Temporary Traffic Light At The Sagamore Bridge: Is It Helping Or Hurting?
BOURNE (CBS) -- Construction is well underway on the Sagamore Bridge and just as expected, the traffic delays are significant. In an effort to ease the pain, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation placed a temporary traffic light to help drivers merge on the Cape side.
But it may have had the opposite effect.
"I think they can merge on their own, I think it holds people back a lot. Some days it's backed up a few miles," said one driver.
The light creates two-minute wait intervals, Route 6 traffic inches along while traffic on the ramp sits, and then it switches.
Another driver said, "Everybody likes to push two people in, three people in, nobody wants to let someone go. It's kind of like everybody is kids and they are being punished so now you get a light."
According to MassDOT, numbers show the light is helping cars pass but side roads in Sandwich are still getting jammed up during peak hours.
This concerns Chief William Carrico of the Sandwich Fire Department. "We have to find our way through the traffic. There is the other side of Sandwich, Scussett Beach is part of Sandwich so we have to go up and over the bridge," he said.
Construction on the bridge will continue through about May 25, according to MassDOT.