Massachusetts Turnpike

Massachusetts state officials are moving to negate a landmark air rights lease to Winn developers and pension fund Calpers for default. The developers were granted a 99 lease on the air rights over the Turnpike in the heart of Boston for what is known as Columbus Center, a $625m 1.4m ft2 (130k m2) mix of residential, office and hotel buildings to be built on a deck over the Turnpike.

The Boston Herald reports that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his transportation  secretary Jeffrey Mullan met Jan 28 with Raytheon officials to hear their pitch on the potential for all-electronic tolling (AET).

The Turnpike Authority in Massachusetts will formally pass away Oct 30, but the Turnpike itself will live on as a division of a new Massachusetts Department of Transportation that begins Nov 1.  The Turnpike generates $285m/year, a revenue flow there was never any question of the state foregoing.

James Aloisi, Turnpike chairman and a former chief staff lawyer there presided over the last monthly board meeting Thursday.

"Crumbling infrastructure" is usually just a metaphor but it became real on the Massachusetts Turnpike for Margaret Garvey, 49, of Marlborough MA around noon Monday.

Massachusetts Turnpike chief Jeffrey B Mullan is the new secretary of transport in Massachusettts and will also be executive director of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).

The law suit against diversion of Turnpike (I-90) monies to the untolled Big Dig (I-93) in Boston by wellknown class action lawyer Jan Schlichtmann has been rebuffed again in the courts. An appeal against an earlier ruling for the Turnpike by county superior court judge Herman Smith was this week upheld by an appeals court which characterized Smith's ruling as "a thorough opinion."

Massachusetts Turnpike service plazas will not be privatized in a longterm concession. The state's transportation secretary (called Executive Office of Transportation) and the Turnpike CEO Jeff Mullan concurred in deciding this week to reject the bids made in a recent concession procurement.

With the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority nearing its end some of its senior officers are finding new employment. And it's looking high profile stuff.

Saying the plaintiffs look unlikely to prevail on the merits of their case a judge in Massachusetts has denied them an injunction against the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

The law suit joined by some 2300 Turnpike users and organized by class action lawyer Jan Schlichmann claims that use of Turnpike toll revenues to maintain and service the debt of the untolled Big Dig project makes such tolls into taxes, which are therefore, the suit claims, illegal and unconstitutional.

Boston Herald recently (8/11) led off a frontpager: "Tens of thousands of Turnpike motorists have been socked with falsely inflated Fast Lane bills because the company that provided their transponders violated its multimillion-dollar contract by failing to inspect the system, a state audit has found. (Fast Lane is the Massachusetts Turnpike's brandname for E-ZPass IAG compatible electronic tolling - editor)

The Massachusetts treasurer Timothy Cahill has written a letter to the state Governor and the state Attorney-General in which he says the state should settle with litigants suing the Turnpike for refund of $400m in tolls on the grounds that they were unconstitutionally used for untolled sections of the Big Dig.  The letter was leaked to the press today.

Not addressing the merits of the case BUT...

None of the big interstate service plaza operators bid for the eleven on offer by the Massachusetts Turnpike. Two local groups made bids - Bulfinch Pike Investors, a special purpose company registered in Needham MA offered $180.2m, and Saracen Properties, a property manager in Waltham MA offered $140m.

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr has a humdinger of a column on how union rackeeters including the Turnpike's plutocops are "busting out" the Massachusetts Turnpike and its transit equivalent the MBTA having looted them for years. Busting out is Mob talk for destroying and abandoning the business once it has been so thoroughly looted it has nothing left to steal.

Just 36 hours before a big toll increase was due to come into effect (on July 1) the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board voted 5 to 0 to rescind toll increases voted earlier in the year. The vote today was based on passage of budget legislation providing for an increase in the state sales tax from 5.0% to 6.25% and the appropriation of $100 million per year toward servicing of Turnpike debt for the term of that debt - about 20 years.

Paul Moccia, 48, toll collector charged in the murder of his cocaine supplier and creditor has been dismissed by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Prosecutors say that Moccia shot the man Angel Ramirez, and then along with a concrete supplier friend Daniel Bradley dismembered his body and then "cooked" the body parts to render them down for disposal.

Moccia was initially put on unpaid leave after the charges were announced.

Attempts to "attach" the assets of the Massachusetts Turnpike by class action attorney Jan Schlichtmann have been denied. Superior Court judge Herman Smith said in a decision that Schlichtmann had made no credible estimate of the potential compensation needed, had failed to show that the Turnpike couldn't pay, or that the state wouldn't back it up.

Paul Moccia, 48 a toll collector at the Massachusetts Turnpike has been fired. He's on trial for murder, accused of killing a Guatemalan cocaine dealer to erase drug debts of $70k.

Massachusetts senate president Therese Murray (Dem) put out a statement today that got her headlines in Boston such as "Murray vows no toll increase on Turnpike." Her statement is headed up: "Senate will not support toll hikes". She fiercely attacks the state Governor Deval Patrick (Dem) claiming he had made a "threat" Tuesday to raise tolls, accusing him of "scare tactics."

"Self-layoff" Alan LeBovidge looks like being the last full chief executive of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA).  Jeffrey B  Mullan, undersecretary of the Executive Office of Transportation (or state DOT) is only assuming the CEO position on an acting basis.

Alan LeBovidge executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike has resigned, saying in a letter to Turnpike chairman and secretary of transportation James Aloisi that Turnpike policy is now being driven by politics and no longer is focussed on the financial crisis he was hired to address.