Mike Pescaro

Should Bridges to Cape Cod Be Replaced?

Putting up with construction on Cape Cod's Sagamore Bridge has become a hassle.

"It has to be done. The bridge is going to fall apart if it isn't," Joe Mathers said.

Some cars sit for more than two hours just to get to the other side.

"We definitely had to plan where we wanted to go to get here at this time of the day, to get back to that time of the day, or there wasn't no getting there," Sheila Ker said.

Restaurants like Buzzards Bay's Mezza Luna are feeling the frustration.

"They want to come here," head chef EJ Cubellius said. "They can't get here."

Cubellius says they've seen a 15 percent decrease in sales during the week, and this could go on for another six weeks.

"They call up, they order up a couple of chicken Parmesan dinners," he said. "We wait for them, and then a half an hour goes by, get a phone call, 'I'm sorry, I'd like to get my stuff, but I can't make it there, we're stuck in traffic,'" Cubellius said.

The jam is expected twice a year. Marie Oliva of the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce is hoping two new bridges could replace the 80-year-old Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.

"Build the new bridges. Get it done. We have to start now because who knows how long that would take," Oliva said.

She says the plan would include multiple lanes of traffic and wider sidewalks for each bridge replaced, but could cost millions of dollars and create more construction traffic.

However, it could remove this yearly headache everyone faces when using the Sagamore Bridge.

"Can you imagine, 10 years from now, if nothing's been done, what the traffic situation is going to be?" Oliva asked.

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