The Bourne Bridge reconstruction project has been denied a major federal grant the state was seeking from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Healey administration applied for $634 million — roughly one-quarter of the expected cost of the Bourne Bridge — from what is known as the Mega program, also called the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program.
Being passed over for the Mega funding in this grant-making cycle means the same will likely happen with a second grant in the same amount, from the Bridge Investment Program, said Louisa Paiewonsky, who leads the Cape Cod bridges project for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
“We are not anticipating that that's going to come through,” she said in an interview. “So we're going to keep at it. We still believe that the work needs to be done.”
Paiewonsky, executive director of the Office of Megaproject Delivery, said the state will continue looking for sources of funding to allow construction of the new Bourne Bridge to follow construction of the Sagamore.
The state isn’t ready to say if not winning the grants will force a delay in building the Bourne Bridge, she said. The latest timeline called for the Bourne to follow the Sagamore within a year or two.
“I will note that the first time we applied for [grant funding for the Sagamore Bridge], we didn't get it either, and we tried again and were successful,” she said.
The state plans to apply for environmental permits for both bridges simultaneously.
The bridges are federal property, owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, although the state intends to assume ownership after construction.
Together, replacing the bridges could cost an estimated $4.5 billion.
Paiewonsky said the project is a partnership with the federal government.
In the same interview Monday, she said about 1,000 property owners around the Bourne and Sagamore bridges will soon receive letters from the state about temporary access to their land.
The Department of Transportation plans to send notices out this week.
Paiewonsky said this round of letters does not involve taking land by eminent domain.
“We don’t want people to be alarmed when they get a letter from the state, given that some people had ... [land] takings notices recently,” she said. “We want to let people know in advance that these letters are coming, and it's just for temporary access.”
The work will include things like soil testing and surveying, and it should begin over the next few months.
She said the state is casting a wide net with the letters; workers will not need to access every property whose owner receives a letter.
Follow-up letters will be sent as the time of access gets closer, she said.
