Bridge Collapse on Cape, Maybe Not Too Far Off

With last week’s tragedy of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, there’s been much talk about the safety of our own bridges right here on the Cape. Only a couple of days after the disaster, I ventured off-Cape over the Bourne Bridge and got a sharp shiver and an uneasy feeling passing the heavy oncoming traffic. Could it happen here?

Well if the proper measures are not taken, it is very possible. The Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory has listed 50 of the Cape’s bridges as functionally obsolete, including both the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges. This term, ‘functionally obsolete,’ basically means that at least one aspect of the bridge is not in compliance with current standards and needs to be fixed. Scary? I thought so.

What’s even scarier is that there are six other bridges on the Cape with bridges that need immediate renovations and are listed by the federal agency as structurally deficient, two of which are in Falmouth and I use both on a regular basis.

The 55-foot Water Street drawbridge in Woods Hole and the 120-foot Chapoquoit Bridge in West Falmouth both need to be replaced. There are plans in the works for both projects but the earliest date mentioned for the replacements is 2009. At least once a week I go to Chappy, my favorite beach in Falmouth. This means I drive over the Chapoquoit Bridge a minimum of twice a week. As for the Woods Hole drawbridge, I may not use it as much, but every couple of weeks or so my boyfriend and I go out to dinner down in the Hole. But now I think we’ll just take a short detour around Eel Pond to avoid the dicey drawbridge.

It's got me wondering, if the bridge collapse in Minneapolis had not happened, would anyone have noticed the poor condition of these local bridges?