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…