During Thursday’s address inside the State House, the first-term Democrat laid out her plan to address the crumbling bridges of Massachusetts.
“We've got, thanks to the Legislature, an $8 billion plan to fix our broken transportation system," said the governor. "I want to tell you, I'm announcing tonight that we've got a program, ABC: Accelerating Bridge Construction. It's going to open up closed bridges and make repairs faster so people can get moving again. And we're going to do that all over the state, 27 bridges in Western Massachusetts alone.”
The Berkshires — the hilly, rural, westernmost region of the commonwealth — are home to almost 750 bridges.
“We do have a significant number of bridges here in Berkshire County, and the majority of them are in a relatively poor condition or state of repair," said Clete Kus, Transportation Program manager at Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, the countywide agency that helps secure and disperse funding to Berkshire communities to address key issues, including infrastructure. “In Berkshire County, our transit options are quite limited, so there's a high reliance on an automobile. And when a bridge goes out it can impact individuals’ daily commutes. There have been some instances where bridges go out and another 15 miles are added to a commute because we don't have a dense transportation network here in Berkshire County. Another concern is that emergency access becomes problematic because another couple of miles even can really have a detrimental effect in terms of an emergency response.”
Great Barrington, the largest municipality in Southern Berkshire County — with around 7,000 residents — is home to several of the region’s aging bridges.
“We're lucky enough to have the state fund us on these bridges, but it's at their timeline. And their timeline, while we wish were more aggressive, is a helpful timeline. We have the Division Street Bridge, the Cottage Street Bridge, and we have the Brookside Bridge, all in needs of repair and all on the list to be repaired. So, all those should be starting the next one to three years. So, accelerating that would be tremendous," Selectboard Chair Steve Bannon told WAMC. “If the bridge is closed, obviously, as the Brookside Bridge is, it’s more than an inconvenience, it can be a danger to people. People on the one side of the bridge takes 20 to 25 minutes to get to a hospital, to get to a supermarket, to get to a doctor's appointment. But the larger impact, less important than medical, is that these bridges cost anywhere from $8 million to $15 million to repair. And if a small town like Great Barrington had to repair three or four bridges in course of four or five years, it would be extremely expensive.”
State Rep. Leigh Davis, who represents the Southern Berkshires in the State House, said she was elated when Healey brought up bridges in her State of the Commonwealth.
“Governor Healey gave a great and unexpected shout out to the Accelerated Bridge Program, which was something that, a piece of legislation that I actually filed this year, as well as a program that I pitched to her when she came out on March 18 of last year to Great Barrington and Lenox and Becket to talk about her transportation plan,” she told WAMC.
The first-term Democrat says the program will fast track long-overdue bridge upgrades in Western Massachusetts, a region well-versed in facing a distinct lack of investment compared to the commonwealth’s more densely populated urban East.
A former Great Barrington selectboard member, Davis vividly remembers the unexpected closure of the Brookside Bridge.
“What turned into a $3.5 million repair soon ballooned to a $15 million repair," she said. "So, we were thinking a few years, and a few years turned to possibly 10 years, and that's just unacceptable.”
The Berkshire state representative said she’s already heard from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that money is being set aside for her constituency.
“They weren't able to kind of give me specifics on what bridges and how that's going to shake out, but as soon as they are able to release more information, I'll be the first to hear among the first to hear," Davis told WAMC. "So, it's actually happening.”
