Governor Benson wants to combine E-Z Pass with a one-way toll at the Hampton booths.

NEWINGTON, N.H. (AP) – Gov. Craig Benson apparently won’t find much support to resume the one-way toll plan on Interstate 95 from the communities along the highway.

Transportation officials from Seacoast communities met Thursday to discuss the impact a one-way Hampton tollbooth would have on toll revenues; the E-Z Pass system; and most of all, traffic along Route 1, the preferred detour for drivers trying to avoid the northbound toll.

Warren Bambury, Hampton’s representative to the group, said his town’s police chief, William Wrenn, reported last summer’s experiment boosted traffic along Route 1. He said Wrenn told him other police chiefs noticed the same thing.

“Theyre definitely against it. Hes willing to come and bring other chiefs with him (to talk about it),” he said.

Representatives from the Technical Advisory Committee of the Seacoast Metropolitan Planning Organization, which makes recommendations on regional transportation projects, also spoke with the governor’s news secretary, Wendell Packard.

“The governor knows the best solution to the traffic problems at the Hampton tolls is a combination of one-way tolls and the E-Z Pass system,” Packard said.

Under E-Z Pass, drivers will have their tolls deducted electronically from a pre-paid account, and won’t have to stop at the toll booth.

Packard said Benson plans to go forward with the one-way proposal in the new year while also instituting the E-Z Pass system.

Exeter Town Planner Sylvia Von Aulock said although she considers the one-way toll experiment a failure, she said it was worth trying.

AP-ES-01-10-04 1527EST