It’s been a turbulent six months for Memorial Bridge. In October, the U.S. Department of Transportation devoted $20 million in federal TIGER II funding to replace the aging structure. In March, proposed budget cuts threatened to eliminate those funds. Now, though, the TIGER II grant has once again been secured.

U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, announced on March 30 that the Department of Transportation had obligated $20 million to replace the bridge, which stretches over the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood traveled to New Hampshire last October to personally announce the TIGER II award. But spending legislation in Washington, D.C., threatened to pull TIGER funds for any projects that were not already underway. The bipartisan group of senators successfully lobbied to restore the funds.

Built in 1923, Memorial Bridge is in danger of closing within the next year. Construction on the $90 million project to replace the bridge is slated to begin in 2012.