BOSTON — Repairs to the overburdened Falls Bridge in Lawrence will receive top priority under a nearly $3 billion plan unveiled yesterday by Gov. Deval Patrick.
As part of the administration's proposal, the state would borrow the money over the next eight years to expedite repairs to between 250 and 300 structurally deficient bridges statewide. The bridges are safe to use but have outlived their intended life spans.
Work on those structures, including Whittier Bridge in Amesbury and Gillis Bridge in Newburyport, could begin as soon as this summer. The Legislature has to pass the borrowing bill, but it has the backing of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray.
The Patrick plan does not include the Groveland Bridge over the Merrimack River, already scheduled to be replaced 60 feet downstream for $63.9 million. That project is to get underway next summer.
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Patrick called his plan a "robust program" that allows the state to quickly get to work on badly needed bridge repairs and "create a lot of good jobs on the way."
Patrick said the plan will allow the state to make headway on a growing list of deficient bridges, cutting the number statewide from 543 to 450. Without the program, there would be 697 by the end of the eight years, according to the state Office of Transportation.
The administration also estimates the state will save $1.5 billion by acting now and not letting inflation or the worsening of the bridges' condition add to the price tag.
"We are essentially borrowing that money from the future to do repairs less expensively today," said Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen.
Sen. Steven Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature's Transportation Committee, said he backs the plan, which he agrees will create jobs while making badly needed repairs to bridges.
"We need to jump-start the economy," Baddour said. "One way is to invest in roads and bridges."
House Republican Leader Bradley Jones Jr. of North Reading has raised questions about Patrick's other spending initiatives. But in this case, he approves.
"It's definitely beneficial to put people to work on things that we agree should be done," Jones said. "That it's downsized raises questions about the original plan."
The proposal is a scaled-down version of one Patrick released last month. That plan would have had the state borrow $3.8 billion to accelerate repairs to 411 bridges. The governor trimmed the plan in response to concerns about its expense raised by Jones and state Treasurer Timothy Cahill.
Patrick said the plan was slashed "because there's less money."
The state saved money by crossing off repairs to MBTA and Massachusetts Turnpike Authority bridges. Those independent authorities will be responsible for paying for their own bridges.
The bridge program was initially unveiled in April as part of an economic stimulus package, rolled out amid growing recession fears. Initially, the administration projected 23,000 jobs would be created, pared that to 10,000, and now says "thousands" of private-sector jobs would be created.
The program also creates an untold number of state jobs. Cohen said the state will have to "hire up" to handle so many bridge projects at once, adding construction managers, inspectors, lawyers and cost-containment officials for the work.
"We'll need hundreds of additional people," Cohen said.
Why state jobs? Cohen said the state didn't want to repeat a key problem of the Big Dig, where outside consultants oversaw a $15 billion project that was rife with cost overruns and shoddy workmanship.
But Cohen also was unable to say how much of the nearly $3 billion would go toward paying the workers hired by the state.
He also hopes the work on the 250 to 300 bridges doesn't mirror the Big Dig in another way — the traffic snarls that affected downtown Boston for more than a decade.
"It's a challenge to maintain good service levels at the same time you try to rebuild your infrastructure," Cohen said. "But we're going to try and be careful of that."
