The Big Dig-10 years later!

atlantaden said:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine...ig-deliver/tSb8PIMS4QJUETsMpA7SpI/story.html?


Interesting article in the Globe and it would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the Big Dig after a decade of being officially finished.
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I think the spirit of the article is good, but I could do without all the whimsy and sentimentality. Also, the piece far undersells the Big Dig's role as a catalyst for development. While the reduced travel time to Logan is cited as a benefit, property values are only cited along the Greenway - specifically on the Rowe's Wharf - Quincy Market segment, where I'd argue the impact has actually been the smallest. The enormous benefits are to North Station and the Bulfinch Triangle (which gets a brief shout-out) and to the Seaport, which gets no mention at all. Without the Big Dig, there's no highway access there, no Silver Line, no BCEC. Maybe it develops with a couple of high-rises as a part of the current nationwide boom (Fan Pier was an old proposal, after all), but it would never have risen to "hottest neighborhood in town" status the way it has.

I've also felt for a long time that most people understate the Big Dig's impact on Logan. Without it, the airport would probably have been reduced to Toronto - Billy Bishop or London City over time. It took 90 minutes to get there from the 128 belt before the project, getting worse all the time. I don't know what a solution would have looked like, and it's possible that the 3rd Harbor tunnel would have been built without the Central Artery component, but Logan's current boom is completely tied to the Big Dig (and other things).

I thought it was interesting that the article kept hammering how awesome the Greenway is, while using pictures from 2008 when it was still barren median strip, but oh, well.
 
But as a result of their sloppy work, sadly, a innocent person was killed because of the wrong epoxy cement that was used to help support the ceiling panels.

The 93 tunnel had leaked to no end, yet they just kept on saying that it was not a problem. The bolts used to help support the light fixtures were rusted & breaking off. The whole project had pretty much gone to hell in a hen basket, especially after officials were
proposing to raise the taxes on gasoline & tolls to help get back some of the dough lost through having to pay contractors to come in and make the necessary repairs because of the crappy work.
 
The whole project had pretty much gone to hell in a hen basket
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Really? Must be the .25th Level of Hell or something. That's the one filled with over cooked steaks and Christmas presents you don't want.
 
I had to stop reading after the first section because of all the basic factual errors. Is the Globe staffed by first year journalism students?
 
The Big Dig, in my opinion, was the best thing that has happened to the city of Boston in the past 100 years. I can't think of one other major project that comes close to what the Big Dig has done for the city and neighboring areas in terms of transportation and utilities improvements, in terms of stimulating real estate investments to the tune of billions of dollars, in reconnecting neighborhoods, and just in making the city a more pleasant place to be. The gallery below shows what Fan Pier/South Boston Waterfront looked like just a decade ago when the Big Dig was just being completed.

http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/fanpier?pg=10
 
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^ Agreed. Cleaning up the harbor is a close second. The two together have been utterly transformational, as we all know.
 
atlantaden said:
The Big Dig, in my opinion, was the best thing that has happened to the city of Boston in the past 100 years. I can't think of one other major project that comes close to what the Big Dig has done for the city and neighboring areas in terms of transportation and utilities improvements, in terms of stimulating real estate investments to the tune of billions of dollars, in reconnecting neighborhoods, and just in making the city a more pleasant place to be. The gallery below shows what Fan Pier/South Boston Waterfront looked like just a decade ago when the Big Dig was just being completed.

http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/fanpier?pg=10
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Possibly: I believe Boston (Actually Cambridge MIT was the Turning point for the entire area) Jobs Under Biotech, Computers, Robotics, startups have exploded in Cambridge which has built underlining value for the entire state Massachusetts.

Only Silcon Valley can compete with MIT at this point.
So Boston was going through Changes between MIT and the rest of the College BUBBLE.

Yes. You could say that the Big Dig was worth the money because Boston is so cleaned up at this point. It's definitely made Boston a very desirable place to live but very expensive.

But the real problem is the Federal Govt is bankrupt. The country cannot pay its debts at this point if Interest rates begin to really rise.
Was the BIG DIG cost effective for the TAXPAYERS of this country? Probably not.

