The Big Dig: Changing Boston From the Inside Out

By 1954, one-thousand buildings disappeared, and twenty-thousand people had been forced to relocate to make room for Boston’s Central Artery project. In their place, five-hundred and fifty-one million tons of concrete and steel created the most confusing eyesore to ever grace Boston. At the time, nothing but praise was heard when you mentioned the Central Artery. That changed quickly for those who used it on a regular basis. It wasn’t long before people were seeking alternate routes to avoid Boston’s absurd Central Artery traffic. Avoiding the Central Artery is nearly impossible however, because it is the main highway that runs from north Boston to I-90, and is the main access route to east Boston, Logan airport, and most of the central Boston area. It wasn’t until Fred Salvucci, Transportation Commissioner for the City of Boston, had the vision of Boston as it once was. In 1969 Salvucci decided to find a way to make Boston beautiful again by eliminating the Central Artery. The only question was how?After years of study and planning, he would realize his dream. Tunneling was the key. Taking traffic off the streets and removing it from the rest of the city was the inspiration for the project that would eventually become the most expensive of its kind. The discovery of the “Slurry Wall”, an Italian method of tunneling without excavating the land first, would set the plan into action in 1982. Of course, this required a great deal of funding, which the Reagan Administration denied Boston until 1987, according to The History Channel’s exhibit on the Big Dig -http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/bigdig/.In 1991, construction finally began with the Ted Williams tunnel and a bypass road to keep construction vehicles out of North Boston traffic. In 1995, the completion of the Ted Williams Tunnel marked the first milestone for the Big Dig, officially known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Opening up a route directly from North Boston to Logan Airport proved to skeptics that there was hope for inner-Boston travel.Travelers were awed in 2002, when the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, the widest suspension bridge in the world, opened up ten lanes of smooth sailing over the Charles River, helping to make nightmares like the Tobin Bridge a thing of the past. Such glory has a cost however, one that not only Massachusetts felt, but neighboring states as well. Due to a lack of funds tapped dry by millions of dollars in overtime and some “unforeseen” costs (many still under investigation), an estimated extra 300 million dollars would be needed. Where else would the state find this kind of money but the tax-payers pockets? A massive hike in road tolls occurred across the state. So here we are, eighteen years and over fourteen billion dollars later, trying to remain content in the small improvement in traffic flow, and wondering when it will be done.Recently, multiple leaks have been spotted along the north section of the tunnel walls. Workers on the site claim that the leaks are due to a sand layer which made it difficult to dig proper trenches. Instead of finding a solution to the problem immediately, they’ve wait until now, when it will require much more time and money to fix. Maybe they thought the problem would go away, or maybe they were hoping no one would notice. Five miles of tunnel must be probed to pinpoint similar geographical characteristics before repairs can even start. The only solution road workers have come up with thus far is piling sandbags across the two lanes of traffic, reported The Boston Globe last week.Once the Rose Kennedy Greenway is complete, we wonder about the mass of land that will be left in the wake of the old Central Artery being torn down. So far, the plan calls for more than 150 acres of new parks and open space, including twenty-seven acres where the existing elevated highway stood, 105 acres at Spectacle Island, forty acres along the Charles River, and seven acres as part of an expanded Memorial Stadium Park in East Boston. Three-quarters of the twenty-seven downtown acres will remain open. The rest will be set aside for modest development, including retail, commercial, and housing in low-rise buildings. Also, more than 2,400 trees and 26,000 shrubs will be planted at Spectacle Island. Another 2,400 trees and more than 7,000 shrubs will be planted downtown. Not to mention that a seven-building ventilation system, the largest in the world, hopes to cut Carbon Monoxide levels by 12 percent city wide, reports the Big Dig homepage.Once again, Boston will sit and wait, watching its city being torn to shreds in hopes of a better tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait, because if there’s one thing that Bostonites know, it’s to never lose hope in Boston. From the Red Sox to the bustling streets, there’s always a chance at a better day.