MassDOT OKs $1.1B for Cape Cod Bridge Replacement Program

The Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation’s board of administrators accepted an roughly $18.5-billion, five-year capital funding plan, together with $1.09 billion for the long-anticipated Cape Cod Bridges Program. At 90 years previous, the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge—the one street crossings over the Cape Cod Canal—are each thought-about functionally out of date by MassDOT. 

Many of the plan’s fund for changing the 2 bridges would go towards the part one development of the brand new Sagamore Bridge. The bridges are owned by the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, however beneath the phrases of an settlement between the state and the Corps, MassDOT will likely be accountable for the alternative tasks and can personal, function and preserve each bridges as soon as they’re full. The deliberate twin-arch bridges would additionally embody shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Changing each bridges is estimated to value greater than $4.5 billion, in line with media reports, together with $2.1 billion for the Sagamore. The state has already secured $2.3 billion for the undertaking, together with a number of federal grants and appropriations in addition to state bonds.

The Corps estimates that sustaining the present bridges in the course of the subsequent 50 years would value $775 million. Preconstruction on the brand new bridges began earlier this yr and development is scheduled to begin in 2027, in line with media reports. 

The capital funding plan additionally allocates greater than $1 billion for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, together with funding for energy system upgrades.  

Along with the Cape Cod Bridge and MBTA funds, the capital plan additionally allots $424 million for the I-90 Allston Multimodal undertaking; $276 million for the I-195 to Route 18 interchange rehabilitation in New Bedford; $210 million for the continuing I-90/I-495 interchange enhancements in Hopkinton and Westborough; $241 million to switch the Kernwood Avenue Bridge over the Danvers River and the Corridor-Whitaker Drawbridge over the Bass River in Beverly and Salem; $269 million to assist the Rourke Bridge alternative in Lowell; $176 million to switch the Arthur J. McKenna Bridge in Springfield and West Springfield; and $149 million to advance tasks that assist West-East Rail.

There’s additionally funds for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and native roadways and bridges, in addition to $14 million for runway reconstruction for the Beverly Regional Airport.

“Each transportation funding is an funding in individuals—connecting them to jobs, faculties, healthcare, and one another,” Monica Tibbits-Nutt, MassDOT secretary and chief govt, mentioned in a statement. “We now have a robust five-year capital funding plan that displays our shared priorities and offers us the instruments to maintain constructing a extra related, equitable Massachusetts.”