Nashua, NH – This afternoon, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) visited the Broad Street Parkway construction site in order to highlight the importance of immediately passing a long-term surface transportation bill in Congress. Across New Hampshire and around the country, important local projects like the Broad Street Parkway could be threatened if Congress fails to pass legislation to allow federal funding for local departments of transportation to continue.

“All across the state, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation is relying on federal funding to complete infrastructure projects of crucial importance. If Congress fails to pass a long-term surface transportation bill, many of these projects – and others like them around the nation – could come grinding to a halt right in the middle of the busy summer construction season,” said Congresswoman Annie Kuster. “These projects are vital not only to public safety, but also to scores of New Hampshire workers who rely on summer construction jobs. That’s why I’m calling on my colleagues in Congress to put an end to the uncertainty, and pass a long-term surface transportation bill immediately.”

In 2012, Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP-21) Act to fund our country’s surface transportation network for two years only, and it has since been extended one year beyond its original 2014 expiration. MAP-21 is set to expire at the end of July and the Highway Trust Fund will soon be depleted, which means funding for projects around the country could run out of money right in the middle of summer, our country’s busiest construction season. During today’s tour, Kuster – along with city officials, business leaders, and project planners – called on her colleagues in Congress to immediately pass long-term legislation to prevent this funding shortfall, which not only threatens local construction projects, but also the summer construction jobs that go along with them.

The Broad Street Parkway project was first started in 2013. After completion, the two-lane road will improve access to the city’s downtown area by providing another crossing of the Nashua River through the city’s millyard.  It will relieve congestion throughout downtown and bolster economic development in the city’s millyard.  Projects like this one across the nation could be threatened if Congress fails to act.

Congresswoman Kuster has long advocated for increased federal investment in New Hampshire’s transportation infrastructure.  Last year when short-term funding threatened to run out, Kuster introduced the DRIVE Now Act, legislation that would have replenished the Highway Trust fund through the summer construction season to allow Congress time to pass a full, six-year reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund and other Surface Reauthorization programs.  She has also toured the I-93 construction project in Windham and the Route 10 bridge replacement project in Winchester, two projects that could have been threatened by lack of transportation funding, to highlight the urgent need to pass responsible funding legislation. Most recently, earlier this month Kuster sent a letter to House Leadership urging them to bring a long-term surface transportation bill to the floor for immediate passage.

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