PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — An aging bridge that connects New Hampshire and Maine is getting $25 million in federal grants for its replacement.

The 70-year-old Sarah Mildred Long Bridge connects Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery. It is rated structurally deficient.

The states successfully applied for the federal Transportation Investment Generating Recovery, or TIGER, grant.

Work on the replacement bridge is expected to start in 2015, with completion in 2017. The project is estimated to cost $160 million.

The congressional delegations from New Hampshire and Maine, which pressed for the grant, welcomed the news. They said the new bridge will help support transit and economic activity and national security needs at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which relies on the bridge’s railroad track to transport nuclear waste out of the yard.

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