DANVERS — When the state changed the law to let civilian flaggers work traffic details, it was expected to save money.
It's hard to see where there will be savings, however, on the three-year project to widen Route 128, which begins this spring.
The state will pay $53.81 an hour for civilians to direct traffic on some roads, according to contract documents. That's almost $10 per hour more than it will be paying for police officers to do the same work.
In 2008, Gov. Deval Patrick's decision to let flaggers direct traffic on slower-speed roads was controversial. It was intended to save millions on work traditionally performed by police, who earn $41 an hour on average. Police unions fought to defend the lucrative details.
On the 128 project, the bulk of the detail work — $900,000 worth — will still be performed by police. Danvers officers will earn $44.42 an hour, and the department will get another $4.44 per hour as an administrative fee, for a total cost to the state of $48.86 per hour.
State police will be paid $40 an hour, with a 10 percent administrative fee, for a total of $44 per hour.
The Department of Transportation budgeted $91,477 for civilian flaggers to perform some non-highway details. The flaggers will earn $34.40 an hour, but the state Department of Transportation will pay D.W. White Construction, the company that hires them, $53.81 an hour for 1,700 work hours.
"It's disappointing to say the least," said state Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, "but not surprising."
Bound by laws
The inability to save money was, in a sense, baked into the cake once the legislation was passed allowing flaggers who were not police officers, Hill said, citing two prevailing-wage laws — federal and state — that are applicable to the project.
Prevailing wage requires a standard rate of payment — usually influenced by the union rate — rather than the lower free-market rate. The federal prevailing-wage law requires less money, Hill said. "Doing a federal program, we should be using the federal prevailing-wage law."
But an effort by Republicans to require the federal rate in lieu of the state one was defeated "by the majority party," he said.
Hill expressed "shock" on learning that payments are being made to White Construction, with almost $20 per hour siphoned off for the company's expenses. "I was under the assumption that a lot of these flaggers would be MassHighway employees," he said.
Much of the project runs through the district of Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, who said he has no recollection of Hill's prevailing-wage amendment. The news that civilian flaggers will actually cost more is "a double slap at the taxpayers," he said. "It gets pretty frustrating. ... It's not a cost savings."
On the other hand, he said, "People never thought we'd do away with police flaggers. But the governor took the first step and ought to be commended."
Republican cost-cutting measures, such as former Gov. Bill Weld's privatization of projects, ran into similar difficulties, he noted, with savings never materializing.
"You hear of other states where flaggers make $15 an hour," Speliotis said. "That sounds reasonable." But he conceded that he knows of no way to make that happen here. "To union bash is the wrong thing to do."
Salaries for civilian flaggers are still slightly lower than those for police officers. But the difference in administrative fees is significant — $4 an hour for police departments versus $19 an hour for the construction company that hires the flaggers.
That fee is for "various insurance and taxes that goes on top of that," according to Mark White, the owner of D.W. White Construction in Acushnet.
"You have to pay the payroll tax and the overhead, such as workmen's comp, FICA, all the taxes that would go along with that. That's how you get to where that costs," said John Pourbaix, executive director of Construction Industries of Massachusetts.
No minimum hours
Pourbaix and White said despite the higher rate for civilian flaggers, the state will save money because it won't have to pay the mandatory minimum hours that police union contracts require. Some police contracts require police to be paid a minimum of four to eight hours even though a detail could take only an hour. Other police departments require an administrative fee.
"At this point, you have to pay flaggers only for the hours they work," said Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
Also, the flaggers will have other jobs at the road construction site.
"When they need to do flagging duties, they can do those duties, as well," he said.
This phase of Route 128 construction is expected to cost $20.1 million.
The project has been years in the making. Route 128 carries 80,000 cars a day and was designed for just 15,000 in the 1940s.
Acceleration and deceleration lanes will be built on Route 35 (High Street) and Route 62 (Elliott Street). These on- and off-ramps will replace cloverleaf-shaped interchanges that force drivers to stop before merging onto 128.
Workers will replace a bridge over an unused MBTA rail line south of High Street, build retaining walls at the northbound Elliott Street ramp and put up noise barriers at both interchanges, Hurtubise said in an e-mail.
D.W. White Construction put in the lowest bid for the project, which state officials originally projected to cost $27.2 million. The state received 10 bids.
A second, $27 million phase of work to widen and add shoulders to Route 128 is still being designed and would begin after phase one is done, Hurtubise said.
Staff writer Julie Manganis contributed to this report.
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