genec

Key figures associated with the Big Dig

By The Associated Press Tue Dec 25, 1:51 PM ET

Figures associated with Boston's Big Dig highway project:

Original cost estimate: $2.6 billion

Current cost estimate: $14.798 billion

Length of project: 7.5 miles, about half in tunnels

Amount of dirt removed: 16 million cubic yards

Number of workers at peak construction: 5,000

Number of workers killed: 4

Number of lanes on the old elevated highway: 6

Number of lanes on the new highway system: 8-10

Number of historic artifacts excavated from the Big Dig's path: 200,000

Weight of the project's final environmental impact report: 44 pounds

Number of leaks discovered in roof-wall joints in 2004: 2,000 to 3,000

Number of cars using the old elevated highway when it opened in 1959: 75,000/day

Number of cars expected to use the new underground highway by 2010: 245,000/day

Average trip through the center of Boston on the old Central Artery: 19.5 minutes

Average trip through the center of Boston using the Big Dig: 2.8 minutes.

Source: Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and Associated Press news reports

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So 2.8 minutes to get through the center of Boston today... I wonder what that figure will look like in 2010 when 245,000 trips a day are made. How about in 2015? 2020?

I wonder what cycling infrastructure could have been built for the original figure of 2.6 billion dollars.

ferd_miller

What amazes me about before/after figures for big projects like this is just how far wrong their cost estimates inevitably turn out to be. In this case, it cost over *5 times* the initial estimate....5 TIMES MORE - WTF ? Were they just pulling numbers out of their rectums from the outset or what?

edzo

corruption to the core


also forgot one figure:

Number of average citizens killed due to blatant incompetence
in tunnel construction, and burying early warnings from engineers: 1

out of court settlement to the above: $6 million, more to come

San Rensho 

But the burning question is, how many bike lanes does it have?

hotbike

Why isn't the strip of ground above the tunnel designed as a "Linear Park"?

(i.e.- a BIKEWAY).

Biggest , stupidest mistake I ever saw, to not make the surface (above Boston's Big Dig) a bikeway.

mconlonx

I thought they were planning on a "Greenway" space running over the tunnel--parks, paths, and ped-ways. Is this not happening anymore?

Big Dig is mainly interstate highway, so no accommodation for cyclists. There was a time when I was commuting from the North End to the Fort Point area when every week I'd have to alter my route because of Big Dig construction. For a while there, streets would change, disappear, re-open, be created, or turn one-way on a daily basis.

Trouble is, it actually works well, alleviating the snarl that was through traffic before the Dig opened.

Not part of the dig, and I think planned where there was already Rt. 93 overhead, but they are supposedly taking a part of unused land under the bridge to use for a skate park.

Not specifically cycling-related, but a greenway and skatepark where there were none before is incrementally a step forward. Even if building for traffic is a monumental step back.

ChipSeal

Let's see... (Scratches head) ...that would be about $363 million per foot! I sure hope these aren't the folks they expect to run nationalized health care!

joejack951

More like $373,000 per foot. A bargain!

webist

No. They were pulling money out of all of ours. Initial estimates on government programs are always the maximum amount the sponsor of the projects thinks can be tolerated by the voters and the politicians. Once they are past the initial cost "estimate" hurdle, they continue to jack the estiamte each year. They knew the true estiamte all along - you just wouldn't have accepted it.

The next "big dig" will intially look reasonable to us at $6 billion. The actual cost will be closer to $40 Billion. I don't know what or where it is yet, I just know the projected cost.

JusticeZero

Yeah, my home state is currently being sold a bridge - the largest bridge in the world, blowing apart all world records, with lots of room for cars (And none for rail, etc O.O ) to access a large area of forlorn and desolate wetlands for supposedly 'half a billion, from private investors'. Riiiiight.

gpsblake

Mass has a population of 6.5 million but this cost 14,700 million??? That's like $2,200 for each person...

4 people dying? That's bad but 70 years ago, it was quite common for 100's to die building bridges, skyscrapers, and dams.

jimisnowhere

The Greenway's done, its nice. Building a bike path down it would be nothing more than a glorified sidewalk though, there are maybe 6 or 7 roads that cut across the Greenway, all of which existed under the elevated artery before.The road that runs over the big dig is nice for riding, considering the proximity to downtown and major highways. The skate park has land reserved for it, but its up to itself to get funding. I think its called charlesriverskatepark.org. The cost is stupidly high. I know of people who made thousands a week leaning on shovels 36 hours a weekend. Noone was in control of anything from the highest CEO to the smallest managers, if smoeone felt like doing stuff, he did, if he didn't, the check still cleared.

Dahon.Steve

Boston still feels like a city surrounded by an interstate. Many bridges don't allow bicycles and from what I heard, there's still gridlock in that tunnel.

buzzman

Actually, they're the same guys "rebuilding" Iraq- Bechtel Corporation.

I know construction personnel who turned down contracts to do Big Dig work because the graft was so rampant, the on-site discipline so poor, and the amount of on-site drinking and drug use so out of control that no matter how much it would have lined their pockets they opted out of it. And I have a friend (and neighbor) who is enjoying the yacht he bought after working 10 years on the dig. Hopefully, someone will have the guts to write a book or a film about the uncontrolled greed it represented.

unfortunately, all that turns out to have been a lot of hype with no guarantees. Most of those plans have been slowly pared down to nothing as the budget inflated. Now most of the space will be leased, sold, or portioned out for more commercial interests to defray costs.



Note the source of those figures- The same people responsible for the project! If I had the time to waste I'd grab a video camera some night and hop in my car and drive it to show how ridiculous a claim these times are. Yes, there are times it's quicker to get to the airport but all in all 2.8 minutes! What a joke- Maybe at 3 am on a Sunday night.