Massachusetts secures $1B in federal funds to replace aging Sagamore and Bourne bridges in Cape Cod. Improved bridges will enhance safety, mobility, and economic vitality. Project expected to create thousands of union construction jobs and increase accessibility.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District
The full cost to replace both spans is estimated at around $4.5 billion.
The state of Massachusetts is making headway on putting together the funding needed to replace two aging bridges that connect Cape Cod to the rest of the state.
Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll announced July 12 that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have secured nearly $1 billion in additional federal dollars to replace the Sagamore and Bourne bridges over the Cape Cod Canal. The funding was included in a bipartisan bridge investment program.
The additional money brings the total amount of federal funding secured for the project to nearly $1.72 billion, in addition to the $700 million in state funding pledged by the Healey-Driscoll administration, the Associated Press (AP) reported July 14.
The full cost to replace both spans is estimated at around $4.5 billion.
"This is a game-changing award for Massachusetts," Healey said in a press release. "We've never been closer to rebuilding the Cape Cod Bridges than we are right now. This funding will be critical for getting shovels in the ground. We promised the people of Massachusetts that we were going to bring home this funding and get these bridges built — and we're delivering."
The USACE currently owns and maintains the two bridges, which officials have said are structurally deficient, functionally obsolete and nearing the end of their usable life. The Corps of Engineers has warned that if the spans are not replaced within the next several years, one of them would have to be completely closed for 18 months for maintenance.
Original construction on both Cape Cod structures began in 1933.
Replacing Two Bridges is Critical to Massachusetts
The AP noted that current plans will concentrate first on replacing the Sagamore Bridge before turning to the Bourne Bridge. After the entire project is finished, MassDOT will own, maintain and operate the completed bridges.
According to Healey's press release, replacing the coastal bridges "also presents a powerful opportunity to modernize designs to improve safety, mobility and resiliency [as well as] increase economic vitality and improve access through better pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure," according to the governor's news release. "The project will bring the bridges into a state of good repair, lower the long-term maintenance costs, address issues with traffic operations, improve safety by reducing crashes by as much as 48 percent, and preserve and enhance productivity through new direct jobs and other economic benefits. The new design also will have multimodal elements including shared-use paths to fill transportation gaps and ensure full accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and people with mobility devices."
The construction of the Sagamore Bridge replacement will be fully offset from the existing bridge so that traffic may be maintained on the older span during the project.
MassDOT will enter into a project labor agreement to support fair wages and working conditions for the more than 9,000 high-quality union construction jobs that will be created from this project and meet the state's goals for workforce participation by minorities and women in construction.
"We're very grateful to the congressional delegation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and members of the Healey-Driscoll administration for helping us win this federal grant award," said MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver. "With this second [grant] for the Cape Cod Canal Program infrastructure needs, we are now on a path forward to continue with environmental permitting, selecting a design-build firm and breaking ground for construction of the new Sagamore Bridge."
Securing Federal Grants Cap Years of Effort
Last year, Massachusetts won $372 million for the bridge replacement project from the Federal Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program. The state also secured another $350 million in the Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act.
Still, Healey said her administration is continuing to pursue more federal dollars to help pay for additional phases of the project, including the Bourne Bridge replacement.
U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-9th District, which includes Cape Cod, said the latest federal grant is the culmination of more than a decade of work.
"The new Sagamore Bridge will be more than just a connection between two sides of the canal; it is a lifeline for the quarter of a million people who live on Cape Cod and the economic driver that brings workers and tourists back and forth every day," he explained.
Of the two bridges, the Sagamore span has more traffic and accounts for about 56 percent of the crashes on the two structures. A new structure at the crossing will have wider lanes, rapid bus transit, and bicycle and pedestrian access, the AP noted.
The new Bourne Bridge also will include a shared path for bicyclists and pedestrians.
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