Region · Southeastern Mass. Metropolitan Planning Organization

The board that steers federal transportation money for 27 communities, including Middleborough and Lakeville, meets Tuesday on Zoom to weigh lower estimates on two I-495 jobs, drop a Marion bike path from next year’s list, and hear MassDOT on the Sagamore Bridge and a December federal funding deadline.

By John Barrella – The G.O.A.T. News  ·  Oct. 15, 2026

TAUNTON — The board that decides how federal highway and transit money is spent across 27 southeastern Massachusetts communities, including Middleborough and Lakeville, will consider taking about $15 million off its 2027 project list on Tuesday, most of it from lower cost estimates on two I-495 jobs. It will also hear MassDOT’s latest on the Sagamore Bridge replacement and on federal funding, which now runs on a short-term extension that expires Dec. 11.

The Southeastern Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Organization meets at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, by Zoom webinar. The agenda was posted on Lakeville’s town website and by the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District, the Taunton-based agency that staffs the board. SRPEDD lists the Zoom registration link on its meeting page.

Two items call for votes. Members will decide whether to release Amendment #1 to the 2027–2031 Transportation Improvement Program, the five-year list of federally funded projects, for public comment, and whether to release a change to the board’s planning budget for a 21-day comment period. Those votes open comment periods. They do not adopt the changes. The bridges briefing, the federal funding overview, the transit reports and a Fall River corridor study update carry no votes.

Three projects, $15 million less

Amendment #1 changes three entries on the 2027 list, according to the revisions report SRPEDD posted Oct. 14.

Two I-495 jobs get cheaper. The resurfacing project through Raynham, Taunton and Norton (Project 612058) adds Bridgewater to its description, and its programmed cost falls from $16,583,368 to $13,809,022, a drop of $2,774,346. The pavement preservation project in Mansfield and Norton (Project 613386) falls from $24,472,000 to $18,700,381, a drop of $5,771,619. The report gives a reduced cost estimate as the reason for both. MassDOT logged the Bridgewater change Sept. 30 and both cost changes Oct. 6.

The Mansfield–Norton job was not originally slated for 2027. In May, MassDOT moved it up from 2031 because the road was in very poor condition and needed resurfacing sooner than expected, according to the list of changes made before the board endorsed the 2027–2031 program on May 19.

A Marion bike path comes off the list. Phase 1 of the Marion shared-use path, from the Mattapoisett town line to Point Road (Project 607979), leaves the 2027 list along with its $6,460,967 in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding. The report says MassDOT advertised the project in federal fiscal 2026, which ended Sept. 30. MassDOT’s project database lists the advertising date as Aug. 15 and a construction start this fall. The path is part of the SouthCoast Bikeway.

Taken together, the three entries come to $15,006,932 less in the 2027 program, by The G.O.A.T.’s math from the report. The report does not say where any freed-up money goes. All three are MassDOT-prioritized projects funded through statewide lines. When MassDOT shifted pavement projects in May, SRPEDD staff told the board those moves affected statewide funds and left the region’s own target money alone, according to the May 19 minutes.

A version of the amendment prepared for the Joint Transportation Planning Group, the board’s advisory committee, was posted Oct. 8. The materials list no comment-period dates. The board’s recent amendments have gone out for 21 days.

The Sagamore update

Luisa Paiewonsky, who leads MassDOT’s megaprojects delivery office and the Cape Cod Bridges Program, is scheduled to brief the board. The agenda does not say what she will cover. The two canal bridges sit just outside the board’s region, but the region’s traffic reaches them on I-495 and Route 25 through Wareham. None of the board’s minutes from May through September mention the bridges.

Her briefing follows a milestone. On Sept. 28, Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced authorization of $956 million in federal grant funding for the Sagamore replacement and released the request for proposals for its design-build contract, the last procurement step. The state said the Federal Highway Administration was expected to authorize another $371 million in mid-October. Final proposals are due in May 2027, with a public bid opening in July 2027 and a notice to proceed in late 2027.

The state’s construction dates have moved. The July 24 release that accompanied new renderings put the start in spring 2028, with all traffic on a new bridge by 2033 and final completion in 2036. The Sept. 28 release says construction is expected to begin in winter 2027, with the new eastbound span opening in 2033.

The Boston Globe reported in July that the Sagamore replacement carries a $2.1 billion price and that the two-bridge program is estimated at $4.5 billion. The Bourne Bridge has no replacement funding yet. MassDOT and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns both bridges, have applied for more than $1 billion in federal money and are waiting for a decision, according to the Sept. 28 release. In Bourne’s Round Hill neighborhood, the state has taken 12 of the 13 homes slated for acquisition and plans to demolish them after break-ins at the empty houses, CAI, the Cape and Islands public radio station, reported Aug. 31.

A federal deadline in December

Derek Shooster of MassDOT, who chaired the board’s Sept. 15 meeting as the designee of Interim Transportation Secretary Phillip Eng, is listed for a federal funding overview and discussion.

The federal law behind most of the board’s work, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, authorized highway and transit programs through Sept. 30. Congress extended them in a stopgap spending bill, H.R. 6500, which the House passed 370-48 on Sept. 1 and President Trump signed Sept. 2, the AASHTO Journal reported. The extension runs through Dec. 11 and keeps Highway Trust Fund programs at prorated 2026 levels.

