The Commonwealth’s transportation investment needs are extraordinary. The Patrick-Murray Administration has significantly increased investments to improve our roads, bridges, transit and other transportation system assets by allocating a larger portion of the capital budget over the last two years to transportation investments, initiating the Accelerated Bridge Program, and securing additional revenue dedicated to transportation. This trend of increased investment in transportation infrastructure continues in this updated five-year capital investment plan. In addition, the recently enacted transportation reform legislation will result in significant operating cost savings from reforms and consolidation of our transportation agencies into the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation and thereby free up additional funds for needed infrastructure investments.
The chart below shows the expected transportation-related capital investments from all sources for the next five years, as compared to the projected FY09 transportation-related spending.
The following are some of the specific capital investment highlights of the FY10 transportation capital investment plan:
$137 million for federally-assisted statewide road and bridge projects, up from $121 million last year and leveraging by nearly four times that amount in federal funds for road and bridge projects.
$100 million to the Statewide Road and Bridge Non-Federally Assisted Maintenance Fund for maintenance of MassHighway roads and bridges.
Approximately $65.6 million to address the State Implementation Plan (SIP) transit project commitments, including $46.9 million for the Fairmount Commuter Rail project, $8.7 million for the Green Line extension, $6 million for the Red Line-Blue Line connector study and $4 million for the new parking spaces initiative.
$15.6 million to continue the planning phase of the South Coast Rail project, which will extend the MBTA’s commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford.
$18.5 million for DCR parkways and bridges.
It should be noted that the funding identified for MassHighway and the Executive Office of Transportation and most of the funding identified for the Department of Conservation and Recreation transportation assets in this capital plan – including amounts invested pursuant to the Accelerated Bridge Program described below – will be transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) together with the related road and bridge assets after the establishment of MassDOT on November 1, 2009. The Highway Division of the new MassDOT will assume responsibility for all of the MassHighway road and bridge assets, the DCR bridge assets and certain parkway assets, the Turnpike Authority assets and the Tobin Bridge, which will all be consolidated for operating purposes to achieve efficiencies in the management and operation of the state’s road and bridge assets.
Under ARRA’s Surface Transportation Program and Highway Infrastructure Investment Program, the Commonwealth has been awarded $437.9 million for restoration, repair and construction of the Commonwealth’s state-wide road and bridge assets. Of this amount, the Executive Office of Transportation has transferred an aggregate of $12.8 million in ARRA funds to support transit projects managed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and regional transit authorities, leaving $425.1 million for road and bridge improvements. The Commonwealth expects to expend $65.3 million of this amount on projects in FY10.
In addition, the MBTA has been apportioned $230 million of ARRA funding under the Urbanized Area and Fixed Guideway Modernization programs. Because this ARRA funding goes directly to the MBTA and does not flow through the Commonwealth, it is not reflected in this capital plan.
The Commonwealth has applied for $295 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary ARRA grants for projects to improve transportation infrastructure while promoting innovation and energy efficiency/environmental sustainability. One of the projects for which TIGER funding is sought is a portion of the South Coast Rail project. Awards under this program are expected sometime over the next four to six months.
On August 4, 2008, Governor Patrick signed into law a $3 billion bond bill, known as the Accelerated Bridge Program bond bill. The Accelerated Bridge Program will repair bridges across the Commonwealth that are currently structurally deficient or would otherwise become structurally deficient during the next eight years. Instead of seeing the number of structurally deficient bridges increase by approximately 30% over the next eight years, the number will be reduced by approximately 15% during that time. Major bridge repair projects across the state will be accelerated, including the Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River, the Fore River Bridge in Quincy, the Whittier Bridge in Amesbury and the Route 9 Bridge over Lake Quinsigamond in Shrewsbury and Worcester, as part of the program.
The goals and objectives of the Accelerated Bridge Program are to:
Improve the safety and condition of bridges in the Commonwealth, with a focus on structurally deficient bridges and on bridges projected to become structurally deficient in the next eight years, so that by the end of the Program, the number of structurally deficient bridges will be approximately 250 fewer than would be the case under existing revenue streams.
Create thousands of construction-related jobs and maintain the critical infrastructure necessary for the long-term economic growth of the Commonwealth.
Generate significant cost savings by accelerating projects now, thereby avoiding construction cost inflation and cost increases due to deterioration caused by deferred maintenance.
Complete projects on time and on budget and with minimum disruption to people and commerce. Innovative means of contracting and construction techniques have been employed.
Conduct the entire Program with transparency and accountability by providing frequent and detailed reports to the public on the progress of the Program, develop project controls to ensure adherence to project schedules and budgets, and measure agency performance in streamlining design and construction schedules against benchmarks.
The total authorized amount for the eight-year program is $3 billion, of which $2.1 billion is allocated to MassHighway for bridges under its control or owned by cities and towns and approximately $900 million is allocated to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) for bridges under its control. The total amount expected to be expended in FY10 is $352 million. By the end of FY10, 27 bridge repair projects are expected to have been completed under the program and an additional 104 bridge projects will be in construction.
A description of how the Accelerated Bridge Program is being financed is included in the Debt Affordability Analysis attached as Appendix A.