Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was in Lee this morning to break ground on a road construction project.
Gov. Patrick joined state and local representatives to mark work on a two-mile portion of Tyringham Road. The $4.4 million project will include the resurfacing of a stretch from the Tyringham town line to Route 102 in Lee. Democratic State Representative Smitty Pignatelli of Lenox called the road a gateway to the Berkshires and a key connector within the county, but one that’s riddled with potholes.
“Like traveling on a lunar landscape,” Pignatelli said. “You’d have to really watch where you were driving.”
The need to improve the road was identified in 1995 with the first design meetings not starting until 2008. Since then, sections of the road have started crumbling into the Housatonic River. David Consolati chairs Lee’s Select Board. He summed up the frustration people in the area have had with the delays, recalling a recent trip down Tyringham Road.
“We got about half way down [the road] my wife looked at me and said ‘Do you guys ever plan on fixing this friggin’ road?’” Consolati said to a chorus of laughter. “I said ‘As a matter fact, Monday morning they’re going to come here and we’re going to start this.”
Patrick says a project of this size should not have taken this long to complete. The Democrat blamed the Big Dig, a project that rerouted Interstate 93, the main highway in Boston, into a 3.5-mile tunnel. The governor noted that the Big Dig is a fascinating architectural achievement of great value to the Boston area, but it came at a cost.
“The tragedy of the Big Dig it seems to me, the economic injustice of the Big Dig, is that for almost two decades it concentrated infrastructure investment in the neighborhood around Boston to the neglect of everywhere else in the commonwealth,” Patrick said. “Everywhere else. That’s what we have been trying to turn around.”
Construction in Boston lasted from 1991 to 2006, becoming the most expensive highway project in the United States. Work was originally set to wrap up in 1998 at a cost of roughly $3 billion. Now, estimates show the total cost hovers around $22 billion. The project was slowed by design flaws and safety reviews after a worker’s death in 2006. Because Tyringham Road is a key route to the Lee Premium Outlets and access to the Massachusetts Turnpike, the work brings immediate jobs to the Berkshires along with a platform for economic growth, Patrick says.
“The kind of investment that creates jobs right now,” the governor said. “Right now in the commonwealth. Also, a platform for further improvement in employment and in the quality of life all around the commonwealth. When I say ‘all around the commonwealth,’ I mean ‘all around the commonwealth’ everywhere equitably.”
Outlets general manager Carolyn Edwards says many of the 1,000 seasonal employees and estimated two million annual visitors use Tyringham Road. Democratic State Senator Ben Downing of Pittsfield says Patrick promised infrastructure investments across the state when he was a candidate for governor more than eight years ago.
“I think what frustrates people about politics too often these days is those promises too often from candidates go unfilled,” Downing said. “But right here today and in countless other spots throughout my district, the other 40 senate districts and the 160 state representative districts we see proof of those promises fulfilled.”
The state will provide about $900,000 overall for the Tyringham work througha 5-year, $12 billion capital projects plan approved in April. The federal government will cover 80 percent of the project’s total cost while the town of Lee funded the design portion. Work is scheduled to wrap up in spring 2016.
