A new state transportation organizational structure takes effect Nov. 1 that will fold the Turnpike Authority and other agencies together into a newly created Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The Turnpike Authority was established in 1952, and construction on the Massachusetts Turnpike (which would later become Interstate 90) began three years later. In addition to the turnpike itself, the authority managed two tunnels under Boston Harbor and oversaw construction in the 1990s and this decade of a third harbor tunnel -- an extension of I-90 to Logan International Airport -- and major improvements to Interstate 93 in central Boston known as the Big Dig, the nation's most expensive public-works project ever.

The final board meeting was nostalgic and at times gently defiant, The Boston Globe reported.

"While the name of the authority is being retired, its proud history remains," said Director Jeffrey Mullan, who will soon become the Massachusetts secretary of transportation and lead the new DOT.

Still, Mullan said that while some people will celebrate the Turnpike Authority's termination, they should not see the new state transportation department as a panacea for longstanding financial woes.

"These issues were not created overnight," he said. "They will not be solved overnight."