Republicans in the Legislature are calling on the state Inspector General to look into exactly what went wrong with the bidding process for a new highway service plaza operator.

In a letter sent to Bay State IG Jeffrey Shapiro by State Rep. Joseph McKenna and more than a dozen of his conservative colleagues, lawmakers call into question the sudden decision by the winning bidder — Dublin-based Applegreen — to step away from a 35-year lease they’d secured to operate the state’s dozen-and-a-half highway service plazas.

“The suddenness and timing of the recent decision of Applegreen to withdraw from negotiations with MassDOT on the eve of a scheduled oversight hearing before the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight raise significant questions about what they were trying to hide from

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