2026-09-17 · 6 min read · Bourne
The Sagamore Bridge Project Is Taking 13 Homes in Bourne. It Isn't Compensating the Ones Next Door.
Two very different positions, one project
I am Susan Gorden Ryan, and I work with buyers and sellers across Bourne and the rest of the South Coast and Cape Cod. The bridge replacement project here has created two groups of homeowners, and they are not in the same position even though the project looks like one thing from the outside.
Thirteen Bourne homes sit directly in the project's path and are being taken through eminent domain. Those owners are paid for what is taken. The much larger group is everyone else nearby, whose homes are not being taken but whose daily life, and in some cases whose home's marketability, changed the day the project was announced. Compensation law treats those two groups very differently, and it is worth understanding before you assume one covers the other.
What eminent domain actually pays for
Eminent domain compensates the taking: the land and structure the government actually acquires, valued at fair market value as though the project were not happening. It does not, as a rule, compensate a neighboring owner for a drop in value caused by proximity to construction, noise, dust, traffic detours, or the altered feel of a street that is no longer getting taken but is living next to what is.
That gap is the real story here. One owner near the project, assessed at $621,000, described a home that is not being taken and is not eligible for a buyout, but that he considers effectively unsellable while the project is underway. That is not a hypothetical. It is the position a number of Bourne owners are actually in right now.
What this means if you own near the project, or are buying near it
If you are a Bourne homeowner near the bridge project and you are not one of the 13 parcels being taken, the honest answer is that there is no automatic payment coming for the disruption. Whether it affects your plans depends on how close you are, how long you intend to stay, and whether you were thinking about selling in the next few years anyway.
If you are buying near the project, the same facts work the other way: proximity to construction is a real, time-limited cost that should be priced into an offer, and it is worth discussing with your lender and your insurer before you commit to specific terms on financing.
The market itself is already behaving differently depending on which side of the canal a home sits on. I cover that split, and what it means for buyers choosing between the mainland and the Cape side, in a companion piece on the Bourne bridge replacement's effect on the housing market.
This is not legal advice, and it should not be treated as any
Eminent domain and compensation law are genuinely complicated, vary by circumstance, and are not something a real estate license qualifies me to advise on. If you believe a taking or a proximity issue affects your property, an attorney who handles eminent domain is the right first call, not me.
Where I can help is the real estate side: what your home is actually worth right now given the project, how to time a sale around it if that is the right move for you, and how to talk to a buyer honestly about what is happening nearby rather than hoping it does not come up. Get in touch and we will start with your specific street, not a general answer.