The Department of Transportation is starting its second attempt at having 18 service plazas along Massachusetts highways renovated and operated for years into the future, planning to add a new layer of oversight that was not in place for the procurement sunk last year by allegations of impropriety.
MassDOT says it made three big changes to the process it plans to use:
- The 18 plazas will be broken into three bundles and bidders will have the flexibility to submit proposals for one, two or all three bundles;
- The department is approaching the contracts as design-build projects rather than as simple real estate leases; and
- A commission formed more than 15 years ago will be revived to act as an “over-the-shoulder look” at the procurement process.
“MassDOT is committed to utilizing the best procurement method that can best facilitate robust interest and competition to deliver facilities that can best serve the needs of the traveling public,” Interim Transportation Secretary Phil Eng said. “We will seek industry input as we develop and issue this next contract opportunity, with clear expectations and criteria to deliver clean, safe, and welcoming service plazas for all. The public deserves and expects a top-notch customer experience, and this best value procurement will make that a priority.”
The MassDOT board awarded a contract to redevelop and run 18 service plazas across the state to Irish retailer Applegreen last June. The contract had a potential value of nearly $1 billion and was to last for 35 years, officials have said. But Applegreen backed out of contract talks in September after rival bidder Global Partners waged media, legal and public relations offensives to block the MassDOT-Applegreen deal.
A state inspector general’s probe of the failed procurement “found too many flaws” in last year’s process and the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight has been doing its own investigation and plans a March 24 hearing with top MassDOT brass.
The second procurement process will get going in earnest the next day, on March 25, when MassDOT plans to go over its thinking on the project with prospective operators, designers, builders, consultants and contractors at an “Industry Day” event. MassDOT will use feedback from that event and some one-on-one meetings to further shape its request for proposals.
MassDOT expects to release the new RFP this summer and recommendations could go to the MassDOT Board as soon as late this year. The transition to a new operator is expected to begin in early 2027, and the new leases will be effective July 1, 2027.
The goal of the procurement, MassDOT said, is “to modernize all 18 service plazas to better serve residents and visitors while optimizing rent revenues.” Improvements are expected to include expanded food and beverage options, modern and accessible restrooms, travel and gift retail featuring Massachusetts-related products, and fueling choices that include gasoline, diesel, and electric vehicle charging.
The department said its RFP will include a “base technical Concept” that seeks to provide consistent guidance to bidders and allow MassDOT’s selection committee to more effectively evaluate and compare submissions.
Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said MassDOT is approaching the second go-round as a public-private partnership and a design-build contract from the jump, as opposed to the first procurement which treated the contract as a straight real estate lease.
“The advantages of a design-build approach is this process where we put out there for industry, 'Hey, this is what we think as a base technical concept you should be doing.’ But we also open the door for them to come back with us and ... industry says, 'Here’s some alternatives and innovative ways of getting pretty much what you want, but here’s our ideas.’ So it really opens up innovation and increases competition, so that was our primary goal over the last few months,” he said.
Gulliver said MassDOT approached the last service plaza procurement primarily as a lease for the real estate. The new approach involves a “significant construction component as well,” he said, and MassDOT is now thinking of it as “design, build, operate and maintain, and finance, all in one.”
“It really is the definition of what a public-private partnership should be,” Gulliver said. “And by approaching it as one from the get-go, it really, again, simplifies the entire process and the whole procurement.”
Gulliver said this would be the first public-private partnership procurement for highway facilities in Massachusetts. To oversee some of the process, the state plans to revive the Public Private Partnership Commission, which was established by a 2009 transportation reform law and is supposed to include people with expertise in things like engineering, finance and regional planning.
“They’re making sure that what we ultimately put out is the best possible product. So they’re not doing the selection of the vendors or anything like that. Their role is really to provide their expertise and that over-the-shoulder look at what the procurement looks like,” Gulliver said.
Gov. Maura Healey is expected to appoint four individuals with significant transportation experience to the commission this spring, MassDOT said. Senate President Karen Spilka, House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg will each appoint one additional member, the department said.
When a previous iteration of the commission met in 2013, it considered things like the possibility of a tolled bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, the construction of “managed lanes” on Route 3 south and enhancements to state-owned real estate parcels such as rest stops adjacent to state highways, according to News Service reporting from the time.
“This is a little different. This is where we have a job that we know is ready-made for a P3 and we’re saying let’s pull this commission together so that we can get their input,” Gulliver said.
Gulliver told the News Service that both Applegreen and Global Partners remain eligible to bid in the new procurement round and said he hopes they will consider doing so. He also said the report that Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro published this month pointing out flaws in the last procurement “really validated what we have already been doing.”
“We’ve gone through his report and we’re making sure that anything that we can incorporate, that it makes sense to, that we’re doing that,” he said. “But I think that, in general, we’re in pretty good shape, that a lot of what he recommended were things that we had already thought about and were actively addressing.”
Colin Young is the deputy editor for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach him at colin.young@statehousenews.com.
