BOSTON — Police details would be replaced by civilian flaggers at construction sites on secondary roads and neighborhood streets as part of a transportation reform package offered by Senate leaders today.

The proposal — a compromise over previous, failed efforts to end police details on virtually all roads — had the backing of Gov. Deval Patrick, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray at a Statehouse press conference.

The idea has been fought by police unions, and it has traditionally met strong resistance from the Legislature. Today’s agreement by top Statehouse leaders is an indication that could change.
“We are not eliminating police details,” said Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, co-chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee. “They are necessary on certain roadways. They are not necessary on others.”
Rep. DiMasi said he personally supports the change.

“I think it is necessary, and naturally my colleagues, the (committee) chairs in here, I think they speak volumes,” he said. “They have great credibility to my membership. I think we just have to prove that this is absolutely a necessary step we have to take.”

Ray McGrath, the legislative director of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents many police officers on the Cape and in SouthCoast, said police details are a matter of safety.
Mr. McGrath said the state and municipalities already have the power under state law to use civilian flagmen, but they choose not to do so.

“Because of public safety concerns, because police officers are the greatest detriment to highway casualties, they use the police officers.”

Massachusetts is the only state that requires police details at construction projects on state roads, although it is not written into law. Cities and towns have followed the state’s lead.

If the proposal is approved, the Executive Office of Transportation and the Executive Office of Public Safety would draw up regulations on when police details would be needed and what defines a secondary road. The regulations would be binding on state projects, but only advisory for municipalities.
However, legislative leaders believe state regulations would give cities and towns the political cover they need to rein in police details.

The regulations also could determine when flagmen are not needed at all.
Mr. McGrath said there are other issues. He said civilian flaggers on public projects must be paid the prevailing union wage, which could be as much or more than police officers are paid on details. He said the privately funded details supplement the salaries of police officers in municipalities that cannot afford to pay them more.

“How many people want to have this job, when you are putting your life on the line on a daily basis?” he asked.

Mr. McGrath said the union will appeal to rank-and-file legislators to block the change.
The Senate also is proposing greater oversight and accounting of state construction projects as a way to close a funding shortfall of up to $19 billion in the next 20 years. Sen. Baddour said other changes would speed up the design and bidding process. It often takes twice as long as in other states, further driving up costs.

Sen. Baddour said state oversight and accounting of projects — such as whether they are on budget and on time — is so poor the Legislature has no idea how much money is being wasted.
“We don’t know. We don’t have enough information to answer that question yet, because no one does any measurements or produces data to know how big or detailed the problem is,” Sen. Baddour said.
Sen. Murray said the changes, including police details, would save the state $100 million over the next 20 years.

Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny, D-New Bedford, the Senate chairman of the Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets Committee, applauded the proposed changes.
“The Big Dig is the most expensive example,” Sen. Montigny said. “There are a lot of other examples that are troubling.”

The Patrick administration is working on a major reorganization of the transportation bureaucracy. The governor is seeking to eliminate most of the quasi-state agencies that dominate state government.
“There are resources that we believe already exist in the transportation system where we don’t get as much from that buck as we want,” Gov. Patrick said.

The report was issued on the first anniversary of a report by the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission that found the state has a backlog of $15 billion to $19 billion in transportation projects in the next 20 years. The commission later recommended replacing police details with civilians, as well as a gas tax hike of 11.5 cents a gallon.

Sen. Murray said she would not even consider raising the gas tax or tolls until reforms are completed.
“Those things, if they happen, will come last,” Sen. Murray said. “The first thing we will see is do we have savings in the system, and how will we manage the system we presently have? We know there are savings.”