Transportation projects throughout Massachusetts, including here in the Berkshires, will be getting a badly needed infusion of funding. That potentially means that bridges and roads here locally that are in need of repair could be getting the capital necessary to make those repairs happen. It also means that improvements to public transit and traffic congestion issues could also be heading our way. 

State Senator Adam Hinds announced Friday that the Massachusetts State Senate Thursday passed legislation to invest $300 million in municipal transportation projects and selected statewide transportation infrastructure projects. 

The bill, An Act financing improvements to municipal roads and bridges, authorizes $200 million for municipal roads and bridges through the chapter 90 program and $100 million to support statewide projects to address congestion, support electric vehicle infrastructure, and improve public transit. 

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Green transportation is the next key fight in reducing our carbon emissions... We have a lot more work to do. In addition to critical support to municipalities for roads and bridges, this bill includes critical infrastructure investments in electric vehicles and charging stations. ~ Senator Hinds

  

According to a media release from Senator Hind’s office, the bill includes $200 million in chapter 90 funding for cities and towns for projects to maintain, improve, and repair roadways, bridges, sidewalks, and bikeways; $25 million for the Municipal Small Bridge Program to support replacement or preservation of structurally deficient local bridges critical to local communities and not eligible for existing federal aid programs; $25 million for the Local Bottleneck Program to address localized traffic bottlenecks and invest in infrastructure to reduce congestion, improve traffic flow, and reduce idling and greenhouse gas emissions; $25 million for Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure to support municipalities and regional transit authorities in their efforts to install EV infrastructure and purchase EVs and zero-emission vehicles; and $25 million for Transit-Supportive Infrastructure to create dedicated bus lanes, enhance bus stops and train stations, support passenger safety, upgrade technology and modernize infrastructure to meet demand and increase frequency of public transit services, and improve access to public transit. 

The legislation now needs to be reconciled with legislation passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 

 

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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

 

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