WASHINGTON – An amendment approved in a House transportation bill Monday would provide $5 million dollars designated to fund the design of replacement bridges over the Cape Cod Canal.
Congressman William Keating (D-Bourne) said the money was included in the Transportation, House and Urban Development, and Related agencies (T-HUD) Appropriations Bill.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to release a study this summer that will call for either replacing or conducting a major rehabilitation of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.
MassDOT released a Capital Improvement Plan in late spring that supported a replacement option and detailed the road improvements that would be needed for the project.
Both bridges are owned by the Corps, but the roads leading to them are the responsibility of the Commonwealth.
“As many of bridges across the nation are reaching the end of their useful lives, it is important for the Department to prioritize funding for the design of new structures needed to replace these out of date and outmoded bridges,” said Keating.
“In my district, nearly 250,000 of my constituents live on the peninsula of Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. In the event of an emergency, these citizens’ only available evacuation route is over the Cape Cod Canal bridges.”
The Bourne and Sagamore Bridges were completed in 1935 and 1938 and have outlived their useful lives.
They were constructed for the age of the Model T, and not the age of the SUV.
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