Crews began installing centerline rumble strips along a stretch of the Spaulding Turnpike in Rochester, extending from exit 12 to exit 16, on Tuesday, Oct. 9. The rumble strips are intended to reduce head-on collisions that result from vehicles crossing the centerline on the narrow, two-lane portion of Route 16. The work will be conducted during non-commuter hours, leaving traffic open in both directions as a grinding machine trudges along the pike at a rate of three miles per hour.

The roadwork underscores the dire funding demands facing the turnpike system in the Seacoast area. Deterioration of numerous bridges, some of them more than 50 years old, has created unsafe and unsightly conditions, and high volumes of traffic have caused accidents and congestion in some locations.

The N.H. Executive Council recently approved significant increases at six tollbooths in the Seacoast. The mainline toll on Interstate 95 in Hampton will jump from $1 to $1.50, while the side toll between I-95 and Route 101 will jump from 50 cents to 75 cents. Tolls on the Spaulding Turnpike in Dover and Rochester will also increase from 50 cents to 75 cents, while tolls on the Everett Turnpike in Hooksett and Bedford will rise from 75 cents to $1. The increases take effect on Oct. 22.

The state’s 10 toll plazas generated just over $82 million in revenue in fiscal year 2007, every penny of which goes back into the turnpike system, covering everything from paying toll workers to paving roads to replacing bridge decks and guard rails. The upcoming increases—the first in the state since 1989—are expected to generate an additional $24 million per year, which will give the N.H. Department of Transportation enough money to conduct a number of high priority projects.

The DOT’s original proposal called for the side toll in Hampton to increase from 50 cents to $1, while the mainline toll on I-95 would have remained at $1. That proposal would have raised an additional $16 million.

But many area residents took issue with the DOT’s plan, saying it unfairly targeted local commuters. Executive Councilor Beverly Hollingworth was at Exeter Town Hall on Monday, Oct. 1, along with Jeff Brillhart, assistant commissioner of the DOT, and Harvey Goodwin, administer of the DOT’s Bureau of Turnpikes. Brillhart and Goodwin detailed many of the dangerous conditions evident at turnpike bridges, using a slideshow to display traffic congestion and deterioration to bridge abutments.
“I’m telling you, you don’t want to leave those bridges as they are,” Hollingworth told the crowd of about 20 people. “We need to protect our citizens and make them safe.”

During a public comment session, residents expressed a number of concerns. Some worried that the increases would divert traffic around tolls, clogging more residential roads like routes 1, 33 and 108. Others worried that the increases would create a financial burden that some Seacoast families cannot afford to bear.

Jim Shaw, of Barrington, said he has traveled along the Spaulding Turnpike on a regular basis for 40 years. He estimated that the increases would cost him an extra $60 to $70 per month. “I pay more in a week than some people pay in a year,” Shaw said. “I can afford it. There are other people who can’t. It’s an undue burden.”

Scott Sakelarios, of Hampton, noted that although tolls have not increased since 1989, the cost of paying for EZ Pass transponders instead of using tokens constituted an increase in turnpike fees. Although he agrees that the turnpikes are in need of repairs, he accused the DOT of poor planning. “I’m afraid to have my representatives vote for something that is just lip service,” he said.

But other guests spoke in support of the increases. Durham resident John Carroll drew scoffs when he suggested doubling all the turnpike tolls and adding more tolls to the Spaulding Turnpike. He added that buses should be exempt from the tolls, saying the state should do more to encourage public transportation.

Several guests questioned why the DOT wanted to double the Hampton side toll but not increase the main I-95 toll, which out-of-state tourists pass through to visit New Hampshire. Brillhart said the DOT rejected that idea because increasing the mainline toll would dramatically increase the amount of traffic that backs up at the tolls as people fumble for change. Ultimately, however, the DOT was overruled.

State Sen. Joseph Kenney (R-Wakefield) said he opposed toll increases because they create significant expenses for commuters who travel through the tolls on a daily basis on their way to and from work. “I can see some of my working families paying an additional $500 $900 a year,” Kenney said. He criticized Gov. John Lynch for directing federal funding into the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program instead of appropriating more federal dollars directly into the turnpike system. “State government always has a way of digging into the taxpayer’s pocket at the wrong time, and I think this is the wrong time,” he said.  

Some speakers suggested alternative ways of funding turnpike projects. Exeter Selectman Lionel Ingram said increasing the gas tax would “spread the pain” across a wider portion of the state’s population. State Rep. Casey Crane (R-Nashua) suggested raising revenue by putting paid advertisements at the tolls. (Kenney later said he would file a bill suggesting such a measure.) Another woman suggested instituting a state sales or income tax.

Hollingworth met with Gov. Lynch the day after the meeting in Exeter and encouraged him to revise the bill to include an increase to the main I-95 toll and cut in half the proposed increase to the side toll. The governor agreed, and the Executive Council approved the bill on Wednesday, Oct. 3, by a vote of four to one.

N.H. Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen quickly lashed out at Lynch, saying the DOT has been plagued by mismanagement and a lack of leadership in the Statehouse. “What New Hampshire needs is more responsible leadership—not higher tolls,” Cullen said in a release. The two Republicans on the Executive Council, however, both voted in favor of the increases.

The new revenue will fund eight priority projects, addressing 14 of the 15 “red listed” bridges in the turnpike system, which represent the bridges most critically in need of repair. Seacoast projects include widening the Spaulding Turnpike in Rochester, replacing the I-95 bridge over the Taylor River in Hampton and preliminary work on the Little Bay Bridge on the Spaulding Turnpike, which stretches from Newington to Dover.