The Big Dig didn't cost nearly $30B. The total comes from things like "The Charles River Skate Park" that is largely unused, the "Northpoint Park System" which is largely unused. And the Commuter boat dock at Lovejoy Wharf, which is actually boarded up and abandoned - never used. And the master plans for the area south of the Leather District - which cost a lot, and accomplished nothing. And the planning for wildly expensive, whimsical, Quixotic "Gardens under Glass" and cultural institutions perched precariously and expensively over highway ramps that only a moron would think is a reasonable idea. And the cost of the Big Dig included brand new offices for the Mass Pike Authority, with all Class-A amenities. And don't forget that the cost of the Big Dig also included massive "linkage" payments to Southie. And a train to Scituate that is largely unused. And a completely and totally unused and unnecessary, beautifully-landscaped little park at the corner of I-93, the Broadway Bridge, train tracks and hell.
Mike Dukakis & Salvucci created the Big Dig with a great vision in mind, yet with no managerial fortitude to see that vision through. They let every special interest group get their fingers in the pie, and in the largest failure imaginable, the actually forfeited the right for this project to pay for itself. Sitting on a legitimate goldmine, they said "no thanks" and barred development on the land they were creating. Genius. Thirty years after their hair-brained scheme was cooked up, we are literally bankrupt because of it.
Digging the Big Dig was great, and didn't have to be such a mess - but the plan as outlined by the ridiculous Dukakis administration left the whole thing wide open to thievery, mismanagement and precluded the very real chance that the Big Dig might have actually turned
a profit.
Here is an abandoned, boarded-up, five-year old ferry dock. No plans to re-open. It was a bone thrown to the public transit fascists to shut them up.
Here's a little slice of industrial hell in Southie, magically transformed into a money pit (BTW it's much nicer and greener in person, this pic is early spring):
And here's a very big, very, very expensive park (complete with elaborate and pricey tiled mosaics, and large monumental decorations) that is usually empty - even on beautiful days.
Here's some of that expensive ceramic mosiacs that we paid for (in this beautiful, but largely unused park):
Creating the new highway system did not cost $30B. We were doomed and bankrupted by poor financial planning from the very beginning start, the slew of special interest "mitigation" projects crammed into the project, and the shoddy and dangerous union labor that was used.
BTW, In 2001, George Bush lifted the restriction that said union labor had to be used on federal highway projects. But in Mass, the legislature wouldn't hear of it. A huge cost-savings was given to us, and we said "no thanks"
We deserve to be bankrupt.
The Big Dig should have been a new highway system, with the real estate created to pay for itself. Not dog parks in Charlestown or new community centers in Southie. Not trains to Scituate, not landscaping along industrial culverts. Just a new highway system that could have paid for itself.
