WESTFIELD – The Massachusetts Department of Transportation held a public meeting on its 5-year strategic Capital Investment Plan (CIP) in the City Council chambers on Tuesday evening. About two dozen residents, business owners and city officials came to hear how the state department plans to spend $14 billion dollars from 2017 to 2022.
MassDOT previewed the multi-billion dollar investment plan for the Commonwealth, which covers all highway and municipal projects, regional airports, rail and transit, including MBTA and Regional Transit Authorities as well as the Registry of Motor Vehicles, which caused some concern at the hearing.
“Too many major projects, and too few dollars,” commented Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Executive Director Timothy W. Brennan.
This CIP is the first capital plan produced for all of the MassDOT Divisions, including the MBTA. In the past, MassDOT and the MBTA prepared separate capital plans on different annual cycles and each MassDOT Division used its own method to identify and prioritize capital investments. In this CIP, all possible capital investments were considered together, and funding programs were developed and sized taking all capital needs into account.
“There is a disproportionate amount of funding going to non-highway projects,” said David Callahan, CEO of Palmer Paving Corporation at the meeting.
Callahan said there will be a huge impact of a 30% proposed cut to Massachusetts highways.
“The roads will deteriorate to 40% less than good,” Callahan said. He added there are also no plans in place to replace or replenish the 8-year accelerated bridge program. “These bridges will continue to deteriorate. This needs to be addressed,” he said.
The CIP states that the $2 billion bridge program included would reduce the proportion of structurally deficient state-owned bridges to just two percent, if the same level of funding continues for 10 years.
Callahan said there are also no metrics in the CIP that put the value on home-grown jobs from rebuilding the infrastructure.
“78% of all lane miles are local roads,” Callahan said. He stressed that the state needs to continue to invest $300 to $400 million annually in the Chapter 90 program.
“It’s the best bang for the buck,” Callahan said.
The public is invited to review the CIP presentation at: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us. Public comments may be submitted via email to [email protected].
