LENOX, MA — Governor Maura Healey, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, Energy & Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper, and Highway Administrator Jonathon Gulliver visited Lenox and Becket, Massachusetts, to promote Healey’s proposal to upgrade culverts and rural roads and bridges across Massachusetts.
“Our transportation plan is about giving all of our cities and towns the resources they need to make upgrades to their transportation infrastructure that meet the unique needs of their communities,” Healey said. “We heard loud and clear from our rural and small towns in particular that they have been struggling to keep up needed culvert replacements, so we want to supercharge the funding available to get these projects moving. We’re also proposing to make the Chapter 90 formula more fair and dramatically increasing funding so that every town, including our rural and small communities, can fix their roads and bridges.”
During the visit, Healey convened small town administration officials and regional development leaders to discuss the transportation needs of the region and how her transportation proposals can help. The Governor’s $8 billion transportation plan proposes to use $200 million in Fair Share revenue to upgrade culverts and small bridges. A culvert is a man-made structure, typically a pipe or tunnel, that carries water under roads and railways. As climate change intensifies, annual precipitation is expected to increase in intensity across Massachusetts. Already, there has been a 60 percent increase in the amount of precipitation that fell on the heaviest precipitation days from 1958 to 2022, and many culverts were designed using outdated precipitation estimates. In addition, undersized culverts are one of the biggest sources of river and stream habitat damage. Larger, storm-smart culverts also benefit fish and wildlife.
Healey and her team then stopped by a successful culvert replacement project in Becket that is an example of the work that can be done through state investment. Before replacement, the culvert on Bonny Rigg Hill Road failed three times in six years during severe storms, washing out the roadway and threatening public safety. In 2017, the undersized culvert was replaced with a larger, safer structure that is designed to withstand current and future storms, and the road has not overtopped since.
Healey has also proposed a Chapter 90 bill that introduces a revised distribution formula, allocating an additional $100 million based solely on road mileage to better support smaller and rural communities. As a result, most Western Massachusetts communities will see a 60 to 80 percent increase in annual funding. Becket’s funding would increase by 80 percent and Lenox’s would increase by 62 percent. Overall, the bill proposes $1.5 billion over five years to increase Chapter 90 funding to $300 million annually, a 50 percent increase over the traditional $200 million.
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“The Healey-Driscoll Administration has a strategic plan to secure funding from various sources to build a transportation system that serves the people of Massachusetts both now and for generations to come,” Tibbits-Nutt said. “We’re highlighting culverts because they are our first line of defense against the growing impacts of climate change — helping to manage more severe storms, rising waterways, and protecting the very infrastructure that ensures safe and efficient travel.”
