By Justine Hofherr, January 5, 2015
Ten years ago, the dwarf planet Eris was
discovered. It is the largest of the dwarf planets – just a little
bigger than Pluto. What does this have to do with the Big Dig? Absolutely nothing. But it seemed that an anniversary of some sort was necessary to introduce such a touchy topic.
Though it’s been about 32 years since
planning first started for “The Big Dig,” construction ended just seven
years ago. Mention the project, and you’re sure to see longtime Boston
residents shake their heads in dismay.
During one of the most difficult highway projects in the history of the
United States, tunnels leaked, costs were overrun, and a falling ceiling
tile killed a woman on her way to Logan Airport.
Enough time has passed that hopefully, we can re-examine what happened and the city can learn from its mistakes moving forward.
Or we can talk more about planets – it’s up to you.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the project,
the $14.8 billion plan replaced Boston’s six-lane elevated Central
Artery (I-93) that ran through the center of downtown with an
underground eight to ten-lane highway, and added two new bridges over
the Charles River. It also extended I-90 to Logan International Airport
and created Route 1A, connecting downtown Boston to the waterfront,
according to MassDOT.
There were some huge pros to the Big Dig:
submerging the interstate cleared up some horrific traffic congestion
(vehicles used to crawl for 10 hours a day), opened up 300 acres of
land, and jumpstarted the Innovation District.
But the numerous snafus that occurred tend to overshadow the project’s benefits in the public’s mind.
The cost of the project was far more than
initially stated. As Roger Warburton, associate professor of
administrative sciences at Boston University, noted in an article for BU’s Metropolitan Magazine, original project estimates hovered around $2.4 billion, but the Big Dig ended up costing well over $14 billion.
Warburton said that engineers knew the
original projections were far too low, but politicians covered up their
actual estimates: “But the truth is that engineers in the late 1980s
already knew it was a $12 to $14 billion project. They told everybody
who would listen—including the politicians—and those people kept it
quiet.”
Oh, and in case you were wondering—we’re
still paying for the Big Dig. With interest, the project could
ultimately cost around $24 billion, finally getting paid off in 2038.
Besides creating a financial nightmare,
the Big Dig was plagued by huge constructional flaws – which obviously
added fuel to the fiscal firestorm.
In 2004, failure to adequately clear
construction debris from concrete walls caused water to start pouring
through a portion of the I-93 tunnel under downtown Boston. Hundreds of
other leaks were found after investigation.
May 2006 saw six employees of a concrete
supplier charged with fraudulently concealing that some concrete used in
the Big Dig tunnels was of shoddy quality. Aggregate Industries would later pay a $50 million penalty to the state for its role in providing 5,700 truckloads of substandard concrete.
And though four workers were killed over
the course of working on the project, the tragedy that garnered the most
attention occurred in July 2006, when a 38-year-old woman from Jamaica
Plain was crushed to death in her car by four concrete slabs that fell from the ceiling of a Big Dig tunnel.
The tragedy led to the firing of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman, a criminal investigation, and eventually, a $26 million settlement from the largest contractor on the Big Dig and a bolt distribution company, for damages resulting from the collapse.
Overall, federal and state authorities negotiated $534 million in settlements on the project.
All of that is in the past, but what are the project’s lasting effects on Boston?
Financially
Fiscally, Boston learned hard lessons
about the nature of public/private relationships, and how to manage cost
containment issues. It also learned that partnerships are hard.
Because the project was such a behemoth,
The Big Dig was largely a joint effort between US construction and
management companies Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation and Parsons
Brinckerhoff. Though the Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff joint management firm
had all criminal charges dropped, they had to pay more than $407
million to resolve the civil and criminal liabilities in connection with
project defects. Woof.
When partnering with private firms for
huge public works projects, state officials should closely monitor
construction. Both parties should work together to carefully calculate a
project’s cost, and continuously monitor and adjust it as construction
continues.
Environmentally
The Big Dig both helped and hurt the
environment, as complicated public works projects often do. Automobile
exhaust causes air pollution and health problems, and is a significant
source of greenhouse gas emissions. The Big Dig helped prevent traffic
pile-ups, cutting the amount of cars that would have idled for hours.
Boston’s carbon monoxide levels dropped 12 percent citywide due to the
highway project, according to MassDOT.
The lengthy project, however, caused
temporary levels of increased traffic and pollution, so the
Massachusetts’ Conservation Law Foundation forced the commonwealth to expand and modernize its public transportation system—including
the MBTA Green Line expansion to Somerville and Medford, “with cleaner
buses and new commuter rail and subways,” according to their website.
Public Relations
Unfortunately, the Big Dig’s many hitches
left a sour taste in some Bostonians’ mouths – there’s an impression
that the government can’t “do” big projects. This feeling probably
hasn’t helped move along other major projects that could greatly enhance
quality of life.
The Green Line Extension Project
mentioned above, which is set to add six new stations, was delayed this
fall. The extension was court-mandated as part of the settlement of a
lawsuit over the environmental impact of the Big Dig.
But the project has been postponed on
Beacon Hill, largely due to questions about the city’s ability to handle
a big, complex, very expensive (about $1.9 billion) project.
Ironically, the longer the project is postponed, the more the projected
cost of it will balloon.
These are obviously just a few of the many
lasting impacts the Big Dig has had on different areas of the city. But
current and future transportation projects should take heed from what
occurred.
Timothy Love, the president of the Boston Society of Architects,
said he expects the Big Dig to influence two current transportation
projects – the South Station Expansion Project, and the I-90 Allston
Interchange Project.
The South Station project is expected to
improve the Atlantic Avenue station’s rail tracks, platforms, passenger
facilities and other infrastructure to create a much more efficient rail
service. The I-90 Allston Interchange Project
will replace the 1965 highway structure, enhancing the safety and flow
of traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike and probably making Allston a
much more attractive place to live.
Love said he thinks these two projects
will see a better harmony between transportation engineers and
neighborhood-makers in light of the Big Dig. Enough time has passed, he
said, for people to see just how valuable the Big Dig was not just for
improved transportation, but also for the beauty and accessibility of
Boston’s neighborhoods – particularly in Fort Point and the North End.
“I don’t think anyone fully understood what a pleasant piece of the city
it would be,” Love said of Boston’s downtown since the project.
Love points to the The Rose Fitzgerald
Kennedy Greenway, an urban park located in several downtown
neighborhoods of Boston that emerged from open space created from the
Big Dig’s demolition of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, as one of the
many pros of what happened.
“When I ride my bicycle along the
Greenway, I’m struck by what an amazing part of the city it is now,”
Love said. “If people could have looked at a crystal ball then and seen
how nice it would be, planning would have gone more smoothly.”
So was The Big Dig worth it?
Love thinks so: “From my perspective, were
the complications worth the result? Absolutely. Ten-fold. The relative
ease of driving my car from South Boston to Everett, and the way it’s
transformed my everyday life downtown where I run a business—I’m not
sure why it wasn’t worth it but that’s a personal opinion.”