Warren asks native leaders how ‘crumbling’ Cape Cod bridges are impacting their communities amid push for substitute funding

Politics

Massachusetts officers have confronted setback after setback in getting devoted federal funding to interchange the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges. Now, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is taking additional motion to get that cash allotted.

A brand new letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the newest step in an ongoing battle to safe funding to interchange the aged and deteriorated bridges that join Cape Cod to the remainder of Massachusetts.

To assist her in her quest to lastly safe sufficient federal funding to interchange the federally-owned Sagamore and Bourne Bridges, Warren wrote to native and state officers final week asking them how the bridges’ poor situation has impacted their communities.

“The Cape Cod Bridges substitute is vital to modernizing Massachusetts’ bodily infrastructure to fulfill the financial, social, and environmental challenges of the twenty first century,” she wrote.

“As native stakeholders who stay, work in, and lead communities surrounding these bridges, I search your enter as I press the federal authorities to stay as much as its commitments to interchange the belongings they personal.”

What’s occurred with the Cape Cod bridges’ substitute funding up to now

The almost 90-year-old bridges have been supposed to final 50 years, however have been present process continued upkeep for many years simply to maintain them standing.

The one roadways on and off the Cape for the greater than 35 million automobiles that cross them annually, building on the bridges has led to large visitors back-ups for miles.

After two completely different research on the Cape Cod canal and the bridges — considered one of which known as the bridges “functionally out of date,” the Military Corps of Engineers introduced the choice to interchange the bridges in April 2020.

However since then, Massachusetts’ officers have confronted setback after setback in getting devoted federal funding to interchange the bridges.

Lastly, in December 2022, the Biden administration awarded Massachusetts a $1.6 million planning grant for the bridges.

Biden adopted that up with a a lot greater dedication in March 2023 when he included a $350 million down cost for bridge substitute in his finances and agreed to switch possession from the Military Corps of Engineers to the Commonwealth. This proposal made it by the U.S. Senate on Friday.

Then, in Might, Gov. Maura Healey doubled the amount of cash the Commonwealth had pledged to the undertaking from $350 million to $700 million.

In 2022 officers estimated that the undertaking would price $4 billion, so regardless of current efforts funding for the undertaking remains to be incomplete.

Warren’s letter

Warren begins her letter by highlighting the significance of the Cape Cod bridges, writing that they function the gateway for greater than 260,000 Cape residents and about 5 million guests yearly.

“They’re very important belongings for the Cape Cod financial system and surrounding communities, and likewise function important routes for basic transportation, tourism, and evacuations in case of an emergency,” she writes. “…The bridges’ structural deficiencies current an ongoing threat to the accessibility and financial stability of the Cape Cod area.”

Warren writes that she’s been working to amass federal funding for the bridges since she took workplace in 2013. She says the urgency of the undertaking is one motive she supported Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure invoice, which assured Massachusetts billions of {dollars} for infrastructure tasks.

“The [replacement project] will finally end in new bridges that vastly enhance journey situations, meet trendy security requirements for car and
pedestrian visitors, and supply considerably improved multimodal journey,” she writes.

The senator says within the letter that native leaders have constantly spoken out concerning the adverse impacts the decrepit bridges have on their communities. However in her letter, she asks them to put in writing her again with solutions to questions she believes will absolutely illustrate the issue.

Warren lists out seven questions that ask how the bridges have affected all features of Cape life, together with tourism, working and dwelling there, proudly owning and working a enterprise there, and shopping for items.

What’s subsequent

The letter doesn’t embrace a listing of recipients, however State Home Information Service reported that the letter went to “a sequence of elected state and native officers.”

The letter asks that the officers reply by Aug. 2. It’s unclear how the responses will likely be used, but it surely’s clear that Warren’s battle to get the Cape Cod bridges substitute undertaking funded isn’t over.

“I stay absolutely dedicated to working with federal, state, and native companions till Cape Cod residents get the secure, safe public infrastructure they deserve,” she wrote.

You’ll be able to learn Warren’s letter in full beneath:

Elizabeth Warren’s Letter on the Cape Cod bridges by Susannah Sudborough on Scribd