Sagamore Bridge
BOURNE – The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers may be on the path towards determining that the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges need to be replaced.
State Representative Randy Hunt (R-Sandwich) provided an update to Bourne Selectmen last week on discussions between the Army Corps and MassDOT.
Hunt said he has been attending meetings between officials with the Army Corps and MassDOT, along with State Representative David Vieira (R-Falmouth).
“At these meetings where they have been working on the bridge issue there’s been a lot of tedium you could say, a lot of data, a lot of number crunching, a lot of modeling,” Hunt said. “The DOT has been doing a pretty good job of collecting data.”
Upcoming meetings will focus on what can be done to solve the bridge problem.
“Up to now we have solid data that says we have a problem,” Hunt said.
Hunt said getting the Army Corps and MassDOT on the same page regarding solutions to the current problems is key.
“Having a MassDOT only solution or an Army Corps of Engineers only solution would likely lead us to a much more expensive solution in the end that may not be the best one,” he said.
The Army Corps is about half way through a three-year study to determine if the two spans will be replaced or if they will continue scheduled maintenance.
“The problem of course has been that the maintenance gets to be more difficult. It takes longer and it creates a problem for us through the offseason,” Hunt said. “Not only do we have 10 to 12 weeks of tourism but we have lots of things going on during the offseason that is creating big problems for us.”
Hunt said he thinks the Army Corps has enough data to lean towards replacing the bridges.
“They’ll probably end up in that direction, but I guess I’m speculating at this point,” he said.
Hunt said clues were also given to a few projects that could be completed before bridge construction would begin, if replacement was the future option that is chosen.
One plan would be to create an access road between Route 25 and Nightingale Pond Road off of Scenic Highway for traffic leaving the Cape over the Sagamore Bridge.
“You would not have to go down to Grandma’s circle to get up on 25 and it would take a huge amount of traffic off that circle there,” Hunt said. “The Belmont Circle ends up benefitting greatly from that and I also believe that traffic that’s going around that circle and in and up over the Bourne Bridge to the Cape side would also have a lot of relief in that as well.”
Another solution would be to close the on ramp onto Route 6 near the Christmas Tree Shop. The proposal would extend Bayview Rd which ends just before Route 6.
“I do believe that they would be counseled heavily to still allow the exit at exit 1 to be there,” Hunt said. “There would just be no cars coming on at that point.”
Even with the current bridge configurations, Hunt believes changes like those would loosen up some of the problems at relatively cheap price tags.
If replacement is the option chosen, the Army Corps would only have to construct bridges that have two lanes in each direction. The lanes would need to be built to modern standards which would expand them from 10 to 13 feet.
“There is a potential that we could have a third lane for all of the traffic getting on the bridge and off the bridge which would be really good for moving that traffic along,” Hunt said. “All of that is in discussion right now.”
Funding could also be an issue if the replacement path is chosen.
“If they do decide to replace those bridges, when are they going to get the money?” Hunt said. “It all becomes a matter of priorities and who is pushing from where and all of that kind of thing that happens a lot in the political spectrum.”
Hunt is not sure when the next public meeting will be held but is encouraging everyone to attend.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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