Rye police chief Walsh, NH Department of Transportation Commissioner Bill Cass, Congressman Chris Pappas, State Senator Deb Altschiller, U.S. Senators Jean Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and Rye/Greenland State Representatives Jaci Grote and Dennis Malloy were at Rye Harbor State Park Monday April 22, 2024 to learn about the $20 million PROTECT grant that will shore-up the seawalls from North Hampton to Rye.
The Federal Highway Administration PROTECT grant is allocated directly to the state Department of Transportation to repair and reinforce the seawalls along a three mile stretch between North Hampton and Rye, two local communities battered by the back-to-back January coastal storms and flooding events that resulted in widespread damage to public and personal property.
The grant for reconstruction efforts in the Seacoast is part of the Federal Highway Administration’s $829.6 million earmarking for 80 projects throughout 37 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In announcing the grant, Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway said protection against storms that was great for decades, is not standing up to the 21st-century climate, which is emblematic of our infrastructure system. The system that was designed in the 20th century isn’t able to handle the precipitation rates and the storm rates that we’re seeing on an increasing basis. Whether it’s New Hampshire, Texas, Georgia, fires in Hawaii (or) flooding in Tennessee, we’re just seeing more and more of these climate-related events.
Work on the project will be completed through five construction contracts, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. Fourteen revetment stone barriers and sea walls will be tended to over a multi-year period.
As part of the project, one of the first priorities is reconstructing revetment (seawall) sections between the North Hampton and Rye town line near Fox Hill Point and Rye Ledge, a roughly 0.6-mile span.
The coastal resiliency grant award comes as local officials throughout Rockingham County are set to receive a separate batch of money after New Hampshire’s disaster declaration for the January storms and flooding was approved.
Congressman Pappas agreed with Administrator Bhatt saying that we seeing the impacts on our built infrastructure, on properties up and down the Seacoast of New Hampshire. We can’t just be satisfied with the fact that we might repair the damage as the infrastructure used to exist and feel like we’re prepared for the future. That’s not a recipe for success. We have to be building for the future.
Earlier in the day NH Governor Chris Sununu announced a $3 million FEMA grant from the agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program which gives money to municipalities to help their communities rebuild and prevent future disaster losses.