As New Hampshire lawmakers move closer to raising the state’s gas tax for the first time in 21 years, we thought you might be wondering… are New Hampshire’s roads getting worse? Why are they getting harder to pay for? And, does it really matter if we have a few more potholes?
Correction: A calculation error in the text on the fourth slide has been corrected.
At 6:15 every morning, Christine Suchecki leaves her house in Windham, NH, and spends the next hour and twenty minutes driving almost 40 miles to her job as a nurse in Boston. Her husband drives in a similar direction, to Waltham, MA. “We just look at it as either you’re going to pay financially in your proximity to the city, or with time in your commute,” Suchecki says.
Suchecki and her husband are among the more than 80,000 Granite Staters who commute down to Massachusetts each day for work. In fact, only people traveling between Maryland and the District of Columbia commute across state lines more than Granite Staters.
Together, New Hampshire residents earned more than $6 billion in income in Massachusetts in 2011. They pay around $250 million in taxes to the state of Massachusetts each year. Continue Reading
In order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in New Hampshire, a renter would need to work 2.8 minimum-wage jobs. The math breaks down like this:
According to HUD’s Fair Market Rent documentation, a two-bedroom apartment will cost about $1,065 in New Hampshire. In order to spend only 30 percent of one’s income on rent, a renter would need to earn $3,548 each month, or $42,580 each year.
New Hampshire has a minimum wage of $7.25. Working 40 hours a week, all year round, a minimum wage earner will make only $15,080. That’s according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Out of Reach 2013 report.
New Hampshire housing came in at 12th most expensive in the nation, with Hawaii coming in 1st, followed by Washington DC, California, and New York. Massachusetts came in 7th, Vermont 16th, and Maine 23rd.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the United States a D+ grade for infrastructure quality in a four-year report card released today. ASCE also estimates the nation needs $3.6 trillion in investment by 2020 to repair our infrastructure. The country’s solid waste infrastructure did best with a B- grade; inland waterways and levees came in last, receiving a D- grade.
Check out the ASCE’s extensive interactive report.
The ASCE released a report on New Hampshire in 2011. Based on that report, New Hampshire is performing below the rest of the nation when it comes to our bridges; railroads; and solid waste management. The good news is that we’re slightly above the national average on all other metrics.
The state’s overall grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers is C+.
Want details on the state of New Hampshire’s infrastructure? Check out our recent roads series.
Amanda Loder / StateImpact New Hampshire
Steve Owens is making his third foray into energy-related entrepreneurship.
It’s been three years since the Green Launching Pad initiative was started at the University of New Hampshire with $1.5 million in federal stimulus money. The goal of the project was to fund and support the state’s most promising, eco-friendly start-ups, and enhance New Hampshire’s green economy in the long term. Under federal rules, the GLP was required to use all of the money by last spring. While the program is raising money to privatize, it’s been a year since it has handed out any grants. Last week, we checked-in with the Green Launching Pad itself, and one of its biggest success stories, Portsmouth-based Revolution Energy.
Revolution Energy has the feel of a new start-up–young environmentalists-turned-businessmen wearing the jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies that have become visual short-hand for 21st century innovation culture. But an hour’s drive southwest takes you to a very different, but no less successful, Green Launching Pad company. EnerTrac in Hudson has seen dramatic growth since winning a $20,000 GLP grant in the first round of funding. With more than 20 years of experience with start-ups, and wearing a dark sport coat, EnerTrac founder and CEO Steve Owens fits more into the classic mold of of an entrepreneur. A few months ago, he moved his company into permanent office space at a nondescript business park. Inside, the business looks ready to expand, with its white walls, open floor space, and rack of promotional t-shirts hanging up behind the reception desk. Continue Reading
Part III of our Roads series.
This week on StateImpact NH: a three-part series on roads. Transportation funding is a big issue in the legislature this session. A fifteen-cent gas tax has gotten initial support in the House, and advocates of high stakes gambling in New Hampshire say a portion of the revenue from a casino would go directly into the state’s Highway Fund. But getting either proposal through both chambers will be a doozy. So, we’re digging into roads.
First, we looked at just how bad our roads are. Next, the 5 reasons our roads are so beat up. And finally, what that means for your car, your pocketbook, and your safety.
Got a bumpy road that makes you grumpy? Share it here.
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Your car and pocketbook
Americans pay for bad roads twice. First, on car repairs– Granite Staters spend an average of $323 and as much as $500 annually on car costs due to driving on deteriorated roads, according to TRIP, a transportation trade organization.
Jeff White at Garry’s Service Center in Concord will tell you many of his customers end up with repairs totaling $1,000 in a given year. White says “when you go over a really big pothole, you can damage suspension parts and steering parts.” Frost heaves and potholes also cause a car’s wheels to go out of alignment. Then, White says, “the car will either drift right or left, and what that causes, besides a lot of annoyance, is it quickly wears tires.” Folks driving sports cars will likely have the most road-related damage, White says, including bent and broken rims.
But after those repairs are made, taxpayers pay for bad roads a second time – when they are finally rebuilt with gas tax and vehicle registration dollars. As NHDOT’s Bill Boynton says, a mile of a decently maintained road costs $50,000 to repave; but a mile of deteriorated road costs $1 million to reconstruct. While this may be a boon for auto mechanics and private paving companies with government contracts, poor roads are costly for businesses, governments and drivers.
Business
When it comes to his business, Chuck Crawford, who owns high-tech manufacturer Kimball Physics in Wilton, “roads are critical.” Crawford says since Wilton and nearby Greenville often don’t have the money, his company repairs roads on the company budget. “We’ve done that a number of times,” he adds. Continue Reading
Readers and listeners have been contributing pictures of the roads they drive on that really drive them crazy. Check out this map, and add your pictures and comments by clicking on the Add button. Zoom out to see all of New Hampshire.
