Cohen resigns as Mass. transportation chief

BOSTON – Secretary of Transportation and Public Works Bernard Cohen, under fire for the state’s burgeoning transportation debt and his role in the Big Dig, has resigned effective Jan. 2.
“I am leaving of my own accord,” Cohen, 62, a public transit veteran with more than two decades’ experience, including senior positions with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, told The Boston Globe. He said he will spend his final weeks completing plans for the reorganization called for by Gov. Deval L. Patrick, which will include dismantling the debt-ridden Mass. Turnpike Authority.
As head of the Mass. Executive Office of Transportation & Public Works, he has been responsible for overseeing the Aeronautics Commission, Highway Department and Registry of Motor Vehicles, and also has served as chairman of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). He leaves the state facing $8 billion in debts at the MBTA alone, plus $2.5 billion in debt from the Big Dig that he helped transfer to the MassPike in a move much criticized by the governor, according to Boston’s ABC Channel 7. He also leaves the state needing a projected $20 billion in infrastructure spending over the next 20 years.
But Cohen also “helped to lay the groundwork by implementing the first ever Mobility Compact to coordinate our transportation network, identifying tens of millions of dollars in cost-savings across agencies and making critical capital infrastructure investments,” Patrick said in a statement last night.
“Thanks to Secretary Cohen’s expert leadership, we have begun to reverse decades of neglect and are much closer to realizing our shared vision of a better, more efficient transportation system,” the governor said.
Several state officials have suggested MassPort board member James Aloisi Jr., who also has worked for the MassPike and served under Dukakis administration Transportation Secretary Frederick Salvucci, as a likely replacement.
To learn more about the Mass. Executive Office of Transportation & Public Works or transportation projects in the Bay State, visit www.mass.gov. For information about the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, go to www.mbta.com; for information about the Mass. Turnpike Authority, go to www.MassTurnpike.com.