SPRINGFIELD – Fees, environmental impact, and the potential for Big Brother tracking your vehicle were the topics of discussion last night at Springfield’s City Hall, as officials from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation made the trek from Suffolk County to speak at a public hearing on behalf of proposed changes to the Commonwealth’s signature highway, a 123-mile road which generates $130 million in revenue annually.
Included among the changes would be the demolition of 25 tollbooth stations on Interstate-90, to be replaced by 18 overhead gantries which would detect whether or not the vehicle is equipped with an E-ZPass transponder or not. Vehicles without transponders would have a picture taken of their license plate, and would be sent an invoice in the mail.
One of the proposed gantry locations is in the town of Blandford.
Speaking on behlf of MassDOT were spokesman Michael Trepanier and Andrew Paul, a civil engineer for the highway department, who pointed out that the system is designed to increase the speed and safety of the tolls.
“The project would improve vehicle delay savings by 1,150 hours per day,” said Trepanier as he referenced a powerpoint presentation highlighting the project’s projected data. “Which would then save between 700 and 3,600 gallons of fuel a day, along with reducing CO2 emissions by seven to 30 tons per day.”
While the environmental impact reductions certainly spoke to the concerns of some of the ten or so in attendance at the hearing, the majority of residents were not impressed, as one Springfield man spoke out against the proposed measure’s privacy concerns.
“This completely eliminates privacy. It places a time and date stamp on where I am on the turnpike,” he said.
He went on to ask whether or not speeding would be monitored by the cameras, to which Trepanier and MassDOT Administrator Frank DePaola assured the man that, according to Massachusetts law, a driver cannot be issued a moving violation unless it is given by an officer of the law.
Trepanier would also go on to say that all information collected by the overhead gantries would be completely private unless it is subpoenaed by a court.
Others present at the hearing made their displeasure of various areas of the project known as well.
“This looks like the ‘big dig’ all over again,” said Tom Walling of Wilbraham, citing Boston’s Central Artery/ Tunnel Project, which rerouted Interstate-93 underground in a three and a half mile tunnel, as well as the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel on Interstate-90, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge on Interstate-93 over the Charles River, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Plauged by the usage of substandard materials, design flaws, scheduling issues, and institutional mismanagement, the “Big Dig”, which began in 1991 and was scheduled to be completed by 1998, was finally completed in 2007 to the tune of $14.6 billion which, including interest, will see the Commonwealth paying off until 2038, according to a 2008 study.
Trepanier countered by saying that the project will end up costing less over time, as maintainance of the current system would end up costing $75 million without improving the tollway’s notorious traffic issues.
Implementing the All-Electronic Tolling System project is set to cost $250 Million.
Others in the crowd voiced their concerns regarding the potential for fee hikes.
“There are people without bank accounts who don’t need another bill,” said Maggie O’Connor, an analyst from Granby who said she has five transponders on different vehicles and uses the turnpike often. “You try living on $30,000 a year.”
When the dialogue turned to how a fine for unpaid invoices would be evened up with the state, DePaola said that the Commonwealth is working closely with neighboring and nearby states whose residents use the Turnpike with great frequency, such as Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maine, that if “you enforce our tolls, we’ll enforce yours.”
He also added that the state would be able to collect fines from residents when they go into an RMV facility to renew their licenses, to which O’Connor responded that this method of extracting payment will keep people who need to drive to work off the road, resulting in the loss of their jobs.
When questions arose of whether this project had been approved by the legislature or would be put to a public vote, MassDOT officials said that the process is underway, with Boston’s Tobin Bridge serving as the first experiment with the new system in 2014.
“The legislature didn’t approve this because the MassDOT has the right to collect the toll how we see fit,” said Trepanier. “But we want to get it right and we will make sure we get it right.”
Officials stated that a majority of toll revenue would be reinvested into the maintainance of the road and that the new system would be procured in 2016, followed by the demolitions of the current 25 tolls, and would be fully operational in 2017, which is right around the time the current toll system is supposed to be paid for, according to Walling.
“The turnpike went in in the ’60s, and they said at the time it was supposed to be paid for by ’82,” said Walling. “They’ve said that it’s supposed to be paid by 2018. Are they going to change past that now? (The road) is designed to ride on, not to make money for the state.”
