The Bourne Bridge in

Bourne, Massachusetts Bourne ( ) is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Bourne, please see the articles ...

, carries

Route 28 Highway 28 may refer to: Australia * Cumberland Highway *Mountain Highway, Mountain Highway (Victoria) * – NT Canada * Alberta Highway 28 * British Columbia Highway 28 * Nova Scotia Trunk 28 * Ontario Highway 28 * Saskatchewan Highway 28 Cz ...

across the

Cape Cod Canal The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Intracoastal Waterway, Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately canal traverses the nec ...

, connecting

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

with the rest of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. It won the

American Institute of Steel Construction The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association for the use of structural steel in the construction industry of the United States. AISC publishes the Steel Construction Manual, a ...

's Class "A" Award of Merit as the "Most Beautiful Steel Bridge" in 1934. Most traffic approaching from the west follows Route 25 which ends at the interchange with

US 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6) or U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the Grand Army of the Republic, American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the United States Numbere ...

and Route 28 just north of the bridge. The highway provides

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

connections from Interstate 495 and Interstate 195.

History

The bridge and its sibling the

Sagamore Bridge The Sagamore Bridge in Sagamore, Massachusetts carries U.S. Route 6 in Massachusetts, Route 6 and the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the mainland of Massachusetts. It is the more northeastern of t ...

were constructed beginning in 1933 by the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

for the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

, which operates both the bridges and the canal. Each bridge carries four lanes of traffic over a 616-foot (188 m) main span, with a 135-foot (41 m) ship clearance. Construction ended in early 1935 and the bridge opened on June 22, 1935. The approaches to the main span of the Bourne Bridge are considerably longer than those of the Sagamore Bridge due to the topography of the land. The bridge replaced an earlier 1911

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...

(drawbridge), the Bourne Highway Bridge, the original approaches of which are still accessible. The current structure was built to accommodate the widening of the canal. The bridge commences at a major rotary on the Cape Cod end.

Suicide deterrent fences

Between 1967 and 1977, 36 persons were recorded as having died by suicide from the Bourne and Sagamore bridges, and another 24 had attempted but either survived or were apprehended. From 1979 to 1983, as part of "major rehabilitation work," both of the bridges' four-foot high railings were replaced with suicide deterrent fencing. The fencing consists of round pickets spaced a maximum of apart; the tops of the picket are bent on a radius toward the roadway. In the 28-year period after the new fencing was installed (1984–2012), seven persons are known to have died by suicide from the bridges, and during 2013–2021, two attempts were prevented. The fencing was cited in 2021 as a possible model for bridges in

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. On the mainland side, New York Central Tugboat 16 sat on dry land at the approach to the bridge from the rotary from 1982 to 2006, serving as a local attraction.

Future

In October 2019, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended replacing the bridge with a wider bridge with four travel lanes, one auxiliary lane in each direction, bike and pedestrian paths, shoulders, and a median. The recommendation said that replacement was more cost-effective than upgrading the existing bridge in order to reduce long summertime backups. The Massachusetts DOT is following up on the 2019 study about the future of the bridge along with the Sagamore Bridge. The 2019 study concluded that improvements were needed to connectivity across the canal. The Cape Cod Bridges program is currently taking public input into the multi phased project and have unveiled different design types for feedback.

Bicycle/pedestrian access

There is a sidewalk for pedestrian and bicycle access on the west side of the bridge. The sidewalk is slightly raised, but there is no fence or barrier between it and car traffic, and cyclists are recommended to walk their bicycle. The bridge road is plowed in winter, although the sidewalk is sometimes unplowed and unpassable. Bridges to the Cape are sometimes closed for safety during high winds.

References

External links

Steve Anderson's BostonRoads.com: Bourne Bridge (MA 28)
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