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The One Minute Geographer: Massachusetts (7): Boston’s Big Dig
While we are talking about Boston we have to look at one particular project that Boston became famous for, the ‘Big Dig.’ Officially named the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, its main purpose was to move underground the rusting elevated central artery of Interstate 93 running through and dividing the city’s heart. That highway went underground into the 1.5-mile-long Thomas P. O’Neill Tunnel. The above-ground space became The Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The Big Dig project also included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel which extended Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, to Logan Airport. And a new bridge, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge was built over the Charles River.
There’s a lot of name-dropping here. O’Neill was ‘Tip’ O’Neill, a Congressman and Speaker of the House for more than ten years. Ted Williams was a famous Red Sox baseball player who set batting records and still holds the MLB record for on-base percentage with .482. Rose Kennedy was the mother of John and Edward and their siblings. Zakim was a locally famous Jewish American community leader who believed in ‘building bridges’ among groups.
The construction took fifteen years and cost over $8 billion, four times the original estimate. It became the most expensive highway project ever constructed in the US. It also became (in)famous as a cost-overrun boondoggle with incidents and allegations of mismanagement, graft, delays, leaks, design flaws, poor execution and use of substandard materials. There were criminal arrests and even the death of a motorist from falling debris.
A second recent and on-going project has been the redevelopment of the waterfront Boston Seaport District, formerly vacant land, empty industrial space, and underutilized warehouses. It’s now a multi-use area thriving with R&D firms, hotels, shopping and restaurants, luxury condos, and a hotel/convention center. Major corporate tenants include GE’s…
