Governor Healy outlines $8.4 billion transportation plan, pledges $200 million for culverts and small bridges in Berkshire County

Governor Healy announced in Lenox that her administration proposes to invest $8,400,000,000 over the next 10 years in the state's transportation system, including a $200,000,000 commitment to replace and upgrade culverts and small bridges to reduce flood risk and improve climate resilience.

The plan, Healy said, would include a 50% annual increase in Chapter 90 funding for local roads and a targeted 62% increase for Lenox, changes developed after convening a Chapter 90 advisory group. The administration says the package would be funded using existing revenue streams and by leveraging a surtax revenue source; Healy emphasized the proposal would not raise state taxes.

The proposal was presented to municipal officials and state agency leaders who joined Healy on stage, including Monica Tibbets Nutt, secretary of transportation; Rebecca Tepper, secretary of energy and environmental affairs; Jonathan Gulliver, MassDOT highway administrator; Francesca Hemming, district highway director; and Beth Lambert, director of the Division of Ecological Restoration. Lenox Mayor Jay Green and other Berkshire municipal leaders described local experience with flooding and aging infrastructure and told the administration those changes were needed.

Tibbets Nutt outlined the administration’s resilience strategy for transportation projects: vulnerability assessments, updated design standards that incorporate climate resilience, prioritization that accounts for condition and flood risk, and coordination among agencies so projects improve both public safety and ecological outcomes. She said 60% of the capital improvement program projects will target resilience and that culverts and stormwater catch basins along state-owned roadways will be prioritized.

Rebecca Tepper said culverts are a statewide problem — many are more than 50 years old and undersized for new rainfall patterns — and described past and ongoing grant activity through the Division of Ecological Restoration and the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program. Tepper told the audience that EEA awarded $52,000,000 last year for resilience work across municipalities and that $5,000,000 of that funding was earmarked specifically for culvert upgrades. The division, she said, has supported culvert replacement work in Berkshire County and elsewhere and has funded projects in recent years to address undersized crossings.

Jonathan Gulliver and district staff described how project costs often rise when preservation projects become full replacements after detailed inspections. Gulliver said the governor’s proposal includes roughly $1.5 billion targeted for bridges in the near term and that the new pool of state funds would reduce the need to reprogram other projects to cover critical replacements.

Municipal leaders stressed Chapter 90’s importance for buying equipment and funding local road work; Lenox Mayor Jay Green said the formula changes developed with the administration would help towns that lack capacity to supplement state funds. Officials also urged the administration to streamline permitting and reduce red tape so projects can move faster.

Healy said the administration is working with the state legislature to advance the plan and stressed that acting now would be cheaper than waiting, because deferred maintenance tends to convert repairs into full replacements. She reiterated the administration’s intent to use existing revenue and leverage capital rather than raise taxes.

The announcement combined broad funding targets and programmatic priorities; the administration did not present a final legislative package or formal vote at the Lenox event, and many implementation details — including precise project lists, timelines, and which exact culverts and bridges will be replaced first — were described as to be prioritized in coordination with local partners and subject to further planning and permitting.