In 1935 two bridges were completed over the Cape Cod Canal. They are both steel suspension bridges, maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, and built by the WPA, no doubt under budget and on time. And at that time, let’s guess that 10,000 people lived year round on Cape Cod. That was the total population, all of it, from Wood’s Hole to Provincetown, that those bridges were built to handle.
Today, 75 years later, with a population of, again let’s estimate 300,000 living year round here, we still use those bridges. They are the only way on and off Cape Cod for automobile traffic. Approximately 100,000 cars travel over the two bridges every day. When the Corp needs to do maintenance, like at the moment on the Sagamore bridge, the resulting backups stretch for miles, all day, every day. It’s like the Southeast Expressway in Boston.
On a larger scale, our Interstate Highway System was begun during the Eisenhower Administration more than fifty years ago. Ike realized in WWII that we would need to be able to move people and materials quickly from one place to another in this country as the Germans were doing. We have not tackled such a project since. We add onto and modify a system that is too old, too slow and completely lacking in capacity for today’s world. Have you ever tried to travel along Route 95 in Connecticutt?
With highways, and airports, malls, parks and a thousand other things we might consider as a community, we must all agree on the merits of the project. If just one person says no, then who are we to force this on them against their will? This appears true today regardless of the needs of the larger community.
Granted, lots of mistakes were made building the original Interstate Highway System. Hopefully, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. But to plan to do nothing at all seems crazy to me. We need two more bridges of the same size over the Cape Cod Canal, four lanes in each direction both in Sagamore and Bourne.
Imagine having to evacuate the Cape for some reason with the current bridges. It would be a disaster.
Wishing people would just say no to driving automobiles is just silly.
Granted, lots of mistakes were made building the original Interstate Highway System.
ReplyDeleteVery true.
For example, did you know that there's not nearly enough clearance beneath an overpass to squeeze through an ICBM traveling on the back of a flatbed truck?