The stopgap left out the law’s advance appropriations, the extra money that paid for programs such as the Bridge Formula Program, according to AASHTO, the national association of state transportation departments. The American Public Transportation Association says that omission amounts to a 20 percent cut in public transit funding from current levels, Mass Transit magazine reported. That matters to the region’s two bus systems, GATRA and SRTA. A five-year reauthorization, the BUILD America 250 Act, has cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but has not passed Congress.

At the September meeting, Shooster told members that federal transportation funds may be available for new sidewalks, during a discussion of Mansfield’s bicycle and pedestrian plan, according to the Sept. 15 minutes.

Closer to home

Middleborough and Lakeville both have projects on the board’s five-year list. Neither is on Tuesday’s agenda.

Middleborough’s Wareham Street. The reconstruction of Wareham Street and Wood Street (Project 608530) is programmed in federal fiscal 2028 and 2029, according to MassDOT’s project database, which cites a $17,071,083 total from the program’s comments and estimates the total contract cost at $20,689,630.95. The database does not explain the gap between the two figures. MassDOT’s hearing notice for its July 21 virtual design public hearing describes about 1½ miles of work from North/South Main Street to Tiger Drive on Wood Street, with pavement rehabilitation, ADA-compliant sidewalks and curb ramps, a shared-use path on the north side, signal and intersection changes and drainage. The database, whose latest status entry dates to the 25 percent design review in August 2025, describes shared lanes and bike lanes in place of a path. The town is responsible for design and land acquisition, and the database lists construction starting in autumn 2028.

Lakeville’s Route 140. The Route 140 resurfacing shared with Freetown and Taunton (Project 612077) went the other direction in May. MassDOT pushed it to 2031 because the pavement was in better shape than expected, according to the May list of changes. The project database estimates its cost at $6,831,000 and lists a spring 2031 start.

Projects programmed for 2028 and later depend on federal money Congress has not yet authorized. Current law runs only through Dec. 11.

The rest of the agenda, and where each item left off

Planning budget. The board endorsed its 2027 Unified Planning Work Program, which runs Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027, on June 16, at about $1.9 million after adding money for air quality and noise monitoring equipment, according to the June 16 minutes. The proposed Amendment #1 adds $13,000 in deobligated federal planning funds, money released from earlier commitments, that was awarded to the board for air quality monitoring equipment. That raises the environmental coordination task from $179,000 to $192,000.47. The extra 47 cents aligns the budget with the 2027 planning contract. The amendment also moves $15,000 from general support of the planning process ($251,000 to $236,000) to active transportation ($156,000 to $171,000) to finish the regional Age Friendly Mobility Plan, which will run past its original federal fiscal year. The amendment says the cut will not change the support task’s scope or deliverables.

Transit reports. In September, GATRA administrator Mary Ellen DeFrias told the board the authority is moving to a new management contract, that its Wareham facility would open Sept. 25, and that its Gateway Link service was carrying more than 5,000 passengers a month. She said fare-free service had not significantly increased overall ridership and that growing demand for ADA rides was adding costs. GATRA serves Middleborough and Lakeville. SRTA reported steady ridership growth. The record on SRTA’s numbers conflicts: the posted Aug. 18 minutes say SRTA logged about 1.4 million trips in fiscal 2026, its first year above 1 million, while the Sept. 15 minutes record a correction changing that figure from 1.4 million to 4.4 million.

Fall River’s Pleasant Street. SRPEDD is studying Pleasant Street from Troy Street to Eastern Avenue. Three of its signalized intersections rank on SRPEDD’s list of the region’s 100 most dangerous: Quarry and County streets at No. 18, Quequechan Street at No. 68 and Troy Street at No. 87, according to the study page. The study runs from July 2025 to February 2027, and its second phase is funded in the 2027 planning budget, according to the May 19 minutes. No recommendations have been published.

September minutes. The Sept. 15 minutes, up for a roll-call vote, record unanimous votes to endorse a new regional Congestion Management Plan and a Food Access and Security in Transportation plan, and members’ support for forming a regional bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee.

Public comment. No member of the public spoke during the public comment item in May, June, August or September, according to the minutes of those meetings.

The board itself

The chair is the state transportation secretary, now Interim Secretary Phillip Eng, who sends a designee. MassDOT’s Stephen Woelfel, David Mohler and Derek Shooster have each chaired a meeting since May. The vice chair is Marie Clarner, chair of the SRPEDD Commission. Voting members also include the mayors of Attleboro, Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton, Select Board members from Mansfield, Fairhaven, Carver and Berkley, MassDOT’s highway administrator, and the administrators of SRTA and GATRA, according to SRPEDD’s membership list. The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration hold non-voting seats.

Neither Middleborough nor Lakeville holds a seat. Town seats carry terms, and communities nominate themselves when one opens. The Mansfield and Fairhaven seats came up this summer. In August, Mansfield was reelected and Fairhaven Select Board member Richard Trapilo joined the board, according to the Aug. 18 minutes.

Since May the board has met for 28 to 58 minutes a session. Every recorded vote in that span passed, most of them unanimously, with a few abstentions on approving minutes.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. Neither body has a role in the regional planning organization’s decisions.