MassGOP Reacts to Lawsuit Filed Against Healey Administration by Longtime Highway Contractor

Calls on Gov. Healey to Restart ‘Stonewalling’ Bidding Process

8.15.25

 

BOSTON, MA — The Massachusetts Republican Party is drawing attention to a lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court last week alleging that the Healey administration failed to properly show why it gave a billion-dollar contract to a foreign firm tasked with running and improving lucrative highway rest stops — even as the deal appears ready to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars or more.

 

A Waltham company, Global Partners, which has managed many of the Commonwealth’s 18 service plazas for nearly a decade, filed suit against MassDOT this week after the agency snubbed its guaranteed offer of $1.5 billion in revenue. Instead, MassDOT awarded the rest stop contract to Applegreen, a foreign company which promised just $750 million in construction upgrades and no guaranteed floor for revenue.

 

Monica Tibbits-Nutt, Healey’s transportation secretary who was sidelined last year after suggesting she would raise taxes on “everyone who has money,” endorsed the deal, which promises a litany of green energy wishlist items like 700 EV charging stations and no fossil fuel consumption.

 

Global Partners accused the Healey administration of “stonewalling” its request for documentation showing how Applegreen was chosen and warned that the deal will cost taxpayers millions or billions while keeping operations out of local hands.

 

According to the lawsuit, Global claims that MassDOT is refusing to turn over key documents from the decision-making process, including communications with Applegreen, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and feedback on an analysis of the competing revenue offers.

 

Global also accuses the selection committee chair of failing to tell his colleagues about Applegreen’s failed $450 million takeover of rest stops in New York. Bond rater Fitch has previously tagged Applegreen’s promised New York upgrades with a Negative Outlook designation while travelers have complained about poor food quality and badly designed renovations of longtime rest stops.

 

The lawsuit comes as Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee Chair Mark Montigny has opened his own investigation into the deal. With industry chatter suggesting MassDOT is moving to secure the deal in September ahead of its publicized November deadline, MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale called on Gov. Healey to use her authority to cancel the contract.

 

“Governor Healey should cancel this deal and restart the bidding process for the good of taxpayers. No leader should allow a rogue cabinet member or her allies to make a mockery of the state’s bidding process by advancing a far-left green agenda that will deliver worse services while costing taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Carnevale.

 

 

BACKGROUND:

 

Last week Global Partners filed suit against MassDOT, accusing the agency of withholding public records as it seeks to show that the highway rest stop selection process was tilted in favor of a foreign company offering green energy perks. (Boston Globe, 8/12/25)

 

Applegreen, the foreign firm which won the contract, has offered a slew of green energy additions to its design and won plaudits from Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, who has decried truck ownership and promised to install tolls on federal highways in a bid to lower commuter traffic. (Boston.com, 7/2/25)

 

New York travelers and elected officials criticized Applegreen’s renovations of state rest stops in 2023, complaining about cleanliness, food quality, and poorly designed infrastructure. (Rochester First, 7/20/23)

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