A new 33-ft-long bridge on Cape Cod’s heavily traveled Route 28 stands to play an outsized role in combating sea-level rise.
Nestled just north of the Nantucket Sound in Yarmouth, Mass., the Parkers River Bridge is located downstream from a shrinking salt marsh. But a $4.8-million project to increase the bridge’s span to 30 ft from 17 ft will restore natural tidal flow, helping to sustain the wetlands, says Kristen Ferry of the Massachusetts Dept. of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration. “Salt marshes buffer the effects of sea-level rise and storms,” Ferry says. “This project in particular has very good migration potential or the potential for that salt marsh to expand and grow.”