Yoav now knows first hand what happens when you get a flat in the O'Neill Tunnel:

... I'm just cruising along (below the speed limit, thank you very much), when all of I sudden I hear a bang and feel a jerk on the back right side of the car. Sure enough, the tire pressure warning indicator lights up.

Unfortunately I had to go a little ways until I found a reasonable spot to pull over, because the right-hand lanes were full of cones and construction equipment.

State honcho vows: No tolls on I-93. Which means that tolls on the turnpike will continue to not go away to help pay for the Big Dig.

Commute-a-holic, who lives west of Boston, is not happy:

... I don't understand why North Shore and South Shore drivers get a free ride into Boston, where as everyone who lives West of Boston need to continue to pay to get into the city. It is so unfair. ...

The Globe reports authorities think a body discovered at Boston Sand and Gravel is that of a man who abandoned his car on the ramp connecting the Tobin with the Zakim last night.

A spokesman for the Suffolk County DA's office says state police are looking at how the 44-year-old Chelsea resident wound up there, but that foul play is not suspected.

Specialkvi made this Big Dig video mashup:

And let's not forget the old Central Artery.

During Big Dig construction, the yellow signs about rats and the mysterious B.B. were as omnipresent as construction equipment. The Globe dredges up signmaker Vincent Zarilli, who now wants the turnpike authority to put up a couple of plaques in honor of the old Central Artery, which he is tired of having maligned (his BB project would have involved building a bypass on Boston Harbor).

Turnpike mouthpiece Mac Daniel says the authority is looking hard and long at where to put the old Fitzgerald plaques that used to grace the elevated monster, but, honestly, Mac, what would be more appropriate for them than the Curt Schilling Memorial Girder next to Quincy Market? Now, it just stands there confusing tourists who have no idea what the thing is (as well as us locals who wonder why Schilling gets his own girder).

$458m Big Dig settlement exempts firms from criminal charges in tunnel collapse.

Casey Ross reports not everybody's happy with the settlement, such as state Sen. Robert Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican, who says:

Grrrrr, bark, woof. Good dog.

The Herald reports on a fight over the old marble "foo dogs" that used to greet Chinatown visitors at the gate fronting the Big Dig.

A couple of foo photos.

Sean Roche is getting annoyed that Turnpike tolls will be going up again to help pay for the Big Dig:

... Higher, peak-priced tolls on the 'Pike would be welcome (with standard caveats about managing the impact on the complex transportation infrastructure).

But, it's insane that I-93 remains a free ride, especially given that technology exists to charge vehicles without erecting a single tollbooth. ...