Part II of our Roads series.
This week on StateImpact NH: a three-part series on roads. Transportation funding is a big issue in the legislature this session. A fifteen-cent gas tax has gotten initial support in the House, and advocates of high stakes gambling in New Hampshire say a portion of the revenue from a casino would go directly into the state’s Highway Fund. But getting either proposal through both chambers will be a doozy. So, we’re digging into roads.
First, we looked at just how bad our roads are. Today, we’ll tell you the 5 reasons our roads are looking beat up. And finally, we’ll look at what that means for your car, your pocketbook, and your safety.
Also, share your road story.
Those potholes you swerve around every day are caused by a confluence of variables. But mostly, it comes down to water, oil and money.
1. It’s all about water.
The kind of weather we’ve seen this winter – a lot of precipitation combined with frequent freezing and thawing and extreme temperatures – will destroy roads, fast. New Hampshire has a lot of frost-susceptible soil, says Jo Daniel of UNH’s Department of Civil Engineering. When rain or melted snow freezes, it forms an “ice lens” in the soil beneath the pavement that pushes up the asphalt causing frost heaves, and ultimately potholes. Not only do the frequent freezing and thawing that we’ve seen recently in New Hampshire degrade roads, but so do the extreme temperatures we saw earlier in the season – when highs near 60 followed lows in the single digits, in less than a week’s span.
2. And geography.
On top of that, New Hampshire is located in one of the worst parts of the country for winter road maintenance. Plowing snow and salting roads takes a $39 million bite out of what would otherwise be road repair budgets, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. Continue Reading
Part I of our Roads series.
This week on StateImpact NH: a three-part series on roads. Transportation funding is a big issue in the legislature this session. A fifteen-cent gas tax has gotten initial support in the House, and advocates of high stakes gambling in New Hampshire say a portion of the revenue from a casino would go directly into the state’s Highway Fund. But getting either proposal through both chambers will be a doozy. So, we’re digging into roads.
First, we look at just how bad our roads are. Next, we’ll tell you the 5 reasons our roads are so beat up. And finally what that means for your car, your pocketbook, and your safety.
Also, share your road story.
_______________
So, How Bad Are New Hampshire Roads?
Valerie and Berthold Horn say one road they drive on in Conway could win a “worst road in New Hampshire” contest, hands down.
We have had literally thousands of dollars of car repairs as a result of driving on East Conway Rd. and Green Hill Rd. during the last three years. Unfortunately for us, there is no other way to get to work, or shopping, or anything else for that matter.
NHDOT
This graph shows the average price for one ton of asphalt, from 1992-2012.
StateImpact NH has heard from a lot of disgruntled Granite Staters, who say the roads they drive on are terrible. And it’s true: the quality of New Hampshire’s roads has been steadily declining. Oil prices are pushing paving costs up, fuel-efficient cars mean fewer gas tax dollars for the state’s Highway Fund, and inflation means those dollars buy less, too.
Today, 37 percent of state-maintained roads and highways are deemed “in poor condition” by the state’s Department of Transportation. Under current funding, that will increase to 43 percent by 2016. And bad roads are getting worse. That’s because it costs twenty times as much to reconstruct a badly maintained road than to resurface one in decent condition. “Fixing worst first,” says Bill Boynton at NHDOT, “you’ll never catch up.”
On top of that, the state prioritizes road repair projects based on traffic patterns. So while interstates may stay in excellent condition, roads less travelled are likely to fall deeper and deeper into disrepair.
Check out this NHDOT graphic, which compares road conditions from 2000 and 2012.
NHDOT
Miles of roads in poor condition have increased throughout the state. Red lines indicate poor condition, yellow indicate fair, and green indicate good condition roads. All roads are state roads.
Including funding for the I-93 expansion, Boynton says New Hampshire would need $74 million each year just to maintain current road and bridge conditions. To fix all state-owned roads and bridges would cost $1.3 billion dollars.
Valerie and Berthold Horn say East Conway Road in Conway would win a "worst NH road challenge."
Of course, state roads make up only 30 percent of New Hampshire roads. Towns are struggling to maintain their roads too, perhaps even more so than the state. While NHDOT is on track to repave each road every thirteen years or so — three years slower than NHDOT would like — many towns in New Hampshire are on track to repave their roads every 100 years.
“Infrastructure is a big line item,” says Beth Hamilton at the University of New Hampshire’s Technology Transfer Center, which works with municipal public works departments across the state. But, she says, it’s often impossible for towns to choose road repair over education, police and firemen — not to mention more urgent road expenses, like plowing, or rebuilding roads lost to storm damage.
Stay tuned for the next segment of our roads series tomorrow morning, here at StateImpact New Hampshire. And, send us your photos!
Amanda Loder / StateImpact New Hampshire
Despite the challenges the GLP faces, Project Director Venky Venkatachalam is optimistic about the program's future.
A taxpayer-funded eco-business program is paying off for New Hampshire. The Green Launching Pad at the University of New Hampshire has given grants to more than a dozen start-ups in the state. But it hasn’t awarded any new funds since last year.
But the scene at the statehouse last winter was one of optimism for a cadre of entrepreneurs and their supporters. The Green Launching Pad was awarding its companies federal money. Over the course of two years, the program got $1.5 million in stimulus funding to give out to the most promising green start-ups in the state. Then-Governor John Lynch was optimistic about the program’s future even as the federal funds were drying up. Continue Reading
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