“This is a game-changing award for Massachusetts. 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,” Healey said. “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 project to replace the two bridges is essential for supporting the economy of Cape Cod and surrounding communities and ensuring safe and reliable travel for residents, workers, and millions of annual visitors. It also presents an opportunity to modernize designs to improve safety, mobility, and resiliency; increase economic vitality; and improve access through better pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure. 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 will also have multimodal elements including shared-use paths to fill transportation gaps and ensure full accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists, and people with mobility devices.
In March, MassDOT signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, outlining the terms in which MassDOT will take the lead on project delivery to replace the two federally owned bridges, and subsequently own, operate, and maintain the new structures. MassDOT is also currently working with the USACE, National Environmental Policy Act, Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Highway Administration on the environmental review and permitting processes.
The construction of the Sagamore Bridge replacement will be fully offset from the existing bridge so that traffic may be maintained on the existing bridge during the project. MassDOT will enter into a Project Labor Agreement to support fair wages and working conditions for the more than 9,000 union construction jobs that will be created from this project and meet Massachusetts goals for workforce participation by minorities and women in construction.
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“This grant award gives us the momentum we need to move ahead with the project to replace the Sagamore Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal and to lay the groundwork to replace the Bourne Bridge,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said. “With this additional funding, we can move forward in bringing these transportation improvement projects to life, which will have an impact on generations to come.”
Last year, the Healey-Driscoll administration won $372 million for the Cape Cod Bridges from the Federal Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant program, which includes the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program and the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program. The Massachusetts Congressional delegation also secured $350 million for the bridges in the Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which was signed by President Joe Biden.
The Healey-Driscoll administration is pursuing additional federal dollars to fund additional project phases, including for the Bourne Bridge. The administration will continue to seek federal funding from future rounds of the Bridge Investment Program, congressional appropriations, and any other opportunities available to fully fund the replacement of both Cape Cod bridges.
The Cape Cod Bridges will be a central link in the federally designated Alternative Fuel Corridors along Massachusetts Route 3 and U.S. Route 6, with funding for vehicle chargers provided to MassDOT by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program. MassDOT recently announced three vendors that will receive NEVI funds to help implement the installation of Direct Current Fast Charging stations spaced no more than 50 miles apart along these routes which will be capable of charging an electric vehicle battery to 80 percent in as quickly as 20 minutes.
The Cape Cod Bridge program will also provide bicycle and pedestrian connections to the larger Cape Cod multimodal transit network along with the following work underway by MassDOT in partnership with Cape Cod cities and towns to improve multimodal infrastructure across the region. This includes reconstruction projected to begin in 2025 on 1.5 miles of Route 6 in Bourne to include a shared use path for pedestrians and bicycles, construction on Phase I of the Bourne Rail trail projected to begin in the fall of 2025 with design by the town of Bourne for a paved path running from Monument Neck Road to the existing Cape Cod Canal Bike Path, among other projects creating additional multimodal infrastructure for the Cape Cod region.
