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$14.6 billion later, Boston's Big Dig wraps up
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 12/19/2003 | Seth Stern

Posted on 12/19/2003 11:51:27 AM PST by theDentist

BENEATH BOSTON – With a tellingly simple ribbon-cutting ceremony, the last underground segment of Boston's Big Dig project opens Friday - completing major construction on one of the most complex and controversial engineering projects in human history.

It may not look as dramatic as the Hoover Dam, but the revamp of traffic flows in one of America's oldest cities rivals any past US public-works project in complexity - and outpaced them all in cost.

Its effects will be felt for decades and far beyond Boston: It is changing commuting habits here, may influence the prospects for any similarly large-scale efforts in the future, and has hit the pocketbook of almost every taxpayer in America.

But the Big Dig's scale - at its peak it employed 5,000 construction workers - was rivaled by high costs that have been a source of controversy since the project's inception in 1987 - after President Reagan tried unsuccessfully to wield a penny-pinching veto pen.

That's one reason the city will celebrate this weekend with a whimper rather than a bang - or even a pop. The Boston Pops concert scheduled for underground Thursday was canceled. After spending $14.6 billion (up from an initial forecast of about $4 billion in today's dollars), leaders and taxpayers weren't in the mood to shell out an several hundred thousand dollars for the show.

"It will be a mixed legacy," says David Luberoff, associate director of Harvard's Taubman Center for State and Local Government. "For a lot of people in the region it will be seen as a major positive addition. The farther you move from Boston, the less positively people will view the project."

The two-mile-long underground road will ease commutes - at least for a while - reconnect the city with the harbor, and replace an eyesore of a highway with a necklace of green spaces. Already, the spindly Zakim bridge over the Charles River has become a landmark on the city's skyline.

The city won't reap the full benefits for at least another year, when the hulking overhead highway is finally torn down and traffic patterns are completed. But this weekend's opening is surely the end of an era here. And as traffic flows underground, the city can finally assess whether it was worth the wait - or the price.

See here for remainder of story.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bigdig; boston; plunder; rebuilding; unions
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To: theDentist
Isn't there a good way to just drive around Boston?
21 posted on 12/19/2003 1:56:16 PM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get)
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To: woodyinscc
....."How long do you think it is before another one comes around? The Congress just cannot help themselves".....

Well at least it's not named the Robert Byrd tunnel!
22 posted on 12/19/2003 2:02:21 PM PST by aShepard
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To: muleskinner
"Was Teddy looking for a buried case of Scotch?"

Maybe, but it was really Tip O'Neil's folly!

23 posted on 12/19/2003 2:06:50 PM PST by TRY ONE (NUKE the unborn gay whales!)
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To: breakem
Never thought Cal could be outspent.

Well, it's like this: Every rinky dink "organization" held up the project for stuff like [neighbor] [ethnicity] [chip on
shoulder] a statue for something that didn't really have anything to do with the neighborhood, Boston, MA, or the US
taxpayer in return for not opposing the project.

Then, there's the shakedown by LEO's for paid details.

Then, no sh*t, if they came across a sh*t hole from pre-1950, they would have to shut down the work until archeologists
could sift through it.

That's in addition to all the expected delays, like weather, graft, and corruption.

24 posted on 12/19/2003 2:24:32 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: theDentist
Figuring 280 million Americans, every one of us paid $52.14 on this project to improve Boston’s traffic congestion.
25 posted on 12/19/2003 3:16:22 PM PST by RJL
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To: theDentist
"In its place, a 1.5 mile greenspace named in honor of John F. Kennedy's mother, Rose, will sprout."

Hey - They need something for Teddy, too.

Maybe they can leave a dirt road and a bridge.

26 posted on 12/19/2003 3:39:24 PM PST by Wumpus Hunter
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To: Wumpus Hunter
So did they find Jimmy Hoffa then?
27 posted on 12/19/2003 4:14:07 PM PST by sly671
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To: philetus
"Isn't there a good way to just drive around Boston?"


LOL!! That's what I was wondering in November, 2000. I was visiting there, and...trying to avoid the downtown area (and the Big Dig)...took a reeeeeally wrong turn. I literally drove aroundandaroundandaround downtown (at noon, no less!) for about an hour before I finally got back on the right track. What a mess!
28 posted on 12/19/2003 4:21:59 PM PST by Maria S ("…the end is near…this time, Americans are serious; Bush is not like Clinton." Uday Hussein 4/9/03)
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To: theDentist
With a tellingly simple ribbon-cutting ceremony, the last underground segment of Boston's Big Dig project opens Friday - completing major construction ...

Six months from now, the Boston Globe will be wailing, "they told us 'mission accomplished six months ago, and they're still working!! They lied!!"

29 posted on 12/19/2003 6:25:43 PM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: theDentist
For a case study on government largesse check out real estate prices in metro Boston pre and post big dig.
30 posted on 12/19/2003 6:29:37 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: Calvin Locke
can we get the same folks out her in calif. Road construction is the only thing that seems to go well, once we decide to build one.
31 posted on 12/19/2003 7:07:57 PM PST by breakem
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To: RJL
And the Clinton Impeachment (from very beginning to end) cost us all about $0.06 each.
32 posted on 12/22/2003 5:47:40 AM PST by theDentist (This Tagline for Rent. Contact theDentist for further details....)
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