Patrick offers $3b plan for bridge repairs
Work would occur over next 8 years
Governor Deval Patrick yesterday announced a $3 billion bond proposal to repair deteriorating bridges throughout the state over the next eight years, a scaled-back version of an initiative he announced last month.
"It's a very robust program that will enable us to get to somewhere between 250 and 300 bridges over the next several years and create an awful lot of very good jobs along the way," Patrick said.
The announcement is the culmination of weeks of negotiations between Patrick and state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who was skeptical of the governor's original plan, saying it was too costly. Last month, the governor floated a $3.8 billion bond proposal to repair 411 bridges.
Patrick said he reduced the scope of bridge repairs "because there's less money."
"The more we do fast, the more of them we can do," Patrick said. "We'll still be ahead of where we are today and where we would be if we did nothing."
Fixing bridges has been a perennial problem in Massachusetts, which has one of the oldest transportation infrastructures in the nation, with 200 bridges that were built in the 19th century.
The Globe reported in August that approximately 10 percent of the 5,500 bridges in Massachusetts are classified under federal standards as "structurally deficient," including 65 well-traveled ones with such serious defects that they may need to be replaced. The Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River is among the most high-profile of the spans, as well as the Merrimack River bridges in Haverhill and the bridge that carries the Fitchburg commuter rail over Route 62 in Concord.
The Pioneer Institute last year released a report titled "Our Legacy of Neglect," documenting a lack of funding for transportation infrastructure in Massachusetts.
There are 543 structurally deficient bridges right now, according to state officials, but that figure grows each year.
To lower the cost of the bridge project, Patrick cut out repairs on bridges owned by the MBTA and the Massachusetts Turnpike. Bernard Cohen, secretary of transportation, said those bridges were excluded under the new plan because the T and the Pike have other sources of money. But he acknowledged that both agencies "are groaning under the weight of their debt burden."
Though the bill has not yet passed, highway officials will immediately begin preparing to put the work out to bid so the advertising can begin as soon as it passes and construction can start this summer, said Luisa Paiewonsky, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department.
Noah Bierman of the Globe staff contributed to this report
