October 17, 2023

New Congressional Report Elevates Urgent Calls of Community Leaders to Replace Cape Cod Bridges

“The Cape Cod bridges replacement project is at a pivotal moment, and federal and state actors must come together to secure the funding needed to carry out the replacement and alleviate the current situation that is negatively impacting thousands of residents and millions of visitors annually.”

Report – Cape Cod Bridges Replacement: An Urgent Need

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Representative Bill Keating (D-Mass.) released a new report: Cape Cod Bridges Replacement: An Urgent Need. The report  – based on input from Cape Cod leaders on how the aging Bourne and Sagamore Bridges are impacting local communities, businesses, and residents – details how the current state of the Cape Cod bridges poses dire economic consequences, and reiterates calls to fund replacement efforts. 

The Bourne and the Sagamore Bridges, owned by the federal government, were built in 1933. The bridges are the sole access point for the more than 35 million vehicles that cross the canal each year, and serve as the main gateway to Cape Cod for more than 260,000 Cape and Islands residents and over 5 million visitors annually. They are vital assets for the Cape Cod economy and surrounding communities, and also  serve as essential routes for general transportation, tourism, and evacuations in case of an emergency. However, the current bridges are nearly 90 years old, functionally obsolete, and require increasingly costly and disruptive maintenance.

“The Cape Cod Bridges replacement is key to modernizing Massachusetts’ physical infrastructure to meet the economic, social, and environmental challenges of the 21st century,'' the lawmakers wrote. “Innaction is untenable. The Cape Cod bridges replacement project is at a pivotal moment, and federal and state actors must come together to secure the funding needed to carry out the replacement and alleviate the current situation that is negatively impacting thousands of residents and millions of visitors annually.”

To better understand the stakes of the Cape Cod Bridges replacement project, an inquiry was sent to Cape Cod community stakeholders, including state elected officials, local elected officials, Tribal leaders, and community organizations, seeking their input on how the aging Bourne and Sagamore Bridges are impacting communities, businesses, and residents on and around Cape Cod.Based on these responses from these community stakeholders, the report finds: 

  • The Cape Cod Bridges are of significant importance to businesses and communities. Every stakeholder that responded affirmed the vital nature of the Bridges to their communities. As noted by the Cape Cod Commission, “The importance of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges to the region cannot be overstated – the long-term viability of Cape Cod is inextricably linked to the health and fate of both bridges.”
  • The current state of the bridges is hurting Cape Cod businesses and communities. The regular closures of lanes on the bridge for maintenance clearly has an impact on businesses that cannot just be measured in terms of monetary value lost, but also in terms of the decreased quality of life of employees who keep the economy moving.
  • The current state of the bridges is negatively impacting residents. In tandem with the economic impacts of the bridges on local businesses and their employees, residents on the Cape and Islands generally are impacted by the current state of the bridges in their daily lives, with implications for their access to food, goods, and essential services.
  • The current state of the bridges impacts emergency services and access to healthcare, and is a public health and public safety risk. Because the bridges serve as the lifeline connecting the rest of Massachusetts to Cape Cod and are “the only emergency route off of Cape Cod,” the “gridlock caused by bridge congestion adds a dangerous amount of time to the…ability to respond to emergencies.
  • Failure to replace the bridges would be catastrophic. As summarized by the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners, “If the bridges continue to deteriorate and are not replaced, the region will experience devastating economic impacts due to more frequent closures for repairs, disruption of commuter and tourism travel, increased costs for transportation of goods, and lack of critical access to medical and emergency services.”
  • Replacing the bridges would have significant benefits for residents and the economy. This replacement stands to greatly benefit those same communities that are currently suffering. According to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, their members noted that replacing the bridges is “a matter of survival” for their businesses. The Chamber stated that “Replacing the 88-year-old, functionally obsolete Bourne and Sagamore Bridges will provide a sense of certainty for Cape Cod’s regional economy, which supports nearly 10,000 businesses, a labor force of 117,797, and a $1.5 billion tourism industry that, in 2022, generated $181 million in state and local tax revenue - second in the state only to Greater Boston.”

Senator Warren has led efforts to secure funds to replace the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges and pressing the federal government to take action to replace these crucial pieces of infrastructure: 

  • In September 2023, Senators Warren, Markey, and Representative Keating sent a letter of support to Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg supporting Massachusetts’ application and urging DOT to provide funding to the The Cape Cod Bridges Program to replace the vitally important Sagamore and Bourne Bridges. 
  • In July 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent letters to 36 Cape Cod community stakeholders, including state elected officials, local elected officials, Tribal leaders, and community organizations, seeking their input on how the aging Bourne and Sagamore Bridges are impacting communities, businesses, and residents on and around Cape Cod. Senator Warren is seeking this information as part of her effort to ensure the federal government lives up to its commitments to replace the bridges.
  • In May 2023, Senators Warren and Ed Markey and Representatives Bill Keating, and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, urging him to exercise his authority to support installation resilience in order to provide funding for the replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges. 
  • In May 2023, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating sent a letter to the Federal Highway Administration, requesting them to expedite feedback from the technical review requested by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) of the Cape Cod Canal Bridges project, which seeks to explore the scope, schedule and cost of the Cape Cod Bridges Project.
  • In March 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren highlighted her push to secure funding for the Cape Cod Canal Bridges Project.
  • In March 2023, Senators Warren and Markey announced and applauded the inclusion of $350 million, toward a commitment of $600 million, in President Biden’s budget for the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. 
  • In February 2023, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating sent a letter to Jamey L. Tesler, Acting Secretary of MassDOT regarding the need for MassDOT to act quickly to take the necessary steps to obtain funding for the Cape Cod Bridges and to closely coordinate with USACE to submit a more competitive federal grant application in fiscal 2023. The lawmakers also sent letters to Michael Connor, Assistant Secretary for Civil Works at USACE, and Shalanda Young, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, urging the Corps to provide significant funds to replace the bridges.
  • In August 2022, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg in support of USACE and the MassDOT application for funding through the FY2022 Bridge Investment Program Funding Opportunity.
  • In May 2022, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating wrote to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg in support of the USACE and the MassDOT application for funding in the 2022 Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant (MPDG) program to replace the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.
  • In January 2022, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating convened a meeting with leaders from the Corps, MassDOT, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to detail efforts to replace the Bridges and again in April 2022 with MassDOT and the Corps.
  • In November 2021, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating worked to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide the Corps with a more than $11 billion increase in funding specifically for new construction projects and more than $9 billion in formula funds for Massachusetts
  • In April 2020, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating commended USACE for its final “Major Rehabilitation Evaluation Report” on the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges in Cape Cod.
  • In February 2020, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating called on USACE to recommit to an earlier recommendation to replace the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges. 
  • In December 2019, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating sent a letter to the two top officials in USACE, calling on them to adopt the recommendation of the USACE’s New England District and replace both Cape Cod Canal Bridges.
  • In October 2019, as part of America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, Senators Warren and Markey secured language directing USACE to repair or replace critical evacuation routes, such as the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges.
  • Also in October 2019, Senators Warren and Markey and Representative Keating, commended USACE for its draft “Major Rehabilitation Evaluation Report” on the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges in Cape Cod.
  • In May 2019, Senators Markey and Warren, and Representative Keating, introduced the Enhancing the Strength and Capacity of America’s Primary Evacuation Routes (ESCAPE) Act, legislation that dedicates $1 billion of federal resources to expand the capacity and improve the resilience of evacuation routes such as the Sagamore and Bourne bridges.

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