service plazas

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.

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.

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 Chicago press has run occasional reports over the past three years of federal prosecutors investigating corruption at the Illinois Tollway in connection with vendor contracts at their service plazas or 'oases' as they call them. This morning the thing went national with the Wall Street Journal in an editorial piece headed "The Chicago Boys":