Mass Pike RFP for longterm concession on service plazas

Massachusetts Turnpike officials are seeking proposals for a longterm concession on their service plazas. At present they administer concessions on gasoline stations and food spaces on a one by one basis, but they are following the trend of other major turnpikes and to do a longterm master concession over the whole service plaza network. It would then be up to the master concessionaire to sublet spaces.

The new Turnpike chairman James Aloisi said in a statement today: "We are pursuing transportation reform not around the edges but striking at the core of the old ways of doing business. The time for studies and theory is past. Let's test the marketplace and maximize our assets as we move toward the dismantling of the Turnpike." (see at end)

An RFP is to be issued within a week.

The Turnpike presently gets $11m/year under a concession with McDonald's for their spaces inside various service plazas and $6m/year from Gulf for fuel stations.  It would probably be up to bidding concessionaires to accommodate existing lessees.

New Jersey Turnpike and Pennsylvania Turnpike both have similar master concessions - mostly for 30 years. Florida Turnpike wants to do the same but there has been a political fight over it in the legislature.

Ohio Turnpike, West Virginia, New York State Thruway, Maryland Transportation Authority and Delaware do concessions for fuel (gasoline, diesel) and subleasing by various vendors on the shorter-term model.

The 222km (138 mile) Massachusetts Turnpike has the following eleven service plazas from west to east:

MP10: Lee East(bound), Lee West(bound)

MP29 Blandford East, West

MP59 Ludlow East, West

MP83 Charlton East

MP86 Charlton West

MP108 Westborough (westbound only)

MP121 Framingham (westbound)

MP123 Natick (eastbound)

see http://www.masspike.com/travel/cmap.html#


"Dismantling the Turnpike"

Aloisi's breezy reference to "dismantling the Turnpike" in the quote above is a proposal announced by the Governor last year for the Turnpike West of MA128 (where the service plazas are located) to be operated by the Massachusetts Highway Department and for the Turnpike east of MA128 in Boston plus the Harbor Tunnels to be operated by Massachusetts Port Authority.

The Turnpike Authority would then be disbanded.

No legislation authorizing this has yet been passed by the legislature and there is no plan yet on how to defease over $2 billion of Turnpike debt - much incurred on the untolled Big Dig project.

Also the Port Authority has expressed reservations about accepting their allocated portion of the Turnpike, so this "dismantling" is far from a done deal.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-01-13