Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has been on the road, promoting road funding proposals that could mean almost double the amount of Chapter 90 dollars for some rural communities and more.
Nestled between Deerfield and Ashfield, Conway, Massachusetts, sports its fair share of farms, scenic views and roads going through the town of 1,700.
Shelburne Falls Road, Whately Road and Route 116 run up, down and through the area – which is home to about 71 miles of roadway, according to the town.
Given its low population, the Hilltown tends to lose out on Chapter 90 funding – the state’s local roadways program that, via formula, divvies up about $200 million each year to 351 cities and towns to cover road and bridge infrastructure needs.
Population plays a heavy role in the current formula – but changes could be coming under a proposal made by the Healey administration. Healey herself promoted it in the Franklin County town last week.
“For too long, the way that funding was distributed in this state - it was done according to population, and what we are proposing to do is change that, to have it done by mileage: the actual amount of roads within a given community,” the governor said before a group of local lawmakers, officials from surrounding towns and others Thursday. “That alone, we think, is a game changer.”
The governor spoke at Field Memorial Library Thursday, pitching town administrators and residents on an $8 billion transportation spending plan that would span a decade.
The plan involves leveraging millions of dollars collected via the voter-approved Fair Share amendment, also known as the millionaires’ tax. It also includes a five-year, $1.5 billion Chapter 90 Bond Bill filed in late-January.
That bill would increase Chapter 90’s annual total to $300 million – with the additional $100 million “distributed on the basis of road mileage only,” according to the administration, compared to the other $200 million that’d be distributed under the current formula.
Under the proposal, Conway would see an increase from around $260,600 to $473,000.
“Western Massachusetts is set to see a transformative boost in the amount of money that they're receiving – [a] 50-90% increase in resources,” Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Monica Tibbits-Nutt said. “For Conway, that means 82 percent more in funding - critical support to recover from past flooding and to build stronger and more resilient infrastructure for the future.”
The Healey administration indicates more than 60 communities would see 75-90 percent increases in Chapter 90 dollars – many of them Hilltowns in Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.
Conway Town Administrator Veronique Blanchard says every dollar counts, and that revisiting the Chapter 90 formula for the first time in decades is crucial for communities across western Massachusetts.
“Adjustments to programs such as Chapter 90 - which take into account the struggle that towns with small populations but large numbers of road miles face in trying to maintain the structure, integrity and safety of our roads - are essential for the small and rural towns,” Blanchard said.
Flooding in 2023, a tornado in 2017 and a microburst before that are just some of the challenges Conway has faced over the years, leaving it and neighboring communities with huge bills to fix roads, bridges and culverts, despite a small tax base.
Healey’s broader transportation plan packs $2.5 billion for road and bridge repairs through MassDOT. That includes money for culverts and small bridge repairs – an issue that’s more than just water under the bridge in rural Massachusetts, says Linda Dunlavy, Executive Director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
“On average, every municipality in Franklin County has 110 culverts that are in fair and poor condition,” she said. “The pledge to expand the small bridge and culvert program to $200 million gives our municipalities the opportunity to fix those culverts before the next microburst storm that destroys our infrastructure.”
Healey’s FY26 budget proposal, the Chapter 90 Bond Bill and other facets of the plan are in the hands of the state legislature.
