Merely because someone has a Brain F*rt is no reason to pretend it's a solution.
Traffic is backed up to Boston to the north, as well as along 195 from Providence and Route 24 that was a failed road long ago.
Those backups have nothing to do with Cape bridge congestion.
Our love affair with the car is long outdated.
It's time to consider viable public transportation solutions.
It's time to join other nations that increase gas taxes to fund public transportation.
Flooding the Cape with more cars make little sense.
Talk of third Cape Cod Canal bridge still in 'concept stage'
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By C. Ryan Barber
rbarber@capecodonline.com
Posted May. 24, 2015
Sitting in Memorial Day weekend traffic, drivers can be tempted to consider a series of "what-ifs."
On Route 25, the driver hoping to reach Route 6 may ask: What if there were a way to avoid waiting in traffic leading up to the Bourne Bridge, only to find further backups on the Scenic Highway or Sandwich Road? The more imaginative tourist might even think, "What if there were a third crossing between the two bridges?"
The state Department of Transportation has considered those what-ifs, and it has even put plans — however conceptual — on paper.
In October, after the 2014 season ended and traffic began to flow again, then-Gov. Deval Patrick and state transportation officials held an "industry day" for more than 100 representatives from companies interested in a third automobile bridge over the Cape Cod Canal or other public-private partnership proposals. A PowerPoint presentation was prepared for the event showing a "potential configuration" with a third automobile bridge between the 80-year-old Bourne and Sagamore bridges that would be built through the Cape Cod Aggregates gravel pit in Bournedale.
Also shown in the presentation was the better-known idea for a "twin bridge" running parallel to the Sagamore Bridge and a road connecting Route 25 to Route 3.
While posted online and known to legislators and Cape transportation officials, the presentation seems to have hidden in plain sight, with many knowing only of "lines on maps," as MassDOT project manager Ethan Britland put it last month.
Cape and state transportation officials agree that the road options in the October presentation are just that — lines on a map.
"The twinning has been discussed more so than the mid-canal crossing simply because it's a more cost-effective way to build a third vehicular span. The mid-canal bridge is the Mercedes-Benz plan," said Cape Cod Regional Transit Administrator Thomas Cahir. "It includes the rotary in Buzzards Bay, the problems over there, and the somewhat elaborate road network from (Route) 25 through Bournedale, through Sam Lorusso's gravel pit.
Although it can be done, it's a little more complicated, certainly more costly, but it's an option and an alternative."
In an email, MassDOT spokesman Michael Verseckes said the state is still in the "concept stage.” The state Public Private Partnership Oversight Commission, an agency staffed by MassDOT personnel but separate from the ongoing canal area transportation study, developed the concepts that appeared in the October presentation.
"We’re still too early in the study stage to select one over the other. In addition to studying the consequences, pro and con, of locating a potential bridge in one place or another, right-of-way and environmental impacts also have to be studied as well," Verseckes wrote.
Britland said in an interview last month that the state has not settled on funding any canal project with a public-private partnership, in which investors would be repaid with toll revenue.
The public-private partnership commission “got out ahead of us with those lines on maps, which they are,” Britland said. Glenn Cannon, technical services director of the Cape Cod Commission, said the public-private partnership “ put the cart a little before the horse.”
“This P3 commission came out of the gate with this thing really fast. And they showed a couple of these different alts here, and then MassDOT kind of stepped in and said, ‘Let’s take a minute here and slow down,’” Cannon said.
“I think these alts have been kind of put on the back burner for a while,” he added.
The concept for a so-called "central canal crossing" was based on traffic patterns showing that many drivers who come down Route 25 are ultimately destined for Route 6. Under the current road configuration, those drivers have the choice of going through Belmont Circle in Buzzards Bay or the Bourne Rotary, which the Cape Cod Commission has identified as two of the most congested and dangerous intersections on the Cape.
And in its ongoing canal area transportation study, MassDOT has included both rotaries on the list of nine year-round "problem intersections," according to a PowerPoint presented last month.
Verseckes noted that Route 25 takes a "fish hook" route around Buttermilk Bay before curving back down to connect to the Bourne Bridge. The intent, he said, of the mid-canal bridge concept was to provide a connection to Route 6 that would begin on Route 25 before that curve toward the bridge.
"It would potentially shorten the travel time for drivers destined for Route 6 from Route 25 (and vice versa), and also would potentially relieve congestion at Belmont Circle and Bourne Rotary by removing volume from those traffic circles," Verseckes wrote.
The canal area transportation study is expected to continue through the end of the year. Later this year, MassDOT will come forward with options that could include a third crossing over the canal.
“I think we can all agree that the bridges can’t continue the way they are right now. The question is whether it’s a replacement or a new structure,” Cannon said. “It just can’t continue the way it is right now.”
http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150524/NEWS/150529699/101015/NEWSLETTER100
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