Using Cape Cod’s nearly nine-decade-old Bourne Bridge as a backdrop, a Republican challenger looking to unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a swing at his Democratic rival for not working harder to fix some of the state’s most important aging infrastructure.
Former military prosecutor John Deaton, standing alongside state Reps. Steven Xiarhos and Matt Muratore, Republicans representing Barnstable and Plymouth, said Monday that the dilapidated state of the life-line bridges to the Cape isn’t a new problem, and that the people responsible for fixing it — namely Warren — haven’t acted with the sense of urgency the situation requires.
“Elizabeth Warren has had 12 years in office to secure funding for Massachusetts’s foremost infrastructure project but instead has been busy chasing headlines or running for president. Her focus is not on the blocking and tackling of governing that residents expect,” Deaton said.
Deaton pointed to Warren’s political ambitions (she unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination to the presidency in 2020), saying her failed efforts at career advancement makes her an electoral pariah, and that’s not a good position to be in when it comes to making the sort of deals that get federal projects funded and rolling, he said.
“Building new roads and bridges is a bipartisan cause, but it’s no secret in Washington that Warren is too polarizing to work with,” Deaton said.
The Bourne and Sagamore Bridges are the only road access to towns along Cape Cod, are structurally deficient and must be replaced, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who owns the bridges. Built in 1933, the full cost of constructing new bridges is estimated north of $4.5 billion.
Despite the price tag, replacing the pair of spans is an absolute necessity for the more than 260,000 Cape residents and the 5 million people who visit the region annually. The busy bridges carry 35 million cars each year and, according to a report commissioned by members of the state’s congressional delegation and released last fall, not replacing the bridges would be “catastrophic” for the region.
“The current condition of the bridges is untenable, and without replacements, problems will only grow,” the October report read, in part.
Last summer, Gov. Maura Healey announced she would change the scope of the project by prioritizing replacement of the Sagamore Bridge first and tackling to the Bourne Bridge after.
So far, the Healey Administration and the state’s congressional delegation have managed to secure around $722 million toward Healey’s plan, $350 million of which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.
The state has committed at least $700 million toward rebuilding the aging spans. Replacing Sagamore alone, however, is estimated to cost $2.14 billion.
This spring, all nine of the state’s House members and both U.S. Senators urged the Biden Administration in a letter to prioritize the bridges when considering which federal projects to green light.
“We worked hard to pass President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide historic opportunities to fund critical infrastructure projects across the United States. Rebuilding the Cape Cod bridges is a prototypical project that the Law was designed to fund,” they wrote.
The time for asking politely is over, according to Deaton and his fellow Republicans. The Bay State needs someone to be more aggressive in securing the billions required to keep the Cape accessible to tourists and residents, they said.
“Summer is a critical time for Cape Cod’s economy, and nothing would be more beneficial than to see a dedicated source of funding to replace our Sagamore and Bourne bridges. I ask that our elected officials, especially in our federal delegation, recommit themselves to a sense of urgency as they seek to secure the funding that will make full replacements possible,” Xiarhos said in a statement.
According to Deaton, the problem needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, and not after it’s too late.
“Before we experience a tragedy, it’s imperative that we elect a U.S. Senator who won’t rest until the Cape’s two throughways to the mainland are replaced,” he said.
Deaton, a who moved to the Bay State from Rhode Island earlier this year but is originally from Detroit, Michigan, announced his intention to run against Warren in February and officially joined the race in May.
Now a resident of Swansea, Deaton is a mesothelioma lawyer and cryptocurrency advocate who describes himself as a “John Deaton Republican” with a unique political background and perspective.
A request for comment from Warren’s staff was not returned by press time.
