Transportation Costs Are Rising, Purchasing Power Is Falling

March 11, 2026
Transportation

This blog entry is based on a letter sent to all 33 SWRPC member communities on March 6, 2026.

Costs are rising and purchasing power is falling. Projects are getting cut or deferred. This sums up the current predicament with the State’s Ten Year Transportation Improvement Plan (TYP), a biennial document that lists state and federally funded projects planned for construction in the next 10 years to address our State’s transportation infrastructure needs.

The current draft 2027-2036 TYP, which totals $4.5 billion, is currently under review by the NH Legislature as HB 2026. At the time of writing, it is being reviewed by the House of Representatives Public Works Committee. Outside of the NH Turnpike System, the draft TYP cuts 34 previously obligated projects (valued at $106 million), indefinitely delays construction of 15 previously obligated projects ($199 million), and cancels a planned investment of $60 million in new municipal projects. On the NH Turnpike System, two major projects ($232 million) remain listed in the plan, but there is no identified funding to pay for them. A multimillion-dollar project to widen I-93 in Bow and Concord has also been indefinitely delayed.

Price escalation, delays, debt service, and especially inflation have widened the gap between costs and revenue. Adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, New Hampshire’s gas tax—raised to 18 cents per gallon in 1991—is now worth only about 8 cents per gallon. The temporary addition of 4.2 cents/gallon to the base gas tax rate in 2014 (mostly raised to help fund the widening of I-93 until debt service is paid off) is equivalent to about 3 cents today. The State’s last systemwide turnpike toll increase in 2007, which varied by toll plaza, has depreciated by about 36% so that a dollar then is worth about 64 cents today.

The revenue shortfall will have real implications for southwest New Hampshire. The Town of Swanzey’s $6.9 million project to control speeding and construct pedestrian safety infrastructure on Route 10 in West Swanzey, one of the most opportune areas in the region for supporting new economic development and workforce housing growth, was indefinitely cut from the Plan. The Town of Marlborough’s $3.4 million project to address watershed fed stormwater flows coursing down Route 124 into Marlborough Center and perennially causing thousands of dollars of road and private property damage was rejected. Project cuts are tough to accept, particularly since the TYP process is the main way smaller New Hampshire towns like Swanzey and Marlborough address state infrastructure challenges affecting local needs. Towns do not have the means to tackle these issues on their own.

Among the projects that remain in the TYP, rising costs and insufficient revenue are trapping transportation projects in a negative feedback loop: current project delays drive up costs, which then trigger further delays and budget increases for future work. A comparison of projects in southwest New Hampshire between the Draft 2027–2036 Ten-Year Plan (TYP) and the approved 2025–2034 TYP highlights this growing backlog. There are 17 existing highway and bridge projects in southwest New Hampshire that will be delayed between 1 and 9 years. These setbacks are largely driven by the cascading financial impacts of ongoing project overruns.

In the fall of 2025, 3 of 24 hearings around the State were held on the draft 2027-2036 TYP in southwest New Hampshire, specifically in Keene, Jaffrey and Peterborough. SWRPC staff attended each hearing and observed that all verbal public testimony relating to New Hampshire’s costs and revenue predicament were calls for the State to raise gas taxes and toll fares to address the runaway inflationary costs. This included the leadership of SWRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee who have been advising the NH Department of Transportation on the TYP for many years. That being said, it is clear that household affordability is top of mind for many people as well. Just like the State, inflation and escalation are hitting household pockets hard as well.

Here at SWRPC, we strive to keep our member municipalities informed about state-level decisions that have local ramifications. The TYP and its revenue shortfall impact the communities we serve. You and your Town may or may not think that adjustments to toll fares or the gas tax would be acceptable tradeoffs for making the TYP financially whole. Either way, if this issue is important to you, there is still time to weigh in with state elected officials. This can be done by reaching out to your State Senator or State Representatives. You can also provide written or verbal testimony to the two primary committees reviewing HB 2026, the House Public Works Committee and the Senator Transportation Committee. Linked to this blog is contact information for all current Southwest Region Senators and Representatives as well as roster information for the two committees mentioned above.