about 200 relatively new workforce housing units within walking distance of a supermarket, school, athletic field and field house,” Mack says. “It’s a wide, overbuilt New Hampshire highway, and it isn’t safe for people to cross the road as it is currently configured.”
The proposed solution is what’s referred to as a “road diet,” or a road reconfiguration meant to reduce vehicle speeds and reconfigure lanes for improved safety for everyone. With the project struck from the plan, years of engineering and planning work are effectively shelved.
Another SWRPC-recommended project removed from the plan would have addressed chronic flooding along Route 124 in Marlborough, where stormwater overwhelms existing drainage infrastructure and damages both the roadway and nearby private property. The proposed $3.36 million culvert enlargement, scheduled for 2036, is now unfunded.
“A small town like Marlborough can’t handle the project cost on its own,” Mack says. “Unfortunately, it seems as though the inflationary costs of transportation infrastructure isn’t as “top of mind” for the general public as a gallon of milk or a dozen eggs. But it will have just as much impact on a household budget.”
Regionwide, the impact is broader. Nine state highway projects have been delayed by anywhere from one to nine years, along with eight municipal bridge projects.
Transportation planners stress that delaying routine maintenance can dramatically increase long-term costs. Roads that are not resurfaced on schedule allow water to penetrate the pavement, weakening the base and accelerating deterioration. “If you don’t address maintenance, you end up having to reconstruct the road later,” Mack says. “That is vastly more expensive.”
In the southwest corner of the state, Mack points to Routes 63 and 124 as examples. Before NHDOT changed its approach, those lower-tier state roads were not being paved as frequently as needed, allowing deeper structural damage to occur.
Paying for Infrastructure
A decade ago, the State passed a $0.042 increase to the road toll (gas tax) to finance the completion of I-93 from Salem to Manchester by participating in the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, which allows states to borrow from the federal government to fund major transportation projects. Payments on the principal for this loan were deferred until 2026 and therefore revenue collected between 2015 and 2025 was available to rehabilitate lower-tier roadways and bridges that otherwise would have continued to deteriorate. “That program allowed us to keep roads in good shape,” Cass says.
According to Cass, now that the Interstate 93 widening is complete the TIFIA proceeds have begun to be paid back, with repayment extending into the mid-2030s.
Besides federal funding, the money comes from user fees and taxes. “Tolls are user fees,” Mack says. “People pay in tolls to maintain the toll plazas and the roads between them. Inflation eats away at that.”
Despite widespread acknowledgment of the problem, toll increases remain politically unpopular in NH, where resistance to new taxes is also deeply ingrained.
“There has been a lack of political will,” Liot Hill says. “DOT has been saying for many years now that tolls need to be raised to fund significant safety-related projects.”
Those tensions came to a head during GACIT’s final deliberations, when the commission voted to move ahead with the I-293 Exits 6 and 7 project in Manchester even though there is no funding in place for it. The project was part of the prior 2025-2034 10-Year Plan, estimated at roughly $275 million. Meanwhile the Bow–Concord turnpike project on I-93, estimated at $500 million, was no longer funded and no longer authorized.
In a formal minority report submitted to Gov. Ayotte, Liot Hill criticized the decision as fiscally irresponsible and unfair.
“Restoring a major turnpike system project without including a funding source is fiscally irresponsible,” Liot Hill wrote. “The public was told repeatedly that the plan had to be fiscally constrained.”
She also argued that treating the two projects differently undermined regional equity, noting that both had been presented to the public as necessary safety and economic investments and both had construction funding removed due to insufficient toll revenue.
“That decision was made on a partisan basis by the four Republicans on the Executive Council at the final meeting of the DOT and Executive Council on the 10-Year Plan,” Liot Hill says. “They decided to include exits six and seven even though there is no funding, and they refused to include Bow-Concord when I asked them to at least treat both projects the same.”
Executive Councilor David Wheeler, who supported the majority decision, says the commission’s intent was to keep priorities intact while living within existing revenue constraints.
“We asked DOT to show us what a plan would look like balanced with existing revenues,” Wheeler says. “Our priorities are the same as the last plan. We’re not adding new projects until we accomplish what we already have.”
Wheeler says the reason for keeping the Manchester project at exits 6 and 7 on I-293, despite a funding gap, is that it is still valid until the current plan passes. “Traditionally we’re over programmed a little, but the question is, how much? The bottom line is we took a few projects out of the 10-Year Plan and added only two new projects.”
Wheeler acknowledged the safety concerns at both locations but says difficult choices were unavoidable. “We don’t have a crystal ball,” he says. “We can’t predict what federal funding will be in the future. And this is not the time to be doubling tolls. We need to live within our means.”
Moving Forward
Transportation advocates argue underinvestment carries economic consequences far beyond potholes and traffic backups. “I think former Commissioner Carol Murray compared transportation infrastructure to a game board on which all the economic pieces move around,” Cass says.
Manufacturing, tourism, and logistics all depend on reliable roads. Housing development increasingly hinges on safe, accessible transportation corridors. When highways fail to function as designed, safety risks increase and congestion spills into local roads.
“When you have highways not functioning the way they’re supposed to, you get safety issues,” Liot Hill says. “We have highways handling volumes and speeds they weren’t designed for.”
For the construction industry, the stakes are equally high. “Our members are significantly impacted by budget cuts,” says Joshua Reap, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors of NH and Vermont. “If we’re not building roads and bridges, that work has to be found somewhere else.”
Reap says the current situation reflects a “broken revenue model” and warned that deferring projects will only increase costs for future taxpayers. “The longer you defer, the more it’s going to cost,” he says. “No one wants to pay more in tolls or taxes, but no one wants to dodge potholes either.”
NHDOT officials stress that their role is to present costs and needs, not to set revenue policy. “We’re revenue agnostic,” Cass says. “The work of GACIT is focused on prioritizing projects and staying focused on planning and engineering needs. But at the end of the day, as much as we try to keep the 10-Year-Plan focused on those needs and keeping it factual, it’s a political and a legislative process.”
For regional planners like Mack, the concern is that short-term decisions are undermining long-term planning. Without changes to revenue, he and others warn, the state risks a cycle of deferred maintenance, escalating costs, and growing safety concerns.
“It’s pay now or pay a lot more later,” Liot Hill says. “Stuff doesn’t get cheaper over time.”
