No one notices infrastructure until there is a problem. If there is a problem or something to improve, E.T.& L. will fix it. Jennie Lee Colosi is president of the 77-year-old company, which employs 133 people. She is a trained engineer and one of the only women presidents of a Central Massachusetts construction company.
In the past year, the company completed a $16.3-million renovation of the Route 140 bridge spanning Interstate 290 in Shrewsbury and a $22-million downtown reconstruction project in Lowell on Thorndike Street to help traffic flow through the city.
All this experience comes on the cusp of major state and federal infrastructure investments. In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the $1-trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In August, former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to appropriate $11.4 billion of those funds to Massachusetts infrastructure projects. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation provided money for 370 roadway, bridge, and bicycle/pedestrian projects in the 2022-2026 State Transportation Improvement Program with that money. As the owner of one of the five largest construction employers in Central Massachusetts, this activity should keep Colosi and her company busy for years to come.
How should professionals best use the power they wield? “There are many serious issues facing us in Massachusetts as well as many other states: aging infrastructure of all types, and climate change resulting in rising sea levels and more severe weather and storms. Professionals must band together to help solve these historic challenges in the years ahead.”
The Collector: Colosi is a collector of Depression-era glass from the 1920’s and 1930’s, which she picked up from her mother since her passing.
