Parkways Control

Background and  Talking Points for Contacting Your Legislator

For at least 5 years, there have been efforts made to transfer some or all responsibilities for the Parkways to the Mass Highway Department.  To date, all of these efforts have been opposed by neighborhood, environmental and advocacy groups who care about the Parkways, and to date they have always been defeated. 

Concerns about transferring any role to Mass Highway include:

• The Parkways are part of a park system so their care should remain in a parks agency;
• Mass Highway road and safety standards might be required on Parkways, destroying their unique historic character;
• The Parkways require specially trained crews and equipment, so cost savings are not likely to be significant;
• Mass Highway is often not sensitive to neighborhood concerns;
• There are significant Parkways issues that Mass Highway might not be willing or able to address as well as a parks agency, including bus, truck and equipment use of Parkways, road closures for events or summer recreation, potentially removing lanes, the volume of salt application, pesticide use, vista pruning, etc.

These concerns have always led Parkways advocates to oppose any transfer, and to date the legislature has always affirmed this in legislation.

In the House and Senate budgets this year, the House language kept all care, custody and control with DCR; the Senate budget transferred limited maintenance responsibilities to Mass Highway, with "curb to curb" limits, and requirements that anything other than routine maintenance be approved by the Commissioner. 

After you have called your legislators, please let CRWA know by filling out this short form.  This helps us monitor the advocacy work that still has to be done.