New transit merger faces a few snarls

Next door, a more modest work space housed a fraction of the equipment designed for a similar purpose.

These rooms, which share a wall, until recently were both staffed by workers from different state transit agencies doing the same thing: watching traffic. In late September, the employees from the small room crossed over to the large room, meaning they no longer have to talk by telephone about crashes and other emergencies on the state’s roadways.

The story of these two rooms - and how the work inside them has changed over the past six weeks - is the most concrete example so far of how Governor Deval Patrick is trying to re-create the way transportation works in Massachusetts, illustrating both its potential and its limitations. Through a landmark merger that officially took effect yesterday and will require several years to complete, more than 10,000 state employees will see changes in their benefits, their job descriptions, or in some cases, where they show up to work.

But there remains fundamental division, coupled with a new anxiety, that could take years to resolve. Nearly everyone who views Patrick’s complex new law agrees the next steps will be the toughest.

“The devil isn’t as much in the details here as [in] the implementation,’’ said Rafael Mares, a staff lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation.

The two groups now working side-by-side monitoring traffic from South Boston, for example, are represented by six unions. They use separate computer systems, sit in separate areas of the room, and report to different bosses.

Saving money, if it happens, will involve adjusting salaries, cutting positions, and negotiating with unions. Merging equipment and software could increase expenses, at least in the short term, even as Patrick and members of the Legislature say the changes are designed to save money.

Many of the potential savings in the new law remain subject to decisions that have not yet been made. And the most dependable savings - a projected $30 million to $40 million a year from reducing MBTA health care benefits - is the subject of a lawsuit by unions.

The major problems afflicting transportation, including billions of dollars in debt and a backlog of maintenance on the MBTA and on the Massachusetts Turnpike, will not be immediately solved, according to even the most optimistic observers. The new transportation law, for all the excitement it generated among legislators, will not raise an estimated $20 billion necessary over the next two decades needed to keep roads, trains, subways, and buses from crumbling.

“That’s going to take a while but we’ve got to start somewhere, and were starting with this,’’ Patrick said in a phone interview. And yesterday, he said, was “a big, big step forward.’’

“I want a culture of accountability and of safety and of long-term financial stability,’’ he said. “All of those are big lifts. Those are real changes.’’

The new law creates a single giant agency, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, to oversee almost all major roads and bridges, as well as municipal airports, and vehicle registration. Gone will be the much-maligned Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the state Highway Department. The Tobin Bridge, now under the control of the Massachusetts Port Authority, will also be absorbed by the new agency in January, along with numerous bridges and roads that had been under the control of the state parks department.

The MBTA will continue to exist as the state’s primary public transit agency. But its administrators will report to the same five-member board that will oversee almost all transportation in the state.

The new board will have the power to award billions of dollars a year in public contracts, meaning its appointees will be some of the most powerful people in the state, despite never facing election.

“Opportunity,’’ said Jeffrey Mullan, the new state transportation secretary and chief operating officer. “It’s all about the future. I think that people, frankly, underestimate what’s happening. I think the Commonwealth will prove that we are repositioning ourselves as a national leader in transportation.’’

The Patrick administration has said it would like to cut 300 jobs when the changes are fully implemented but has not set a timeline or specific goals for cost savings. Mullan said he guarantees there will be savings by June 30 and that the new agency will be able to itemize some of them, including lower costs of overtime after workers begin to share responsibility over highways that were previously divided into separate agencies.

“By the time any numbers are tallied up, the next election cycle will be done,’’ said Mary Z. Connaughton,a former turnpike board member who is running as a Republican for state auditor in next year’s statewide elections.

“The whole point here was to save money because the transportation deficit was a huge factor here,’’ she said. “The public was promised something big and is expecting something big, but there’s no mention of a significant workforce reduction.’’

Senate leaders have said savings could be $6 billion over the next two decades, but few others have backed that number and senate staff members have conceded in the past there is little evidence to support it.

“The maximum over 20 years would be $1 billion to a billion and a half,’’ said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

But Widmer said that will depend on whether the state wins the lawsuit filed by MBTA workers over benefits and how it handles jobs and salary negotiations. “If the ultimate collective bargaining actually forces up wage rates, it could actually cost money,’’ said Widmer, who supports the merger.

Under an agreement with the Legislature, the administration has held off adjusting salaries for union members - pending collective bargaining negotiations, during the transition. That could prove important in cases where, for example, a former turnpike worker makes more money than someone doing a similar job at the Massachusetts Highway Department. If the disparity goes away, the state faces a choice of either cutting one worker’s salary or raising another worker’s wages.

The threat of cutting jobs and pay during a recession already is causing morale problems among transportation workers.

“It’s very disheartening because of the unknowns,’’ said Karen A. Christie, president of the United Steelworkers, Local 5696, which represents about 225 turnpike workers. “The Legislature left us out there to dry. It’s scary and we want to just be treated fairly and honestly.’’

Mullan has been trying to minimize that anxiety through regular written updates and face-to-face meetings with employees. He and State Senator Steven A. Baddour, transportation chairman who helped craft the new law, say they want to treat workers fairly during the transition.

When it comes to savings, Patrick officials like to remind the public that the merger is just beginning. They have been working since the summer to make sure basic things like e-mail and payroll systems will work.

More than 12 integration teams and 90 employee subcommittees have been involved in merging everything from accounting to snow and ice removal.

“This is a long-term play, not a 30-minute sitcom,’’ said Stephen J. Silveira, a lobbyist who led the state commission that declared the transportation system in crisis more than two years ago.

Not all the visions are grandiose. The administration’s most recent progress report on the merger touted the savings generated by combining two resident discount renewal programs for toll road users: $200 a month in postcard printing costs.

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.