Could John Deaton, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, be the best advocate Massachusetts has ever had?
For those who have not been following the saga of the two Cape Cod bridges, they need to be replaced as soon as possible. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been holding them together for years.
Every couple of months, one lane is shut down for maintenance which results in miles and miles of backed-up traffic. The Sagamore Bridge will most likely need to be totally closed within the next three years for major repairs. That will leave Cape Codders and tourists with only one bridge, which will have devastating consequences for the Cape.
This problem has been well known to elected officials for over a decade. What did they do about the bridges? Basically, nothing.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t even know how to pronounce “Bourne,” so we know that fixing the bridges wasn’t on her radar until…
Two weeks ago, Warren’s opponent Deaton held a press conference criticizing the fake Indian and the state’s all-Democrat Congressional delegation for the lack of funding to replace our ancient Cape Cod bridges. He got some decent media coverage for calling attention to this decades-old problem.
Well, suddenly, Democrats have found the federal funding. Shazam!
They claim Massachusetts is getting $1 billion from the feds. Gov. Maura Healey even went so far as to have a shovel ceremony for a new Sagamore bridge. It is a political miracle.
I think we all owe John Deaton a debt of gratitude, because he brought the issue to the forefront, forcing the Democrats to take action.
Of course, the bridge problem is far from being resolved. There are no plans for the replacement bridges, and Massachusetts only got half the needed funding.
That’s why Healey is saying work will start in 2027. We are still very short of money. Estimates are that it will take 8-10 years to rebuild the span. (Consider the plaque above the Sagamore Bridge, which says that it was built in 1933-34. How far have we really come, if it will now take four or five times as long to rebuild it?)
Still, the fact is that Deaton’s public pressure got the ball rolling.
He is not even a senator, but he is making a difference.
Deaton needs to keep up the pressure and expand it to other neglected Massachusetts issues such as our commercial fishing industry. Maybe if he holds another presser, the New Bedford fishermen can get back to doing some fishing instead of keeping their boats tied to the docks.