Governor Healey announces PLA for North Station drawbridge, cites federal grant and jobs

Governor Maura Healey announced that the MBTA has reached an agreement with the Greater Boston Building Trades to apply a project labor agreement for the North Station Draw 1 railroad-bridge rebuild, saying the project will support thousands of jobs and benefit Massachusetts workers.

Healey described the project as “a big deal,” saying the drawbridge serves hundreds of trains and tens of thousands of passengers and that federal and state funds are in place to rebuild it. “The T has reached an agreement with the Greater Boston Building Trades to have a project labor agreement on North Station Draw 1,” she said, and called the initiative one of the largest PLAs ever for the MBTA.

Why it matters: Officials said the project is a major regional investment in transit and jobs. MBTA GM and interim transportation secretary Phil Ng said the funding package includes a large federal grant and state dollars and described both the scale and operational goals: the project will rebuild movable bridges, expand track capacity and preserve service while construction is underway. Ng said the grant package includes about $472,000,000 in federal money “along with the state dollars” to support the work.

Officials gave several key figures and claims about the job and service impacts. Healey described the overall project as about $1,200,000,000 and said it will create roughly 15,000 jobs; Ng cited 200,000 weekly riders affected by the corridor and described plans to expand to six tracks to maintain service during construction. The event featured labor leaders who credited PLAs with delivering projects on time and on budget, and several speakers cited the Holyoke Veterans Home and UMass Boston as local PLA examples.

Policy action: Healey said she has directed that all state construction projects over $35,000,000 “get looked at” for a PLA, and she thanked the legislature for passing legislation that the building trades said enabled broader use of PLAs. Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts building trades, thanked Healey and the legislature and said PLAs deliver local hiring, registered-apprenticeship pathways and high-quality outcomes.

What officials say: Shaton Green, business agent for the Boston Building Trades Unions, said PLAs create “real career pathways” and emphasized opportunities for women and communities historically left out of construction trades. Phil Ng said the PLA will help ensure labor stability on a complex, multi-year project and that bringing the right skilled crafts to the job will keep the project on schedule and save money.

Limits and numbers: Officials used similar claims about PLA benefits and cited several dollar and job figures during remarks. The transcript records differing federal-grant figures in officials’ remarks (a phrasing that sounded like a roughly $500 million federal amount in one place and a $472,000,000 figure in another); Healey also described the overall project cost as $1,200,000,000 and repeatedly emphasized PLA benefits, training and apprenticeships. The speakers did not present a formal contract text or a legislative vote at the event; the announcement was a public statement that the MBTA and the Greater Boston Building Trades reached an agreement to use a PLA on the North Station Draw 1 project.

Next steps: Officials said work will proceed with the PLA in place; no formal vote or contract award was recorded on the public agenda at the event. Governor Healey and other officials invited questions at the end of the remarks and indicated further details would follow in subsequent project and procurement documents.