Good riddance!
I am thrilled that they've okayed the Sagamore flyover.
If you've never visited Cape Cod, here's the deal: It's a peninsula separated from the mainland by a man-made canal. Unless you own a boat, the only two ways of traversing from the mainland to the Cape is to take one of two bridges that span the canal. There's the Bourne bridge, which connects Route 25 and Route 28 -- useful if you're coming from the West or want to visit the Bourne/Poccasset/Falmouth area, and there's the Sagamore bridge, which connects the northern part of the state to Route 6, which is called the Mid-Cape Highway. It's this bridge that is more heavily used, and it's one that's going to have a big problem go away.
Both bridges are hampered with rotarys, or roundabouts -- peculiar vestiges of horse-drawn carriage days that usually have four or more roads meet at a central point and force traffic to travel single-file, clockwise, until they hit the road they wish to take. Rotaries are bad ideas in the modern travel age -- they encourage people to drive agressively and stupidly, and people who aren't familiar with them tend to be intimidated to the point of blocking traffic behind them as they wait for an opening. The Bourne bridge's eastern, on Cape end terminates in a rotary, and the Sagamore bridge's western, on-the-mainland end terminates in a rotary.
It's that rotary that seems to cause more problems than one can count. It's mainly because the Sagamore bridge sees a lot more traffic during the summertime, because it's the central way that a lot of people who travel to the mid-Cape and outer Cape areas get there, especially if they live in greater Boston, which many of them do.
So the rotary is going away, and in place of it is a flyover, which promises to drop traffic times to the Cape to almost 1/5th what they are now.
The project has apparently been in discussion on and off for four decades, and in November, the Feds agreed to pony up $28 million for the project. The state has put up another $7 million. If that seems a bit imbalanced, I look at it this way: The Cape is a huge tourist draw not just for the state but for the nation, so I can justify seeing the feds pony up the bulk of the cost for it.
Environmentalists are hacked off that they're pushing this project instead of mass transit or high occupancy vehicle lanes -- whatever. While I'd love to see a rail transit system built or more buses used, that doesn't change the fact that most people want to drive around once they get to the Cape -- visit the beach one day, go shopping the next, hit the mini-golf place the next day, whatever. And they're families. Sticking my three kids on a bus doesn't sound like my idea of a holiday.
So it'll be done by 2006. Whoopie!
Comments
What does flyover mean in this context? I come from a state where there are highways and roads and very little water. No crazy roundabouts or flyovers or what have you.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | December 17, 2003 07:21 PM
The Sagamore rotary is the terminus of Route 3 -- a divided highway that's broken into two lanes each. In this case, the flyover will permit through traffic to cruise on straight to the bridge without facing a rotary -- local traffic will pass underneath the flyover.
Posted by: flargh | December 18, 2003 07:11 AM
For those of us that dont live on rural routes, I think he means a freeway overpass.
Posted by: some1 | December 18, 2003 12:55 PM
Oh. You mean it's just another road? I thought he was talking about some sort of personal jetpack solution to the problem. That would be much cooler.
Posted by: doktorwise | December 19, 2003 11:50 AM
i love the idea of the sagamore flyover the olny this i dont like is that many people will loss their houses!
Posted by: cindy | April 12, 2004 06:19 PM
The Governor can have his successful inprovement at Sagamore by directing Mass Highway to post signs, & paint the circle in compliance with FHWA/MUTCD guidelines. For ~$100,000 we can expect a 30-50% improvement in safety & traffic flow in just a few weeks.
The "preferred" Sagamore design was created before FHWA recognized the many advantages of modern Roundabouts, so MHD cannot be faulted.
I doubt the expenditure of $58million for a flyover & spaghetti intersection can produce results as good as that with the current bridge.
The Mass Driver Training Manual needs to add coverage of Cricles & Roundabouts!!
Posted by: Bob White | May 9, 2004 08:28 AM
November 30th, 2004
Question:
I live about 3
Posted by: Dwight M Lee | November 30, 2004 02:17 PM