Cape Cod residents are hoping for serious momentum after receiving a $372 million federal grant toward replacing the aging Sagamore Bridge.
It’s another step forward in paying the estimated $4.5 billion to replace the aging Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.
Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced the grant award Friday evening.
State Sen. Julian Cyr said it’s like Christmas came early.
"Without this federal award, we likely couldn't … unlock the next round of funding, which is up to a billion dollars from federal bridge-funding sources,” he said.
He praised Healey's administration for “sinking their teeth” into the grant applications — something he said the Baker administration "failed" to do.
"And so this strategic approach, I think, is clearly bearing fruit.” he said.
Paul Niedzwiecki, CEO of Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said the high cost of housing and inflation have intensified the need to replace the decaying structures.
"Forty-seven percent of the jobs on the Cape are done by people that don’t live on Cape Cod, and 30 percent of our workforce crosses those bridges every day,” he said.
He said it's thrilling to think of the Sagamore Bridge finally getting replaced, but the Bourne bridge is equally essential and will need to follow suit.
"Those bridges act as a system, with 38 million trips a year — which is almost the equivalent over the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said.
The $372 million represents the full amount for which the state applied in August under the so-called “INFRA” and “Mega” programs.
INFRA is the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program; Mega is the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program.
The state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have also applied for more than $1 billion from the Bridge Investment Program. That application was just submitted this month.
The state plans to build the Sagamore Bridge first, followed by the Bourne.
Cyr said physical construction is still likely years away, but the next major round of federal funding could be announced by late winter or early spring.
