Big Dig-Boston
 

I was watching this program called Megastructures earlier today, quite fascinating show really, and they were discussing the Big Dig in Boston. It was utterly amazing. I've been to Boston 3 times, and whoever designed that central artery highway shouldve been shot! I mean not only did it split the city up, every day I was there and near the bridge the smell from all the cars was awful!:nod: They sure endured alot of S**T during the building of it over the course of 15 or so years, but I cant even imagine how much cleaner and more pleasant the city is now that the central artery is gone, and the city reconnected.:thumbsup: :cool: A well deserved fix up for a great city!

Is it better than the old highway? Yes. The two biggest improvements are the third harbor tunnel and the (slightly more) simplified exit signage and ramps. The improvement in the aboveground appearance of the city is nice, but in the big picture not as important to the city and definitely not worth the cost.

Did it cure the traffic problem? No - It was designed 20 years ago with no plan for 20 years of growth. Oh, and it has leaks. And when the fans aren't working you're trapped in a tunnel with the exhaust of thousands of cars.

I know it was unbelievably over budget. Wasnt it like 12 Billion or something like that?

Hah. Having grown up in the Boston area, I really can't remember a time when there WASN'T giant ugly purple/yellow contruction barriers everywhere and jackhammers going off in every direction. And after all of the billions of dollars involved, the tunnels leak, and the traffic isn't all that much better. Good ol' Boston.

Still my favorite city in the country(besides Minneapolis of course) bar none!:nod:

same thing here. they are always either repaving or revamping some street or bridge or exit ramp...I get so sick of it and not to mention how hard it is on vehicles. you end up with tar and crap on the side of your car and the pecks in the windshield are inevitable.

Tar is some seriously hard **** to get off!:nod:

So, now, the ceiling of an on ramp to the tunnel that connects to Logan Airport collapsed. Greaat.

A woman was killed because of it. Terrible.

State Police identify victim in tunnel collapse
 

How awful, it's the lead story on boston.com.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...nnel_collapse/

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | July 11, 2006

A 40-foot section of the ceiling in the tunnel connecting Interstate 93 north to the Ted Williams Tunnel collapsed last night, cascading debris onto a passing car and killing a female passenger, authorities said this morning.

A steel tie that held a ceiling tile in place gave way, causing a chain reaction that sent several tiles to fall, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matt Amorello said this morning.

State Police this morning identified the woman as Milena Delvalle, 38, of Jamaica Plain. Her husband, Angel Delvalle, 46, managed to crawl out of the crumpled car and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

“This is an awful event, a tragedy of the highest proportions,” Amorello said in a telephone interview with New England Cable News. “We are taking every measure to make sure this does not happen again.

The ceiling collapsed at about 11 p.m. and immediately led to the shutdown of the tunnel by State Police as Boston firefighters worked to remove the woman from the vehicle.

I heard this this morning. This project just cant seem to escape stuff like this.

My friend just called me about this. Terrible.

So the tunnell affected wasnt the main one that replaced the central artery was it?

Thank god no. It was a tunnel that led into the Ted Williams Tunnel, which went under the harbor and came out at the airport. It still caused massive back ups everywhere, and will do the same during tommorow's morning rush. So just imagine if it was in the Artery Tunnel. They also shut parts of that down, I belive, because parts of the ceiling there are held up by the same kind of cables that gave way in this case.

The latest I've heard is that theres gonna be a criminal investigation into whether or not construction records were falsified. This could get ugly real quick.