Each old bridge comes down once its replacement opens. The first big demolition is the old Sagamore in the winter of 2033. The Bourne follows about a year after that. Most of the steel and concrete will be recycled or sold for scrap. There’s no plan to keep the old bridges as walking paths or monuments.
When demolition happens
- Old Sagamore: winter 2033, after the new southbound side opens that fall.
- Old Bourne: winter 2034, after the new Bourne opens.
Each demolition takes several months.
How the old bridges come down
- Workers cut the steel arches into smaller sections.
- Cranes lift each section onto barges.
- Barges carry the pieces away from the canal to a scrap yard.
- The road bed and decking get broken up and removed in chunks.
- The piers (the concrete supports in the water) get demolished down to below the canal floor.
What happens to the materials
Most steel goes to recycling. Bridge steel is high-quality and sells for fair prices.
Concrete gets crushed and reused as fill material for other road projects.
Anything historic (signage, plaques, identifiable parts) the Army Corps or local museums may keep.
Why not save the old bridges as walkways or monuments?
- They’re in the way. The new bridges sit very close to the old ones, in space that needs to be cleared.
- Maintaining a closed-to-traffic bridge over a federal canal is expensive. Someone has to inspect it, paint it and repair it.
- No public agency or private group has stepped up to take ownership.
- The Cape Cod Canal already has paved paths along both sides for walkers and bikers.
When can people watch?
The Army Corps and MassDOT typically open public viewing areas during major construction. We’ll cover those when they’re announced.
Drone footage and time-lapse video will likely be common, both from the contractors and from local news outlets.
For project status and timeline, see the Project Tracker. For the longer story on the rebuild, see The Cape Cod Bridges Replacement, Explained.