By Edward Mason
Staff writer
May 14, 2008 03:54 am BOSTON — Repairs to overburdened bridges in Amesbury and Newburyport will get top priority under a plan unveiled yesterday by Gov. Deval Patrick. As part of the administration's proposal, the state would borrow $3 billion over the next eight years to put on the fast track repairs to between 250 and 300 bridges statewide that are structurally deficient. Those are bridges that are safe to use but have outlived their intended life spans. Those bridges include the Interstate 95 John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, which connects Amesbury and Newburyport, and the Route 1 Andrew J. Gillis Bridge in Newburyport. Both cross the Merrimack River. The Whittier bridge is slated for a complete replacement. The Gillis Bridge has had intermittent problems with its drawbridge. Work on those and other bridges across the state could begin as soon as this summer. The Legislature has to approve the borrowing bill, but it already has the backing of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray. At an afternoon press conference, Patrick called his plan a "robust program" that would allow the state to quickly get to work on badly needed bridge repairs and "create a lot of good jobs on the way." Patrick said the plan will allow the state to make headway on a growing list of deficient bridges, cutting the number statewide from 543 to 450. Without the program, there would be 697 by the end of the eight years, according to the state Executive Office of Transportation. The administration also estimates the state will save $1.5 billion by acting now and not letting inflation or worsening of the bridges' condition add to the costs. "We are essentially borrowing that money from the future to do repairs less expensively today," said Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen. Sen. Steven Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who represents Greater Newburyport and is co-chairman of the Legislature's Transportation Committee, said he backs the plan, which he agrees will create jobs while making badly needed repairs to bridges. "We need to jump-start the economy," Baddour said. "One way is to invest in roads and bridges." House Minority Leader Bradley Jones Jr., R-North Reading, has raised questions about Patrick's other spending initiatives. But in this case, he approves. "It's definitely beneficial to put people to work on things that we agree should be done," Jones said. "That it's downsized raises questions about the original plan." The proposal is a scaled-down version of a plan Patrick released last month. That plan would have had the state borrow $3.8 billion to accelerate repairs on 411 bridges. The governor trimmed the plan in response to concerns about its expense, raised by state Treasurer Tim Cahill and Jones. Patrick said the plan was slashed "because there's less money." The state saved money by crossing off repairs to MBTA and Massachusetts Turnpike Authority bridges. Those independent authorities will be responsible for paying for their own bridges. The bridge program was initially unveiled in April as part of an economic stimulus package, rolled out amid growing recession fears. Initially, the administration projected 23,000 jobs would be created, pared that to 10,000 and is now saying "thousands" of private sector workers would be hired. It also will create an untold number of state jobs. Cohen said the state will have to "hire up" to handle so many bridge projects at once, adding construction managers, inspectors, lawyers and cost-containment officials for the bridge work. "We'll need hundreds of additional people," Cohen said. Why state jobs? Cohen said the state does not want to repeat a key problem of the Big Dig, where outside consultants oversaw the $15 billion project that was rife with cost overruns and shoddy workmanship. But he also was unable to say how much of the almost $3 billion the bridge work will cost will go toward the new state hires. He also hopes the work on the 250 to 300 bridges doesn't mirror the Big Dig in another way, the traffic snarls that all but entangled downtown Boston for more than a decade. "It's a challenge to maintain good service levels at the same time you try to rebuild your infrastructure," Cohen said. "But we're going to try and be careful of that."
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