Worried the lack of funding in the president's budget is a sign of the administration's disinterest in the project, Massachusetts Congressional delegation members this week called on federal officials to get behind the full replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges over the Cape Cod Canal.
In a letter Thursday to a U.S. Army assistant secretary and White House chief of staff and budget chief Mick Mulvaney, U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Congressman William Keating demanded to know how the feds plan to finance the bridge replacement plan.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released its Work Plan for Fiscal 2020 and President Donald Trump unveiled his Fiscal 2021 budget request -- neither of which included funding to repair or replace the Bourne and Sagamore bridges, the delegation said.
"We are concerned that this decision reflects a failure to understand the urgency of the situation for the Cape & Islands," the elected officials wrote. "The residents of this region cannot wait multiple years for this project to begin. The Bourne and Sagamore are not only vital links to the beating heart of the Massachusetts tourism economy, but critical evacuation routes in the event of an emergency. Two new structures are needed without delay in order to protect both the local economy and public safety."
In October, the New England district of the Army Corps of Engineers recommended replacement of both 84-year-old bridges, suggesting it could expand the bridges to include four travel lanes and two additional acceleration and deceleration lanes. The bridges are "functionally obsolete and structurally deficient," the corps reported, and require increasingly more frequent and costly repairs and maintenance.
In January, Gov. Charlie Baker met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao in Washington, D.C., to discuss the Cape Cod bridges, among other transportation topics.
