Massachusetts Inspector General to Issue Letter on Failed $1 Billion Highway Plaza Bid

BOSTON -- February 3, 2026, Massachusetts Senate Post Audit panel hears Inspector General warn that failed MassDOT service plaza procurement "was not a model" as a formal investigatory letter looms. Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro told the committee chaired by Sen. Mark C. Montigny that his office will issue an investigatory letter within weeks on the canceled procurement covering 18 highway service plazas with a potential value of nearly $1 billion over 35 years. Shapiro confirmed the OIG had previously helped MassDOT recover $1.5 million from two lease agreements, involving Lumen Technologies and McDonald's, but said the recovery fell hundreds of thousands of dollars short of what was actually owed. Montigny read from freedom of information materials showing that a registered lobbyist wrote MassDOT personnel during the procurement that the parties should "jointly plan and administer a legislative strategy" in response to legislative criticism, communications he said involved members of the very committee evaluating the bids. Vice Chair Nick Collins pressed Shapiro on whether bid selection committees should be treated as bodies politic subject to open meeting and public records law, a position the Inspector General endorsed in principle. Transportation Secretary Maurice Ng is scheduled to appear before the committee on March 2.