Worcester County officials are scrambling for options — and money — after learning that state transportation officials are pausing a top transportation priority — the widening of Route 90 and the replacement of its two bridges.
Worcester is just one of the counties given tough news in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s release of an updated draft of the Consolidated Transportation Plan, the state’s six-year transportation plan.
“The way it was explained is they’re telling everybody to stop immediately wherever they are in the design process, the planning process, like hard stop,” said Worcester County Administrative Officer Weston S. Young. “It sounds like they’re heading towards a fiscal cliff with what their projections are now.”
Worcester County leaders were told the Route 90 project will be “paused” when the state releases its draft plan for fiscal years 2025-2030.
“Route 90 was the one that was mentioned. We don’t know of the other projects that they were proposing to do in Worcester, which ones are getting stalled as well,” said Young.
“We were told when the draft CTP comes out … it will have this project along with a whole bunch of projects throughout the state — I don’t know if the word is paused or deferred — because they can’t afford it based on their projections,” he said.
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