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Boston Big Dig Project



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I took an interest in the “Big Dig” Boston project in 2002, after working between Boston and New York for a year. During that period I often took taxis to and from the airport and would hear the complaints about the project from the drivers.
Big Dig is the unofficial name of the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), a mega project that rerouted the Central Artery (Interstate 93), the chief controlled-access highway through the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, into a 3.5 mile (5.6 km) tunnel under the city. The project also included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel (extending Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport), the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge over the Charles River, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway in the space vacated by the previous I-93 elevated roadway. Initially, the plan was also to include a rail connection between Boston's two major train terminals. The project began in 1991 and concluded on December 31, 2007, when the partnership between program manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ended (Wikepedia).
The Big Dig was one of the largest – most expensive - public works projects in the history of the United States. It is also one of the most complex urban civil engineering projects in the world. The Big Dig project was developed to solve chronic traffic in Central Artery in Boston. The project was conceived in the 1970s by the Boston Transportation Planning Review to replace the rusting elevated six-lane Central Artery. Planning for the Big Dig as a project officially began in 1982, with environmental impact studies requested by the project manager in 1983. After years of extensive lobbying for federal dollars, a 1987 public...