The Executive Council on Wednesday agreed to convert the toll plaza on F.E. Everett Turnpike in Bedford to all-electronic tolling, meaning vehicles won’t slow down to pay.

On a 3-2 vote, the councilors approved a nearly $16 million contract between the Department of Transportation and R.S. Audley Inc., a construction company based in Bow. They also OK’d a contingency of just under $800,000 for “unforeseen issues” during construction. The project is funded through the state Bureau of Turnpikes’ Capital Program and is expected to be completed by September 2027.

This project will replace the traditional toll plaza with an overhead, boothless system that doesn’t require vehicles to pump the brakes. That means people won’t be able to pay with cash as they pass through the toll, a point that split the council. Instead, E-ZPasses will be captured by the system, or travelers can pay online within seven days or through a mailed invoice.

A minimum of two lanes of traffic will run on both sides of the highway during construction, and there will be three lanes of traffic both ways once completed, according to documents DOT submitted to the council and governor.

DOT Commissioner William Cass said toll plazas have posed safety concerns, pointing to “horrific” accidents where people have driven into the barriers. Besides eliminating the accident risk posed by the barriers, it will also help “increase capacity” and “decrease emissions from idling cars,” according to DOT.

Gov. Chris Sununu said the all-electronic tolling should be considered on a “case-by-case basis, if it’s expanded at all.” 

The outgoing Republican governor met with the Executive Council for his third-to-last time Wednesday. Come January, the long table on the second floor of the State House will be surrounded by some new faces, but it will have the same party makeup: 4 Republican councilors, one Democrat, and another Republican governor, Kelly Ayotte, at the helm.

In other news from the meeting:

• On a 3-2 vote, the council confirmed Mark Dell’Orfano, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, to the Public Utilities Commission. 
• Sununu nominated Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais to serve on the state Boxing and Wrestling Commission, which helps provide “a framework for the conduct and performance of all boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and wrestling exhibitions” under its jurisdiction, according to its webpage.
• The council approved the use of federal funds for an energy efficiency program, which will provide rebates for income-eligible residents to purchase certain electronic appliances. The program is expected to launch early next summer, said Joshua Elliot, director of the division of policy and programs at the Department of Energy.
• Sununu gave some hints as to what’s next for him, saying it would probably be a mix of things. He told reporters he has been looking at opportunities in the private sector, which may include sitting on boards, “helping companies navigate and strategize around avoiding political landmines,” or perhaps media. “I haven’t signed on the dotted line with anything yet,” he said.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The judge who oversaw a landmark civil trial over abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center has issued a preliminary order slashing the $38 million verdict against the state to $475,000. Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman previously said reducing the amount awarded to plaintiff David Meehan by nearly 99% would be an “unconscionable miscarriage of justice,” He reiterated that belief in a Nov. 4 order, but “reluctantly” granted the state’s request to the cap the award and said he would enter a final judgement to that effect on Friday barring any last-minute requests from attorneys.

Meehan’s allegations of horrific sexual and physical abuse at the Youth Development Center in 1990s led to a broad criminal investigation resulting in multiple arrests. His civil lawsuit seeking to hold the state accountable was the first of more than 1,100 to go to trial. Although jurors sided with him in May after a monthlong trial, confusion arose over how much money they could award in damages.

The dispute involves part of the verdict form that asked jurors “How many incidents does the jury unanimously find the plaintiff has proven by a preponderance of the evidence?” Jurors were not informed that state law caps claims against the state at $475,000 per “incident.”

Some jurors later said they wrote “one” on the verdict form to reflect that they believed Meehan suffered a single case of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from more than 100 episodes of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The state has interpreted the verdict to mean that jurors found it liable for only one “incident” of abuse at the Manchester facility, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center.

The judge has denied Meehan’s motions for a new trial focused only on determining the number of incidents or to set aside just the portion of the verdict in which jurors wrote one incident. He said an entirely new trial remains an option, but Meehan’s attorneys have not requested one.

“This is one more skirmish in a long war for David Meehan and all the victims of state child abuse,” attorneys Rus Rilee and David Vicinanzo said in a statement Tuesday. “This stain on the reputation of New Hampshire will remain until the state resolves these case fairly and apologizes.”

The pair said they have new motions to file this week and more trials coming next year.

Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase, representing the state, declined to comment on the rulings other than to answer a procedural question.

Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested, though one has since died and charges against another were dropped after the man, now in his early 80s, was found incompetent to stand trial.

The only criminal case to go to trial so far ended in a mistrial in September after jurors deadlocked on whether the defendant, Victor Malavet, raped a girl at a separate state-run facility in Concord.

Bradley Asbury, who has pleaded not guilty to holding down a teenage boy while other staffers sexually assaulted him in Manchester, goes on trial next week.