A view of the Sagamore Bridge from the Cape Cod Canal scenic area

A view of the Sagamore Bridge from the Cape Cod Canal scenic area

Federal officials have turned down an application from the US Army Corps of Engineers seeking federal funding to help pay the cost of replacing the aging Bourne and Sagamore bridges.

The cost to replace the two spans has risen from its original estimate of $1.5 billion to approximately $4 billion.

The Army Corps submitted an application for funding through INFRA, the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects grant program. The application was denied. However, the state’s federal representatives are not concerned about the request being turned down.

US Representative William R. Keating (D-Bourne) said the INFRA program was never considered to be a main source of funding for the project. Rep. Keating added that Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Jamey L. Tesler even said the bridge replacement project is not a good fit for that specific grant program.

Rep. Keating said the project is more suited for the National Infrastructure Project Assistance grant program, which supports large-scale, complex projects that offer economic, mobility and safety benefits. He said the Army Corps is seeking more than $1 billion from that program.

Rep. Keating also pointed out that the federal government is required by statute to replace the two spans. There are a number of other federal funding sources that can be tapped, he said.

In recent years, the aging bridges have required increasingly frequent repair and maintenance, which is costly and causes significant slowdowns for traffic crossing the Cape Cod Canal.

In spring 2018, extensive repairs to the Sagamore Bridge reduced traffic to one lane in each direction for several months and caused major gridlock. The same situation occurred a year later with needed repairs made to the Bourne Bridge.

The national office of the Army Corps of Engineers issued a Major Rehabilitation Evaluation Report in April 2020. In that report, the Army Corps formally adopted the recommendation of its New England District to construct two new bridges that conform to modern highway design standards.

The New England District’s draft report recommended new structures that will include four travel lanes—two in each direction across the canal—and two acceleration/deceleration lanes built to modern highway standards. The bridges would also be built with appropriate bicycle and pedestrian access.

Replacing the bridges, instead of continuing to repair them, also was the recommendation of MassDOT’s Cape Cod Canal Region Transportation Study Group. The study group presented seven scenarios, each designed with the assumption of both bridges being replaced.

In July 2020, a new memorandum of understanding was signed that officially transferred ownership of the replacement Sagamore and Bourne bridges from the Army Corps to MassDOT. Under the new memorandum, MassDOT accepted ownership of the new canal bridges and agreed to perform the work required to replace the existing bridges.

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