Over the last two years tension has been mounting throughout the state over the drop in advertising for new road and bridge improvement projects, and the shortage of funds that caused delays and stoppages in construction contracts. MassHighway became a victim of a reduction in its share of the statewide bond cap, the lack of a transportation bond bill from the Legislature, a major reduction in federal highway funds, and its own unwillingness to admit its internal problems and share information. Consequently MassHighway's credibility dropped to an all time low when, in addition to the dissatisfaction over the statewide program, the financial disclosures of the Central Artery - Tunnel Project (CA/T) caused the Federal Department of Transportation to audit the project.

It has always been a concern of the Federal Highway Administration that the state maintain a viable statewide road and bridge program in addition to the CA/T project. The finance plans for the CA/T project have always stated that "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is committed to a balanced, statewide program of road and bridge infrastructure investment consistent with the spirit and intent of federal requirements." (CA/T Finance Plan, October 1998)

On April 28th MassHighway called together a statewide task force of local and regional officials to discuss and agree on the definition of the statewide road and bridge program. The membership of the task force ended up being the Executive Directors and Transportation Planning Managers of all of the state's regional planning agencies, Construction Industries of Massachusetts, Chief Engineer Thomas Broderick, Director of Planning for MassHighway Luisa Paiewonsky, and officials from the Federal Highway Administration, from both the regional and Washington office. The staff of the regional planning agencies were included as representatives of the local elected officials that are members of each Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). It's the MPOs who approve transportation policy and the distribution of federal highway and transit funds throughout the state.

After 6 day-long meetings, the members of the task force have come to an agreement in principal on a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be presented to all of the state's MPOs for approval. This is a major step forward in improving our partnership with MassHighway. A major accomplishment of the MOU is that MassHighway will discuss and work with the regional planning agencies and other MPO members on which highway and bridge projects will be funded each year with state funds. Previously our MPO's only were involved in selecting projects that used federal funds. And information will be shared quarterly on MassHighway's financial ability to maintain its construction program. MassHighway and the regional planning agencies will also create a state-of-the-practice online project information and tracking system for projects under development and in construction, with a goal for implementation by January 1, 2002.

Invaluable assistance was provided by the State Legislature in passing Chapter 87 of the Acts of 2000, which provided additional funding for the CA/T and the statewide road and bridge program. Chapter 87 also defined the statewide road and bridge program by setting it as "a minimum amount of $400,000,000 in each fiscal year, for the years 2001 to 2005.", and it removed from being included in that amount the municipal reimbursements under the chapter 90 program, the public works and economic development programs, and the costs of administrative, engineering, design, or maintenance operations of MassHighway.

The final draft of the MOU will be included in the CA/T Finance Plan when it is resubmitted to the Federal Highway Administration for approval, and the MOU will be presented to each MPO for approval at meetings throughout the state in late August or September.