State feels heat on Cape traffic plans

By Kay Lazar

July 3, 2000 Web posted at: 3:05 PM EDT (1905 GMT)

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CAPE COD, Massachusetts (The Boston Herald) -- With Memorial Day's nightmarish, 15-mile-long backup on Cape Cod still fresh in mind, the state's traffic czar is pushing a plan he says will dramatically ease Cape gridlock before the end of this summer.

But the plan, which has yet to be publicly unveiled, is already drawing more barbs than praise. Several key officials interviewed by the Sunday Herald say it would simply shove a monumental snarl from one Cape bottleneck to another.

At issue is a plan by Highway Commissioner Matthew Amorello to divert up to 40 percent of homeward bound, Sagamore Bridge traffic off of Route 6, through a now-closed military base, and toward the less-traveled Bourne Bridge.

``That's putting a Band-Aid on one side, and it will pop up on the other side,'' said Coreen Moore, town planner in Bourne, which already shoulders the burden of traffic on both bridges. ``That was kind of our thing, as residents, to cut through and avoid all that traffic. Now, if they direct people through there, there will not be any relief for Cape residents.''

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The plan, shown on June 9 to state police and military personnel, would divert traffic off of Route 6, in a swamped section of Sandwich, at Route 130. Traffic would travel about a mile down busy Route 130 to the now-closed Camp Edwards military reservation, then snake through there on convoy roads to the Otis Rotary in Bourne. There, drivers would pick up Route 28 north toward the Bourne Bridge.

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, which is backing the state on another longer-term plan to fix traffic, is not keen on the diversion proposal.

``I'm not too sure if it's going to solve anything,'' said John O'Brien, the chamber's chief executive officer. ``They shouldn't think of regular use of Sandwich streets to cure the problem. Sandwich is already impacted by this stuff. To bring more traffic there, it's reallly kind of asking too much of the town.''

State traffic czar Amorello disagrees and stressed in an interview that drivers would not be mandated to use the alternate route. It would, he said, be an option.

``Unlike past attempts to help Cape flow,'' he said, ``I want to do things incrementally and in a voluntary way, to educate folks and to provide them with an option without any heavy-handedness.''

In other words, Amorello said, his plan would not resemble the Memorial Day mess, where state police tried to improve the flow of traffic by blocking off roads near the Sagamore Bridge. But they quickly abandoned the plan when traffic on Route 6 leaving the Cape was clogged for miles.

``It was raining. It was gray. We were very tired after a long weekend, and it was very frustrating having to sit there not moving for two hours,'' said Lisa Paolino, 33, a computer specialist from Boston who was among the thousands caught in the Memorial Day gridlock.

Asked about the state's newest quick-fix for the Cape's clogged roads, tourist Paolino gave a thumbs up.

``I would take the Bourne Bridge,'' she said, ``if it's gonna provide a quicker ride home, and not have to sit in traffic.''

As for this holiday weekend, state police said they have no intention of repeating their controversial Memorial Day experiment for homebound travelers.

Yesterday, traffic backed up as much as two miles at both the Sagamore and Bourne bridges headed south onto the Cape in the morning but eased up to just a mile or so backup by late in the day, state police said.

However, the odd timing of Independence Day, which falls on Tuesday, makes predicting when the commute off the Cape will be worse - Monday night or Tuesday night, said state police Sgt. Tim White.

``A lot of people have to work Monday . . . but some people might be taking the whole week as vacation, so we just don't know,'' White said.

Whenever they leave, what tourists will see all weekend are Mass Highway electronic billboards urging them to head home before 2 p.m. or after 7 p.m.; and extra state tow trucks to help disabled vehicles between the Sagamore Bridge and Exit 6 in Barnstable.

When the state gets its alternative route up and running later this summer, Amorello said it will be well marked with electronic billboards and state police, who will direct drivers headed for Routes 25, 195 and Interstate 495 to the new route.

Amorello said his department's research shows that 40 percent of homebound tourists on Route 6 at the Sagamore Bridge really are headed for routes closer to the Bourne Bridge, anyway.

With Cape traffic growing at a ferocious pace - state police estimate annual traffic over the two bridges has soared from 28 million vehicles in 1990 to 35 million today - a longer-term fix is in the works.

But it is mired in political backbiting.

The state's $25 million long-term solution would get rid of the Sagamore Rotary and replace it with an elevated, direct connector between heavily traveled Route 3 and the Sagamore Bridge. Local traffic on Route 6 would move underneath this so-called ``fly-over,'' and ramps would connect the two.

The project, which had its first public hearings in 1997, is not expected to be completed before 2006.

Environmentalists have lined up against the project, along with the Cape Cod Commission, a regional planning agency. They say the construction is too massive near sensitive wetlands and would only draw more tourists - and more congestion - to the Cape. They are urging more modest improvements and advertising campaigns that would encourage tourists to consider alternative transportation, such as buses or ferries.

``If they are going to spend this kind of money they really need to look at everything,'' said Sen. Therese Murray, (D-Plymouth), who accuses the state of single-mindedly pursing its plan, without considering the impact it might have on businesses near the rotary.

Murray points to Buzzards Bay, where several businesses are struggling. In 1988, the state got rid of a rotary there.

``That economically killed it,'' Murray said. ``The stores are vacant. There is no vitality in the area, and the town has been working desperately for years to improve it.''

Still, the state has a big ally on the rotary front with the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

``The problem is the rotary,'' said O'Brien, the chamber's chief. ``We think, in most instances, (getting rid of the rotary) will cure the problem.''

Fans and foes of the state's long-term plan agree on one thing: The Cape's environmentally sensitive lands prevent the expansion of either bridge or the addition of a third crossing.

That leaves Massachusetts with two, 65-year-old bridges that, everyone agrees, have long passed their peak for maximum capacity. And on either side of these beleaguered entry-ways to the state's most popular tourist spot are powerful forces, each pushing and pulling for dramatically different solutions.

``I know there are residents there who would like to pull the bridges down and become an island, and limit the access to it, or stand at the gate and have people show ID,'' said Amorello. ``That isn't gonna happen.

``I have accountability to the 6 million people of Massachusetts to help keep our roads safe, and to the hundreds of thousands who use the Cape as a recreational resource,'' Amorello added. ``Is this plan the perfect plan? No. But I don't know of any highway plan or construction project that has had 100 percent unanimity or support.''

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