Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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and Finally . . . I FEUD FOR THOUGHT the money pit LIGHTS THAT FALL, CONCRETE THAT CRUMBLES—BOSTON JUST KEEPS THROWING MORE CASH INTO THE SINKHOLE KNOWN AS THE BIG DIG. BY LAUREN BECKHAM FALCONE t's over 20 years old, worth about $15 billion, constantly screwing up, and has a trust fund. It's not a Hilton. Nor an oil heir, like Brandon Davis. It's the Big Dig, and it's more embarrassing for Boston than Babe Ruth's trade to the Yankees. Search the Internet for "Big Dig" and the results will be filled with quips like "Lessons of Boston's Big Dig," "The Big Dig—America's Greatest Highway Robbery," and "Boston's Big Dig: the Deadly Engineering Gift that Keeps on Giving." Fixing the Central Artery seemed groundbreaking at the time. We're Boston—home of the original Tea Party, Paul Revere, and the Freedom Trail. We get stuff done! Why not take on the biggest highway project in US history? Bring it on! But then, like a Stephen King plot, things turned really dark, really fast. A Jamaica Plain woman was tragically killed in 2006 after five three-ton ceiling tiles crushed her vehicle in the Fort Point Tunnel. When they discovered the epoxy was faulty and the bolts too short, it unraveled a trail of shoddy work, cover-ups, and cut corners. "Ginsu Guard- rails," as they were dubbed by public safety workers responding to grisly traffic accidents, killed eight people. A state trooper's family won a $9-million suit against contractors and the state, while another family filed a $2-mil- lion suit just last year. Then lights started falling out. Salt-water cor- rosion caused some of the 110-pound fixtures to plummet, prompting a mad rush to keep them in place. Fixing the problem will cost $54 million, two years, and thousands of traffic jams. Now the concrete ramps that were supposed to last 30 years are crumbling; repairs could cost any- where from $200,000 to $1 million. We won't even talk about the sinkhole. There have been arrests, lawsuits, jail time, and bankruptcy. Luckily, contractors have already been sued for a tunnel-full of money. But it's a fraction of what they made from us taxpayers, who still sit in hours of traffic each day, despite miles of underground tunnels, paved roads, and fancy signage. Enter the trust fund: an approximately $400 million pocket the prodigal highway proj- ect can dip into every time there's a catastrophe (as long as the Federal Highway Administration continues to allow it, that is). But the Big Dig is like a celebrity kid with a huge inheritance and a nag- ging coke habit—it's going to run out of cash, and quick. Boston is the birthplace of things that stand the test of time: Old Ironsides, Fenway, and our inexplicable refusal to yield. But the Big Dig has the durability of a chocolate teapot. This is Boston's new legacy, so how will we right the Big Dig boondoggle? Maybe we won't. But in the meantime, while stuck in traffic on the Expressway, just remind yourself: At least you're not on the T. BC 152 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM Wickedly Good Fun! ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL O'LEARY