The Bay State has obtained almost $1 billion in federal funding for the substitute of the traditional Cape Cod bridges, officers introduced on Friday.
The brand new funding for the Sagamore and Bourne bridges now brings the full quantity of federal money secured for the mission to almost $1.72 billion — along with the $700 million in state funding pledged by Gov. Maura Healey’s administration.
“This is a game-changing award for Massachusetts,” Healey mentioned in an announcement. “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 governor added. “I’m grateful for the partnership of the Biden-Harris administration, Senators Markey and Warren, and Congressman Keating, which made this all possible.”
The Cape bridges are almost 90 years previous, functionally out of date, require frequent upkeep, and not meet the wants of the touring public.
Officers mentioned the substitute mission will carry the bridges right into a state of excellent restore, decrease the long-term upkeep prices, handle points with site visitors operations, enhance security by decreasing crashes by as a lot as 48%, and extra.
The brand new design may even have multimodal parts, together with shared-use paths for pedestrians, cyclists and folks with mobility units.
“Today is a momentous day for the Cape, the Islands, and all of Massachusetts,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey mentioned. “The Sagamore and Bourne Bridges are the gateway to the Cape, and this federal funding is the missing piece to replace the Sagamore Bridge and launch Phase One of the project to replace both bridges.”
“Massachusetts just hit a billion dollar home run to start replacing the Cape Cod Bridges,” mentioned U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The almost $1 billion in federal funding is from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation’s Bridge Funding Program.
In March, MassDOT signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers — outlining the phrases during which MassDOT will take the lead on mission supply to exchange the 2 federally owned bridges, and subsequently personal, function and keep the brand new constructions.
MassDOT can also be at the moment working with the USACE, Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act (NEPA), Massachusetts Environmental Coverage Act (MEPA) and the Federal Freeway Administration (FHWA) on the environmental evaluation and allowing processes.
The development of the Sagamore Bridge substitute shall be totally offset from the prevailing bridge in order that site visitors could also be maintained on the prevailing bridge in the course of the mission.
“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,” mentioned Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt.
The Healey administration is pursuing extra federal {dollars} to fund different mission phases, together with for the Bourne Bridge. The administration mentioned it is going to proceed to hunt federal funding from future rounds of the Bridge Funding Program, congressional appropriations, and every other alternatives accessible to totally fund the substitute of each Cape Cod bridges.
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