The Sagamore and Bourne bridges in Cape Cod are set to be replaced with modern, advanced structures.
BOURNE, Mass.—The daily commute in Bourne, Massachusetts, gateway to Cape Cod, can feel like a never-ending race, with frantic traffic challenging even the best drivers.
Sundays are especially hard for Kathy Anderson, a waitress at a popular restaurant a few miles from her home.
Waiting to leave her street in bumper-to-bumper traffic tests her patience to the limit.
“We need to do something,” Anderson told The Epoch Times during a brief lull in service at Leo’s Breakfast Restaurant at Buzzards Bay on a Friday morning.
“Where I live, in Sagamore, it’s crazy. You can’t move at all.”
From her window, the iconic Sagamore Bridge arches against the horizon. It is one of two aging steel giants that span the Cape Cod Canal.
Just three miles from the Sagamore Bridge, the Bourne Bridge rises stoically from the south along U.S. Route 6 in Buzzards Bay, creating another vital connection.
Both bridges serve as poignant reminders of their Depression-era past; the constant flow of cars and trucks on the narrow bridges, however, makes each commute stressful.
“Everybody goes home over the Sagamore Bridge on Sunday—and there’s only two main roads,” Anderson said.
Massachusetts plans to build new versions of the two bridges linking the mainland to Cape Cod over the next decade.
The bridges are only two of the nation’s 617,000 bridges—of which 220,295 need repair, and 75,000 need replacement, according to a 2025 report by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
Each day, 163 million travelers journey across 41,677 bridges that are in poor condition, the report added.
Anderson views both the Sagamore and Bourne bridges as important symbols of Cape Cod history and identity. She also agrees with the state’s plan to build new ones over the next decade.
“We definitely need them [replaced],” Anderson said.
“I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve seen traffic going along. It’s tripled since COVID-19.”
The change won’t be easy, she added.
At least a dozen Sagamore homes will be taken by eminent domain for the Sagamore Bridge project. Businesses will face major disruptions with traffic rerouting and other changes during construction.
As one Bourne resident put it, “it will be a mess.”
By Allan Stein
