MassDOT approves $18.5B for MA transportation projects over five years, including MBTA upgrades. Irish company to rebuild and operate 18 highway service plazas, improving travel experience and revenue sharing with the state.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) board of directors voted June 18, 2025, to approve the agency's Fiscal Year 2026-2030 Capital Investment Plan (CIP), which includes approximately $18.5 billion in planned transportation investments.
The CIP guides how the administration of Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov Kim Driscoll prioritizes and funds local and statewide transportation projects. The plan also helps the administration to determine funding for infrastructure, including railroad and transit projects, accessibility upgrades, roadway and bridge improvements, municipal projects and investments for Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs).
The plan describes both projects and programs for improving transportation throughout the Bay State, including local aid grant programs like the Chapter 90 Program, which supports municipal transportation infrastructure needs.
Over five years, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) will receive more than $1 billion through the CIP, including funding for Red Line and Orange Line vehicles, bi-level commuter rail coaches, power system upgrades and other investments.
"Every transportation investment is an investment in people — connecting them to jobs, schools, healthcare and each other," said state Transportation Secretary and CEO Monica Tibbits-Nutt. "Thanks to the leadership of the Healey-Driscoll Administration, we now have a strong five-year Capital Investment Plan that reflects our shared priorities and gives us the tools to keep building a more connected, equitable Massachusetts."
In addition to supporting the MBTA, the CIP funding includes:
• $1.09 billion for the Cape Cod Bridges Program;
• $1 billion for the Chapter 90 Program;
• $424 million for the Interstate 90 Allston Multimodal project;
• $276 million for the I-195/Mass. Highway 18 interchange rehabilitation in New Bedford;
• $210 million for the ongoing I-90/I-495 interchange improvements in Hopkinton and Westborough;
• $241 million to replace the Kernwood Avenue Bridge over the Danvers River and the Hall-Whitaker Drawbridge over the Bass River in Beverly and Salem;
• $269 million to support the Rourke Bridge replacement in Lowell;
• $176 million to replace the Arthur J. McKenna Bridge in Springfield and West Springfield;
• $149 million to advance projects that support West-East Rail;
• funding for bicycle and pedestrian investments throughout Massachusetts, such as $40 million for the Lawrence-Manchester rail trail construction in Lawrence;
• investments in local roadways and bridges, including $14 million for the reconstruction of North Road and Damon Pond Road in Chesterfield; and
• money for the state's public use airports, including $14 million for runway reconstruction at the Beverly Regional Airport.
Eighteen Massachusetts Highway Plazas Set to Be Revitalized
A prominent Irish convenience store company has been tapped to rebuild and operate 18 Massachusetts highway service plazas as part of a $750 million improvement project commissioned by the state. Many of the plazas have been in service since the 1950s.
On June 11, 2025, the MassDOT board's capital programs committee approved a staff recommendation to grant a 35-year lease to Applegreen, a Dublin-based firm, to update the service plazas — 11 of which are along the Massachusetts Turnpike, according to a Boston Globe report.
The company specializes in roadside retail, including gas stations, convenience stores and fast food eateries across Ireland, the United Kingdom and — since 2014 — the United States.
WCVB-TV in Boston reported June 19, 2025, that as part of the lease agreement, Applegreen will be responsible for making significant refurbishments to nine of the travel plazas, while the remaining nine will be completely torn down and rebuilt. All but one of the plazas expected to be demolished are located along the turnpike.
The company has three different design options for the plazas: one for Massachusetts's coastal areas, one for the central part of the state and one for the Berkshire hills.
Under the plan, Applegreen would share an average of $28.4 million in annual revenue with the state, or nearly $1 billion over the course of the lease, according to the Globe.
The lease is slated to take effect in January 2026 for 14 of the plazas, including 11 on the turnpike as well as locations in Plymouth, Newton and Lexington. The remaining four plazas — in Beverly, Bridgewater and Barnstable — would transfer to Applegreen's control in June 2027.
MassDOT expects the project will improve traffic flow at service stops and ease tensions between truckers and motorists by adding nearly 500 new spaces across the rest areas, representing a 24 percent increase.
Applegreen was chosen for the work following a more than year-long, multi-step selection process that began in April 2024 and included proposals from five other bidders.
"[Applegreen has] demonstrated real-world experience in turning over these facilities and state-of-the-art revitalization programs," MassDOT Chief Development Officer Scott Bosworth told the Globe. "We feel we've got a strong partner … [and] we're on the cusp of beginning a new day for our service plazas in Massachusetts."
Bob Etchingham, Applegreen's founder and chair, is projecting nearly 2 billion visitors to the state's service plazas over the 35 years of the lease.
"Some of them will be tourists and some of them will be just passing through the state," he told WCVB-TV. "But all of them, I think, will form an impression of Massachusetts depending on the quality of the facilities and also depending on the type of service.
"Our business is all about hospitality," said Etchingham. "Our people are focused on delivering food and beverage to travelers and that is the core culture and competency of our business."
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