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$9m in stimulus funds approved for footbridge near Gillette Stadium

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 19, 2009 07:46 PM

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

A key regional planning board gave final approval today to Governor Deval Patrick's plan to spend $9 million in federal stimulus money to build a footbridge over Route 1 near Gillette Stadium.

The elaborate bridge had drawn opposition because it connects two parking lots privately owned by Robert Kraft, chairman and chief executive officer of the New England Patriots. It bypassed the normal review process given to most regional highway projects that receive federal money.

The Patrick administration argued that the bridge is part of a larger effort to spend a portion of the stimulus money on a group of projects that could help create jobs and lure major corporations to the state, ultimately reaping larger economic rewards for the public. At the state's request, the Kraft Group spent $2 million on the state's environmental permitting process for a piece of property across from Gillette, which would benefit from the footbridge.

The land is one of a few sites in Massachusetts large enough to handle a headquarters or major research campus, according to
Greg Bialecki, the state's secretary of housing and economic development. It was initially referenced in a 1999 list of roadway and safety improvements the Legislature endorsed as a necessary public improvement for the site.

"For the last 10 years, the Kraft Group has spent $800 million in private investment" in the area, said Dan Krantz, director of site development for the company. "There's benefit to all."

The footbridge, approved 13 -1 by the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Boston Region, was part of a slate of projects worth more than $100 million in stimulus funds, including $15 million for road improvements to aid another private venture, the Assembly Square development in Somerville. That project has received a total of $65 million in state support to date.

Mary Pratt, a board member from Hopkinton, was the only dissenting vote on the package of projects.

"On principle, no," she said.

But Pratt was not the only board member who opposed the footbridge. At least two other members of the panel, representing numerous cities and towns as well as advocacy groups, expressed opposition to the project before ultimately voting to support the overall slate. And several other board members met privately to discuss the footbridge but ultimately decided against holding a separate vote on the bridge that would have further divided the board.

Patrick's interest in the project was made clear to the board. Two members of his cabinet -- Bialecki and transportation secretary Jeffrey Mullan -- addressed the board personally to explain the bridge's role in the overall economic development strategy. Members of the state planning staff also warned the board that the money could go to another region of the state if board members voted to remove the bridge from the Boston region's list.

Foxborough town officials support the project, but a State House committee overseeing stimulus spending singled it out as inappropriate.

"In light of drastic budget cuts to human services, education accounts, and local aid, to name a few, this kind of investment sends the wrong message to our constituencies," said Representative David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who chairs the committee, reading from a letter sent by the committee.

Robert Kraft and his wife contributed a total of $12,000 to the political accounts of Governor Deval Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, and the state Democratic Party between Oct. 19 and Oct. 30, according to records of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.