Posted on 10/10/2012 2:18:23 PM PDT by matt04
The elevated section of Interstate 91 downtown needs $360 million to $400 million worth of reconstruction within the next few years, but local, state and federal transportation planners are only now starting to figure out how to pay for the project and what Springfield’s city center might look like when it's done.
Options on the table include demolishing the viaduct and making I-91 a surface road or burying the interstate in the style of Boston’s notorious Big Dig. Springfield’s elevated stretch of Interstate 91 has long been blamed for smothering downtown development by cutting the city off from the Connecticut River.
“People will say it really carved the heart out of the Italian-American community in the South End,” Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said. “But I have to work with the cards that have been dealt.”
State Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, said people had problems with the overpass from the time it opened in 1968.
"I don't think there are any preconceived notions about what to do with that artery," Knapik said. "I don't think there are any preconceived notions about how to pay for it."
The highway carries more than 66,000 vehicles through Springfield on an average weekday, according to the state Department of Transportation.
But the notion that I-91 could turn become Springfield’s Big Dig caused state Department of Transportation secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey to take a deep breath Tuesday during a visit to Springfield’s Court Square.
“In the sense this project could be transformative, yes,” Davey said. “But it sure as hell won’t be similar to the Big Dig in the way it is financed or in its execution. We have to do a better job.”
(Excerpt) Read more at masslive.com ...
How can Massachusetts get the funding for a “big dig” without a fat, corrupt, sleezy Kennedy there to work the crimes?
Sounds like Springfield might have to do something completely alien to liberals...do it themselves without using other people’s money.
It’s Massachussetts so the true cost will be 20 times the original estimate and it will take at least a generation to complete.
” needs $360 million to $400 million worth of reconstruction within the next few years”
That means $2 billion if it were started right away, however, with inflation and estimating 15 years to completion, I would call it about $8 billion.
No matter what they do it will still be Massachusetts.
“How can Massachusetts get the funding for a “big dig” without a fat, corrupt, sleezy Kennedy there to work the crimes?”
Pssst. The answer to your question served in Vietnam.
Oh, yeah, and before we started spending $20,000/yr. to teach Johnny not to read.
Yeah... that means they'll find a more secret way to get and hide all the money.
Fear not,soon there'll be a fat,corrupt,sleazy Native American prepared to do the heavy lifting.
Not exactly. Much of our infrastructure was designed with a 50 to 100 year life expectancy in mind. The last major rebuild of US cities was completed in the early 1980s from plans started in the early 1970s. According to Wikipedia I-91 in MA was completed 1964-1970. It was expected in most cases that the infrastructure would be replaced before the design life, due to being inadequate or irrelevant.
I grew up near Boston and finished college and lived in Boston throughout the Dig and after - even as pieces of the roof were falling and killing people.
Kerry will assure the money.
Once it’s started, the rallying cry of the dedicated workers and contractors will be ...
“Don’t Kill The Job!!!!!”
It will be 8 years and at least 6 Billion.
Howie Carr will have a field day. It will almost be worth his comedy. And no, we in MA will not wind up paying for it. ... although I can see Romney making a point to not let his state be stained by it during his watch.
One of the funniest things about the Big Dig is that the people who don’t use it - the people who use the Mass Pike coming in from the west, are the ones who paid off the remaining MA dollars in expensive tolls. The Turnpike Authority was going to be shut down once the bills were paid.
That was years ago, but the hacks and their nephews making 75K with overtime collecting the tolls screamed again “Don’t Kill the Job!” ...
... and that little children is how we come to have a 3 Billion project that cost over 20 Billion that the rest of the country paid almost all of, except for the part that we paid for, but even then the people who don’t use the big dig actually had to pay for it, and continue paying for it even though it’s paid for, and hundreds of sons and nephews of MA hacks are making great money collecting the tolls and if you listen carefully you can still hear them screaming, because they still are screaming, “Don’t Kill The Job!!!.”
Yeah! Let’s use the same outfit that has been “working” on the Dedham-Westwood section of 95 for the past five years.
I don't see why any of that negates my point, Wikipedia notwithstanding. Incidentally, the time period you mention was also the beginning of the great welfare state of which Massachusetts was an enthusiastic member.
As for Wikipedia, I just used that to find out how old that stretch of Highway was, figured it would be accurate enough for that info.
Yes, it probably is.
My only point is that we "once" could afford to maintain our infrastructure. I didn't specify a time-period. My comment was entirely anecdotal as I remember [oldster that I'm becoming] when residents of New York State were very proud that we had the best roads and the best schools in the nation.
None of us thinks that anymore, because it isn't true. We do acknowledge, however, that we have the most lavish Medicaid program in the country and that people flock here to get on our welfare rolls. Social welfare spending has crowded out the traditional expenditures of limited government.
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