THE TOP BRASS at the state Department of Transportation suddenly changed Thursday with the immediate resignation of Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt and the simultaneous elevation of MBTA General Manager Phil Eng to the newly open job. 

After a two-plus-year tenure dotted with both achievements and controversies, Tibbits-Nutt stepped down and Gov. Maura Healey turned to Eng — now one of the governor’s most trusted deputies — to fill the hole on an interim basis. 

Healey also promoted Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, another veteran highly regarded among transportation insiders, to undersecretary as part of the shakeup. Like Eng, Gulliver will retain his prior role while gaining additional responsibilities. 

The staffing overhaul significantly changes the makeup atop MassDOT more than halfway into Healey’s term, just a bit more than a year before she is up for reelection.  

Healey’s office said Tibbits-Nutt “plans to return to private industry” and will continue to serve as an advisor through the end of the year, but otherwise did not provide any additional details about the reason for her departure.  

Tibbits-Nutt notched several transformative milestones, including the launch of a new low-income fare option on the MBTA and receipt of a nearly $1 billion federal grant toward a project to replace the Sagamore Bridge. She also drew ire over candid comments she made about tolling at the state’s borders and was caught up in a major fight about how the department awarded a lucrative contract to operate highway service plazas. 

Healey said Thursday she did not ask Tibbits-Nutt to step down. Asked if the secretary left because of the service plaza controversy or her highly scrutinized remarks at a Walk Massachusetts event in 2024, Healey replied, “No, absolutely not.” 

“We’ve been with Secretary Tibbits-Nutt for a while, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter as she moves back to private industry,” Healey told reporters at an unrelated event. 

Healey’s decision is a ringing endorsement of Eng, whom she described as the most important appointment of her tenure when she hired him in March 2023. He arrived with the MBTA largely in disarray after years of deferred maintenance and safety problems; while the agency still faces a slew of obstacles today, service has improved and public confidence in the T  is trending upward. 

“Over the last [two] and a half years, Phil Eng has demonstrated that he’s a terrific manager. He gets it done,” Healey said. “The trains are running on time, and a lot has happened because of his leadership and his management. I expect he’ll bring that same level of management and leadership statewide.” 

It’s also a sign of confidence in Gulliver, whom Healey’s office described as the longest-serving highway administrator. 

Eng will not receive any extra pay for his work as interim transportation secretary, a Healey spokesperson said. Last year, he earned a total of $546,684 as MBTA general manager, according to state payroll data. 

It’s not clear how long he will hold both roles. Eng said he is “open to holding [the interim job] as long as it’s needed,” and has not had any discussions about taking over as secretary on a permanent basis. 

“I’m taking it day by day,” Healey said. “In evaluating what to do in the wake of Secretary Tibbits-Nutts’s departure, I thought Phil was the right person for the job. I’m focused right now in the immediate on getting him onboarded.” 

“Obviously, an interim can’t last forever, but we’re going to take that all as it comes,” she added. 

Both Healey and Eng said they are confident he will not be spread too thin, suggesting the additional duties would not have been offered and accepted if they posed too heavy a load. 

“I intend to stay just as engaged as I’ve been with [the] MBTA, and I know that doesn’t sound feasible, but it is,” Eng said. “They know what they’re doing. MassDOT people know what they’re doing.  What I’ve done is really empower them. Once we’re all moving in the same direction, I don’t need to be told every single thing. We know how to operate.” 

MBTA Advisory Board Executive Director Brian Kane, who represents municipalities that help fund the T, praised Tibbits-Nutt for her work and said he hopes Eng’s tenure as interim will be short so he can return his attention to trains, buses, trolleys, and ferries. 

The one-two pairing of Eng, a “train guy,” and Gulliver, a “highway guy,” should help balance the department’s work, Kane said. 

“Phil’s a safe pair of hands. If anything has been shown in the last two years, it’s that he can handle it,” he said. “He used to work for [the New York Department of Transportation]. He has the experience. He knows how to run bridges and roads and highways. I think he’s the right call.” 

Still, Kane said the decision to give additional responsibility to Eng and Gulliver — who are already responsible for two of the largest workloads in state government — reflects a “short bench” within MassDOT. 

It’s not the first time a member of Healey’s Cabinet has held two roles at once. Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler spent a few months also working as interim commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education before Pedro Martinez started on the job. 

After spending years on the Fiscal and Management Control Board that oversaw MBTA operations, Tibbits-Nutt started in the Healey administration as an undersecretary. She took on the top job on an interim basis following the abrupt resignation of Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca in August 2023, and officials dropped the “acting” part of the title a few months later. 

While she had the backing of many transportation activists, her approach to the job ruffled some feathers, especially after she signaled an openness to raising fees on ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and expanding tolls to the state’s borders — an idea Healey quickly rebuked. 

“Governor Healey should have fired Secretary Tibbits-Nutt the moment she declared she wanted to ‘go after anyone who has money’ and vowed to create more and raise tolls across the Commonwealth,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy said Thursday in response to the MassDOT baton-pass. “The era of appointing extreme progressive activists to run our government and tax our citizens into leaving Massachusetts will end when I’m Governor. It’s time for leadership that values competence, accountability, and affordability – not ideological crusades.” 

Eng is now the third person to hold the job of transportation secretary on an interim or permanent basis since Healey took office in January 2023.  

Tibbits-Nutt becomes the latest in a string of cabinet members heading for the exit, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, former Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao, retired Public Safety Secretary Terrence Reidy, and Veterans Services Secretary Jon Santiago, who plans to step down this fall. 

“I think it’s normal if you look back at other administrations,” Healey said of the turnover. “These are hard jobs. These are really hard jobs, and I’m just really grateful to the strength and the quality of all who have served.” 

Eng will now lead MassDOT as the department attempts to chart a path forward for highway service plaza operations. 

Earlier this year, officials awarded a 35-year contract for redevelopment and management of the plazas to Irish retailer Applegreen. That set off a political firestorm, with losing bidder Global Partners mounting an all-out offensive that included intense public pressure and a lawsuit alleging their rivals had an unfair leg up. 

Applegreen dropped out of lease negotiations, and MassDOT opted this week to redo the bidding process rather than turn to Global. 

Eng said the initial procurement “was done in a transparent way.” 

“Having said that, one of the things that I’ve been focused on at the T and I’m going to focus on at MassDOT is: How do we get more competition? How do we get more interest in doing these projects? And was that structured in a way that maybe we can change it a little bit to encourage more bidders?” he said. 

“We’re going to take the next couple of months as we prepare for the procurement and really look at what the market can do, where we think we can do better, maybe specify some different things in our procurement documents,” Gulliver added. “We’re really going to be evaluating all the different options, and our goal is to deliver the best service plazas for the travelers in Massachusetts and at the best value for taxpayers.”