When I moved out of Boston 8 years ago, the "Big Dig", Boston's plan to move much of its ancient roads underground (among other things, including building a new bridge), was already wildly behind schedule (ground was first broken in 1991), running over budget, and being built by crooks.
Around 2003, it became the most expensive highway project in America's history In the 80s, it was budgeted at around 2.5 Billion dollars (and considered a ridiculous amount at the time), it was now at a robust 14 billion dollars.
Well, what does 14 billon buy you?
In 2004, major leaks began to appear, since the contractors failed to remove dirt and gravel before pouring the concrete.
In 2005, police found evidence that the concrete supplier faked records to hide the fact that they had used shit concrete. Later that year, one of the contractors was threatened with a lawsuit by the DA for failing to resolve over 200 complaints of shoddy work.
Earlier this year, the concrete supplier (Aggregate Industries) had 6 of its workers arrested for falsifying records related to the crappy concrete.
Initial inspections of every bridge, tunnel and roadway by state officials revealed that some bolts had started to come out of the concrete in the eastbound connector tunnel, part of the main route to Boston's Logan Airport.
Gaps also had developed between the ceiling and metal plates that help hold the massive panels in place.
There had been plans to reopen that section of tunnel Wednesday, but Massachusetts Turnpike Chairman Matthew Amorello said it would remain closed indefinitely to ensure motorists' safety and to collect more evidence in a possible criminal investigation of the tunnels' designers and builders.
Amorello added that an undetermined number of similar problem areas were found in two adjacent tunnels, raising the possibility of a broader design or construction flaw.
Boston's Big Dig, in the parlance of the locals, is wicked retarded.
It cost 14 billion, and basically all you got was a decent flavor of Brigham's Ice Cream.
I like how the Big Dig sundae is decribed as vanilla ice cream "loosely mixed" with caramel and some other shit. Considering how "loosely mixed" the cement is in the Big Dig project, it's very appropriate.
I remember that thing being a total clusterfuck when I was up in Boston for about a month in the summer of '99. I have never been more confused driving (and I'm ALWAYS confused driving) than when I was there. Add to that the nature of Massachusetts drivers and let's just say it was hell.
PointBlank
New York, NY
November 2004
JUL 13, 2006 10:00 AM