Bragdon urges Senate panel to take down Merrimack tolls

CONCORD – Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, said after 24 years, it’s time to take down the three ramp tolls along the F.E. Everett Turnpike in Merrimack. Bragdon told a powerful Senate committee Tuesday that N.H. turnpikes can easily afford the revenue loss of up to $2.5 million annually if you eliminate the toll stations at Exits 10, 11 and 12. Merrimack town and state officials accepted building the ramp tolls in 1989 in exchange for nearly $50 million of road improvements made to promote industrial development in Merrimack during the late 1980s and early ’90s. But Bragdon said since then there have been major turnpike upgrades in Nashua, Manchester and Concord and none of those cities has had new tollbooths to pay for them. “This is the right thing to do.