Transportation bill OK’d

Lawmakers back away from removing police from construction details

BOSTON. Road projects in Massachusetts that now take 10 years to complete would be finished in six under reforms in a $3.5 billion borrowing plan that became law Thursday, Gov. Deval Patrick said.

The new law allocates $150 million for local road projects, including funding for rail extensions to the South Coast and into Somerville and Medford, starts a new maintenance and repair fund, and cuts back on MBTA and Mass. Turnpike Authority employee benefits.

“When people drive by a construction site, based on this plan that we’ve had, I want them to start shaking their heads and saying this is a good thing that Massachusetts is doing rather than being stuck in traffic and trying to blame us for the delays of a project being so long and so delayed and so costly,” said House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi.

Patrick and lawmakers backed off an earlier version of the bill that would have severely curtailed the use of police officers to direct traffic at construction sites and replaced them with flagmen. After a union outcry, the governor, House and Senate opted for a scaled-back measure that calls for regulations to determine when civilian flagmen should replace officers. In its initial proposal, the Senate estimated the reform would save $100 million over 20 years.

Patrick said the current system allows for $5 million projects to balloon into $9.5 million projects, and that the reforms could reduce the final cost by 44 percent.