Congratulations to all involved in the reconstruction of the James Stanley Overpass in Methuen, which has reopened 17 months earlier than originally forecast.
That includes state officials, the former Massachusetts Highway Department and the contractor, S & R Construction of Lowell.
But it is important for elected leaders not to ruin a good thing by claiming too much of the credit.
The $10 million project, on Route 28 as it crosses over Route 213, began last fall with an estimated completion date of April 2011. But when the overhead utilities were relocated further east than originally planned, the contractor was able to build two temporary bridges instead of one, and rebuild the entire overpass at once, instead of half at a time.
That fortunate change prompted the estimated completion date to be moved up an entire year, to April 2010. But S & R beat that estimate as well, when the bridge reopened this past weekend.
State Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, who chairs the Senate Committee on Transportation, credited, "the reforms I've been fighting for over the last five years ..."
There is some truth to that — Baddour had pressured MassHighway to speed up what has been interminably slow bridge reconstruction. But it is a bit of a stretch to say that transportation reforms led to the early completion. The transportation reforms have been done this year.
Gov. Deval Patrick stretched things much further, claiming the credit went to his new transportation mega-agency, the Highway Division of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation. That agency wasn't even created until this project was nearing completion.
Elected officials get some of the blame when things go wrong, so they should get some of the credit when things go well. But claiming too much tends to undermine what credit is deserved.
Much of the credit should go to those who did the work — the management and employees of S & R. It would be nice if elected officials mentioned them as well.
