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Big Dig Research Paper

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The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the Big Dig, is one of the most expensive, technically challenging, and largest public projects in American history. The Big Dig was a super-project that was created to reroute the “Central Artery of Interstate 93, the main roadway through the core of the city, into the 1.5 mile Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Tunnel.” The construction of the Big Dig “untangled the co-mingled” traffic in Boston, Massachusetts and resulted in a 62% decrease in vehicle hours of travel and reduced the afternoon peak hour by a massive 85.6%.

The highway planning of the Big Dig started in 1982 with the actual construction starting in 1991. The Big Dig was initially planned to be finalized in 1998 with the estimated total cost of 2.8 billion (7.8 billion adjusted for inflation to today’s dollar value) but due to cost overruns, design flaws, criminal arrests and even one death the construction of the highway was delayed. After all the delays, the Big Dig was finally completed in 2007 at a cost of 8.08 billion (20.5 billion in today’s dollar value). After the Big Dig was completed, it cost nearly 21 billion dollars, had taken nearly 20 …show more content…

The public works commissioner in 1930 when the idea of the big dig first arose was William Callahan he supported an elevated expressway which eventually was constructed in-between downtown Boston and the waterfront the project faced numerous environmental and engineering complications the area in which the tunnels were to be excavated was mostly landfills and included two subway lines as well as an uncountable number of pipes and utility lines that would need to be moved or replaced. Tunnel workers encountered many unforeseen geological and archaeological hurdles, including glacial debris, foundations of buried houses and a number of sunken ships lying in the excavation

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