Anybody can DUMP BILLIONS of dollars into an area and make it better living. Hopefully it can be cost effective to maintain itself over time.
 
^^^^
Rifleman, I'll throw in the other Universities in Boston/Cambridge and the immediate area as well, as being the constant economic engine that basically powers the immediate area. But in terms of major investments in infrastructure, it's gotta be the Big Dig as #1 and I'd have to agree with CSTH with the Harbor Clean-up as second which didn't even occur to me. Frankly, if we were talking about the metro area, I'd almost have to say that the construction of 128 was the transformational (to use CSTH's perfect term) project that started it all!
 
atlantaden said:
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Rifleman, I'll throw in the other Universities in Boston/Cambridge and the immediate area as well, as being the constant economic engine that basically powers the immediate area. But in terms of major investments in infrastructure, it's gotta be the Big Dig as #1 and I'd have to agree with CSTH with the Harbor Clean-up as second which didn't even occur to me. Frankly, if we were talking about the metro area, I'd almost have to say that the construction of 128 was the transformational (to use CSTH's perfect term) project that started it all!
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I would like to see the state really lean towards another major Overhaul/Upgrade MBTA system. Start to envision a first rate grid that can be self-sufficient in energy/Solar
 
atlantaden said:
^^^^
Rifleman, I'll throw in the other Universities in Boston/Cambridge and the immediate area as well, as being the constant economic engine that basically powers the immediate area. But in terms of major investments in infrastructure, it's gotta be the Big Dig as #1 and I'd have to agree with CSTH with the Harbor Clean-up as second which didn't even occur to me. Frankly, if we were talking about the metro area, I'd almost have to say that the construction of 128 was the transformational (to use CSTH's perfect term) project that started it all!
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Atlantaden -- all of the above were important contributors to the local prosperity in their own time and in their own way and you can certainly keep winding backward and picking other important progenitors

However, what seemed like one giant mistake at the time has turned into the most important positive contributor

When Cambridge cleared the deck for NASA's Electronics Research Center and which promptly fizzled after "regime change" -- the big open area behind MIT ended-up as the location, location location for today's Kendall Sq. Renaissance

Had it stayed decaying industrial it would have been developed piecemeal

Had it become the site for the new Cambridge City Hall complex or a huge complex of low income housing -- we wouldn't be talking about the boom


But it stayed relatively fallow through abortive wana-booms [i.e. AI Alley] and then finally Bio -- powered by the computing of the Human Genome lit off like the proverbial fireworks finale -- the rest is as they say history

Where else but Kendall could you site an up-and-coming contender university [circa 1915] on recently made land next to a thriving industrial district and then magically 70 years later have a clean slate upon which to site the Hub of Innovation

Could some things have been done better if there was prescience circa 1980 when everything seemed so bleak -- of course

For instance the Red and Green Lines should have been connected along what is now First St on through Binney & Galileo to Broadway & Prospect and ending at Central with surface stops a few thousand feet apart [comparable to the B Line in the middle of BU]
 
Look at this way.

Boston doesn't even have the most expensive commercial Real Estate in the state its in Kendall Square per square foot.

So our officials dumped 20 Billion in taxpayers funds in Boston to clean up the area and create a better Infrastructure but in the end Kendall Square is thriving more without taxpayers funds. Just off plain innovation.

I'm not saying the Big Dig end result was not positive for the city of Boston. It definitely was. But like I said you can spend 20 Billion anywhere and clean up the area for a while and make it very nice.
Our officials need to spend taxpayers money wisely and have a better understanding of Cost, Self-sufficiency, Overtime.

Our Officials should have went BIGGER and Built the BIG DIG + An Overhaul of Transportation (MBTA) Grid.
The problem is TRUST--Too many corrupt people in office.
 
TheRifleman said:
Look at this way.


So our officials dumped 20 Billion in taxpayers funds in Boston to clean up the area and create a better Infrastructure but in the end Kendall Square is thriving more without taxpayers funds. Just off plain innovation.
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You might want to google 'National Institutes of Health' and 'Medicare Part D'
 
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