It’s one of those classic, made-in-Massachusetts boondoggles, a major regional airport no one can get to without blundering around on the back streets of the state’s second largest city.
And the joke that is currently Worcester Regional Airport is going to get even more absurd, with the feds about to pump tens of millions of dollars into fixing up one of the least accessible airports in the country.
But a high-powered local developer contends he has a plan, one that could transform Worcester’s airport from perpetual laughingstock to an economic development driver for beleaguered Central Massachusetts.
See, where others simply see down and dirty plans to carve out routes for tractor trailers delivering mega-loads of fill for a partial parallel runway, suburban master developer Steven Zieff sees the solution to the airport’s biggest flaw – its lack of highway access.
Fresh off the ambitious Legacy Farms project in Hopkinton, Zieff has launched a full-court press to convince some of our top state leaders to think big and turn plans for temporary haul roads into the first, crucial stride towards a permanent connector road, one that will link the airport with the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“Let’s do it right or don’t do it at all!” Zieff exclaimed, practically pounding the table in his office as he pointed to a map of the Worcester area, his idea of a connector road to the airport sketched out across it. “Rather than spending money on casinos, let’s spend money on things that have real value.”
Zieff made his name in the local development world on big and ambitious residential projects, working with the MacDowell family on Cronin’s Landing and The Village at Bear Hill in Waltham, and more recently the sprawling Legacy Farms. Now Zieff has set his sights on even bigger game, gaining a foothold in the deliberations over the big improvements planned for Worcester airport after he was hired as a consultant for the town of Leicester.
Officials of Leicester, a sleepy town bordering Worcester and the airport, are bracing for a steady stream of tractor trailers laden with fill for the construction at the airport.
But Zieff is pitching a larger vision, and is hoping to get other nearby communities along the path of airport construction to sign up to work with Leicester to make it happen. Forget about the idea of settling for temporary haul roads for trucks, makeshift construction highways, patched together from back roads and aging state roadways, that will be left to crumble after the work is done – Zieff is pushing the idea that a well-constructed airport link road, with sites open for new development along it, could be boon for Leicester and other surrounding communities.
A link road from the Pike through Leicester to Worcester’s airport would be just six miles long, cutting out the torturous, stop-and-go trip through the streets of Worcester to which travelers are now subjected.
But more importantly for the economic fortunes of Central Massachusetts, and the state as a whole, such a link road could turn Worcester Regional Airport from perpetual loser to a magnet for economic development.
Diamond In The Rough
Zieff contends Worcester’s airport, derided as a money-losing white elephant, is actually a gem in the making.
The Massachusetts Port Authority, under whose stewardship the airport loses millions each year, recently gave the green light to more than $30 million in improvements to the airport, including the construction of a partial parallel runway. As always, the question with the Worcester airport is, who will benefit from all these fabulous improvements, if getting there is such an agonizing process? As it stands now, you could easily find yourself navigating a mystifying maze of five miles of Worcester streets to catch your flight – just hope you don’t hit local traffic or take a wrong turn. And you’ll have to take Route 290 to get there, as the Pike gives Worcester a wide berth at that point.
It’s major disadvantage compared to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, and especially T.F. Green just outside of Providence, regional airports that are easy to find and right off the highway.
In fact, it’s no huge jump to argue that Worcester Regional Airport’s access issues have played a big role in its struggles over the years to hang onto any airline, major or not.
After Direct Air bailed out of Worcester, the airport sat empty for nearly two years before a new deal was signed with Jet Blue.
But there’s nothing to suggest that this won’t be the same old Worcester airport story of hopes rising only to be dashed – a pattern of arrival and departure that goes back decades.
And until the access issue is solved, it’s likely to be the same old story – that is, unless Zieff can win over Massport and state economic development officials to his vision of a quick and simple access road linking Worcester to the highway.
Early signs, though, are not so encouraging.
Official Confusion
A call to Massport to ferret out reaction to Zieff’s bold, if unconventional, idea quickly became grounded in a fog of official confusion. A spokesperson claimed at first to have no knowledge of the Worcester airport improvements, recently voted on and approved by Massport’s board.
In hopes of offering a little enlightenment, I then emailed over the consultant’s report on the project prepared for Massport, laying out all the details. But that raised more questions. I was then told the report does not deal with a haul road, per se.
I responded with the section referring to potential haul roads – after all, the estimated 1 to 3 million cubic yards of fill needed for the airport improvements will have to get there somehow. That estimate now appears to deal with an earlier and larger version of the partial runway that is to be built. That said, it still offers a glimpse of the scope of the project – and the kind of truck traffic it may generate.
All that dirt will have to be delivered to the airport, one way or another. Can’t imagine it will be airlifted in or dropped from 20,000 feet! One or more routes will have to be planned out for the thousands of truckloads of fill that will be needed for the big doings planned for Worcester airport.
And Zieff, to his credit, has come up with an ingenious idea that would effectively make lemonade out of lemons and maybe, just maybe, finally make Worcester airport a smart investment after all.
It’s certainly worth considering. Yet for such a smart state, innovative ideas proposed by outsiders to the Massachusetts hackocracy are too often grounded on the tarmac.
Let’s just hope he proves us all wrong and gets cleared for takeoff.
