The ‘new’ Massachusetts Turnpike

Four years ago at this time, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority was swirling in controversy. The quasi-independent state agency was having trouble paying its debts and the bond rating agencies were preparing to downgrade its bond rating a second time.

A proposed $100 million toll increase was looming, Big Dig costs funded by the Pike had increased dramatically, and the Patrick administration and Legislature were scrambling to figure out a way to centralize statewide transportation services and planning, both to save money and create a more efficient transportation system.

The answer came with a new law, an Act Modernizing the Transportation Systems of the Commonwealth, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in June, with an effective date of Nov. 1, 2009. Sweeping in its scope, the law consolidated most statewide transportation functions into the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Gone were the  independently-operated MassPike, Registry of Motor Vehicles and Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission, all folded into the new MassDOT, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Board of Directors was dissolved and placed under the control of the MassDOT Board.

The Massachusetts Port Authority was the only state transportation agency to escape the reorganization and operates much as it did prior to the consolidation.

The former mix of state departments, authorities and commissions under separate leadership became four divisions in the new MassDOT – highways, the RMV, mass transit and aeronautics – all under the control of the transportation secretary.

The Beacon talked to the DOT, area legislators and veterans of road maintenance to get an update on the consolidation. Has it accomplished what it set out to do? Has the move produced the desired savings? How does the road compare to the time it was managed by an independent authority?

Frank DePaola is the administrator of the MassDOT Highway Division. A licensed professional engineer with extensive experience in both the public and private sector, DePaola said the consolidation “overall went well.”

He said that after the consolidation, the Pike’s bond rating went up and that the reorganization has saved about $500 million throughout the DOT system in the three and a half years since the new super department was created. Most savings, he said, came as a result of administrative consolidation.

Employees of the four independent agencies were all folded into the state group insurance and retirement systems, eliminating the need for separate systems for each of the former agencies. In addition, they all now share the same legal and public affairs, real estate and other offices.

DePaola acknowledged there have been some problems. He said the former Pike Authority was better at maintaining roads than the old MassHighway Department, but noted last year, the state spent $19 million on repaving the Pike from Rte. 128 to the New York state line and an equal amount would probably be spent this year.

State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing (D-Pittsfield) and Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D-Lenox) agree transportation reform has been a work-in-progress and there have been some growing pains. Both use the Pike frequently to travel to the State House and see firsthand how the road compares to its former incarnation under the supervision of an independent agency.

Downing said he “hasn’t seen a great deal of difference” under the new system,  but noted that bringing all those functions together made a lot of sense. He also said he thought the new department could “better coordinate priority needs region by region,” but expressed optimism that those kinds of wrinkles could be ironed out.

Pignatelli, who voted against the reorganization, said he believed the Pike was better run than the former MassHighway, but acknowledged funding and other problems had to be fixed. Right after the reorganization, “things deteriorated, they didn’t do plowing well, and I seldom saw emergency vehicles helping. But it’s rebounded in the last two years,” he said.

Two veteran road bosses disagree

Describing the road from Blandford to the New York line as a “the Battle of the Somme,” a bloody battle in World War I, Tony Smith of Lenox, a retired maintenance worker and supervisor who worked out of both the Lee and Blandford depots, had 35 years on the Pike and two under the newly configured Highway Division.

“The road is terrible,” he said. “They don’t have the manpower they need, and they’re doing more contracting. It should have been kept as a separate agency.”

He said they “love buying equipment” and that the new radio system is so bad that employees must rely on cell phones, a challenging means of communication in The Berkshires’ rough terrain.

William Elovirta, a Becket selectman and 30-year town road superintendent who still drives the Pike monthly to Massachusetts Highway Association meetings in the Worcester area and along the Route 495 corridor, said he thought the maintenance “has gone downhill.”  He noted, in particular, that roadside mowing and filling of potholes isn’t being performed as well.

DePaola, the highway division administrator, agreed that “a couple of years ago folks grumbled about pavement conditions,” but said he hasn’t heard many complaints recently and noted that last year there wasn’t a lot of capital available to the Pike.

That’s bound to change shortly, as the governor’s and Legislature’s competing transportation funding proposals are just now coming to a head. With Gov. Patrick’s proposed $1 billion increase in new money and the legislative leadership’s so far immutable counterproposal of only half that amount, it’s anybody’s guess how it will all end up.

This is especially true, since these amounts will be spread throughout the new department and include funding for regional transit authorities and to switch certain employment costs from bonded debt to operating expenses, among other items.

The state highway administrator, legislators and retired road bosses all agree on one thing, however: the Massachusetts Turnpike is the state’s premier road, providing quick access across the east-west corridor, and it must be maintained to the highest standards possible while working through any reorganization growing pains and funding problems it encounters.

If this will be accomplished is still an unanswered question.

Posted by Bruce Garlow on April 11, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Beacon Hill Spotlight,Columns,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry