BOSTON (AP) – Days after successfully forcing out the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Gov. Mitt Romney on Tuesday moved ahead with long-held plans that he says will streamline the agency, make it more efficient and save tax dollars.

Romney announced he will ask board members at their next meeting Aug. 16 to approve the creation of a task force of administration and finance officials that will do a complete review of the agency and identify areas where it can be merged with the state Executive Office of Transportation or other state agencies.

The governor has for years wanted to consolidate the two agencies citing similar functions between them. Transportation Secretary John Cogliano said Tuesday that the effort had been stalled because of a lack of cooperation by the Turnpike, despite a law passed two years ago mandating the agencies streamline.

“We weren’t given a lot of cooperation from the Turnpike so nothing really was realized in the consolidation efforts,” Cogliano said.

In July 2004, Romney signed a transportation reform package approved by lawmakers that would make the state secretary of transportation chairman of the Turnpike Authority while still keeping the authority an independent agency.

The new five-member task force would be led by Eric Kriss, former Administration and Finance Secretary, and would report to the governor and Turnpike Authority board, where Romney has appointed three of the four board members.

The panel will have several months to review documents and operations at the Turnpike, with a goal of giving Romney recommendations for consolidation and ways to cut costs by the end of the year.

“I want to have somebody who doesn’t have a bias one way or another to go in and take a look … and say what things could we do better, where is there opportunity for saving and how can we create better efficiencies,” Romney said.

Romney’s announcement came days after Matthew Amorello yielded to mounting pressure and said he would resign Aug. 15 as the Turnpike Authority board’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Romney had repeatedly urged Amorello to leave the agency, and the calls grew louder after the July 10 death of Milena Del Valle in a Big Dig tunnel.

Del Valle, 39, of Boston, was crushed when 12 tons of ceiling panels fell on her car in a tunnel connecting Interstate 90 to the Ted Williams. Investigators believe metal bolts held into the concrete tunnel ceiling by an epoxied connection may have given way.

The collapse shut down two tunnels to traffic and prompted Romney to launch a “stem to stern” safety review of the Big Dig tunnels.

Romney visited the site of the accident Tuesday to review ongoing repairs.

He said reinforcement efforts to the epoxy-and-bolt system holding up several ceiling panels had been successful in most places, but had problems in others. Crews ended up removing 10 ceiling panels as a temporary fix.

Romney said work on shoring up the fastening system holding up heavy fans continued to be a challenge. Crews were adding support around the fans to secure them to the ceiling as a back up to the epoxied bolts.

The governor wouldn’t give a timeline on an expected opening, but said it would be nice to have the routes available by Labor Day weekend.

The Big Dig, formally called the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project, replaced the elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 with underground tunnels through downtown Boston. It also connected Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, to Logan International Airport, and added the Ted Williams Tunnel beneath Boston Harbor.