Talk a few bridge to far.
This is a case of two bridges too far.
They are the 2 “functionally obsolete” Cape Cod bridges—the Bourne and the Sagamore that had been scheduled to get replaced at a price of $4 billion.
The two bridges, thought of a lifeline to the Cape, had been inbuilt 1935 and meant to final for 50 years. They have been standing for 81 years and had been supposed to get replaced way back.
But, because of the ineffectiveness of the state’s delegation to Congress, led by Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, it’s not going to occur, not less than for now.
That is as a result of they, together with the members of the U.S. House from Massachusetts—all Democrats—did not safe the appropriation that was supposedly forthcoming in President Biden’s huge $1.2 trillion Infrastructure advert Investment and Jobs Act.
Only it didn’t occur as a result of Massachusetts did not make the lower. A yr in the past Markey mentioned of the bridges, “a project without funding is an hallucination.”
And that’s what we now have now, a hallucination.
Were the late Sen. Ted Kennedy round, it by no means would have occurred. Kennedy was a grasp in securing federal funds for tasks and applications in Massachusetts. It would even have helped in that Kennedy ceaselessly crossed he bridges to get to and from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis.
Markey and Warren mixed don’t come near Kennedy on the subject of acquiring federal funding for the state.
And you possibly can throw in U.S. Rep. Ritchie Neal of Springfield advert Rep. William Keating of Bourne—Neal as a result of he’s chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Keating as a result of he represents Cape Cod.
But they, like Markey and Warren, merely lacked the clout to make sure that $1 billion towards substitute of the bridge can be included within the granting of funds by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg per week in the past.
“I will not rest until we have two gleaming new bridge connecting the Cape and Islands to the rest of Massachusetts, Markey said. Instead of “not” resting, he fell asleep.
To get the cash, Markey would first must get Biden’s consideration and win over Buttigieg. So far he has executed neither.
Keating, in a Boston Globe interview, mentioned that he did get Biden’s consideration on the bridge situation throughout Biden’s latest visit Logan Airport final month.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to get going on the bridges and this Mega fund is a great fit for it’,” Keating advised Biden. Biden replied, “Cape Cod bridges…I got it, I got it.”
Maybe he did get it, however then forgot that he did.
The fascinating factor about Markey, 76, and Buttigieg, 40, is that Markey has been in Washington longer than Buttigieg has been alive, but it’s Buttigieg who’s giving Markey and Massachusetts a tough time. Ted Kennedy would have had Buttigieg as his driver.
After 46 years in first the House after which the Senate, and with Neal chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, one would assume that they’d have sufficient affect to get a few bridges constructed. Maybe they may for those who named one bridge after Markey and the opposite after Neal.
The two getting older bridges, (not the 2 politicians) that are owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, are the one roadway connections to the Cape. The Cape has a everlasting inhabitants of some 260,000 individuals, however it attracts some 5 million guests yearly.
The downside is that if Markey, Warren and the remainder of the state congressional delegation don’t get federal cash within the subsequent federal handout, they might by no means get it.
Right now, the Democrats management every thing, the House, the Senate, the White House and the huge federal forms, together with the Department of Transportation.
If, as anticipated, the Republicans take over the House—and probably the Senate—within the 2022 elections, cash for the bridges may all of the sudden go elsewhere, or simply disappear, like water below the bridge.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”