BOSTON – The office of Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro sent a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) last week calling the procurement process to select a new operator for the state’s 18 highway service plazas “not a model procurement.” He also said that “no procurement of this size, scope, and significance should rest on a weakened foundation.”
In June 2025, MassDOT named Applegreen, founded in Ireland, as the winning bidder for the 35-year project contract. The company planned to rebuild nine of the plazas, and significantly upgrade nine others. Of the 18 state-owned plazas included in the bidding process, 11 sit along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Global Partners, another bidder which currently operates four plaza locations, claimed its bid was nearly $1 billion more than the selected bid from Applegreen and filed a lawsuit. Both MassDOT and Applegreen disputed the claim.
In September 2025, Applegreen said it was not able to reach an agreement with MassDOT and withdrew from the project. It cited “commercial realities” and “continued litigation threats from an opposing bidder that have jeopardized the project’s timeline and financing,” according to CBS News.
The following month, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt resigned. Neither Tibbits-Nutt or Governor Maura Healey attributed the resignation to the controversy around the plazas contract.
The state extended the contract of the current leaseholders of the plazas, McDonald’s and Gulf Oil, until June 30, 2027, and relaunched the bidding process. They were initially to expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
The failure of the first procurement process will likely delay the project for about two years. The new, modernized facilities are unlikely to open until 2028 or beyond.
IG’s Findings
The review by Shapiro’s office included eight key findings, which were included in the letter to MassDOT.
- MassDOT’s Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement was inadequate for selection committee members involved in the selection process to disclose relationships that could pose a conflict of interest.
- MassDOT Undersecretary Scott Bosworth’s regular communications with individuals associated with Applegreen and its affiliates created the appearance of a conflict of
interest that diminished the integrity of the process. - Applegreen affiliates violated Rules of Contact by communicating with a selection committee member to discuss the procurement during the period of no contact.
- MassDOT did not weigh subfactors in the evaluative criteria, leaving selection committee members without a common understanding of the criteria.
- Three of the seven selection committee members did not follow the instructions to record their scoring justifications on the evaluation worksheets.
- The evaluation procedures did not address adequately whether and when it is appropriate for an individual selection committee member to reach out to other divisions within MassDOT and subject experts for information to assess a proposal.
- MassDOT’s use of a live, in-person scoring method increased the risk of perceived bias in the procurement process.
- The MassDOT Board of Directors subcommittee, the Capital Programs Committee, did not feel that it had enough information and time to approve the procurement.
Image Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel, McDonald’s at Eastbound Ludlow Service Plaza Massachusetts, CC BY-SA 4.0
