Big Dig

Boston miffed over long delayed Big Dig transportation project

adamg — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:43:57 +0000

No, not the Green Line extension. NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the Boston Conservation Commission is wagging its collective finger at the state over the continued non-existence of a usable dock at Atlantic Wharf on Fort Point Channel, despite a state promise to have one built as part of mitigation for the Big Dig.

Big Dig light fixture comes crashing down

adamg — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:41:28 +0000

But not because it was held up with rusty paper clips but because a car on the top level of a car carrier knocked into a bunch of light fixtures, the Globe reports. And isn't it nice to see that Big Dig designers paid homage to Storrow Drive by designing a tunnel with height restrictions?

The latest dirt on the Big Dig

adamg — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:40:42 +0000

The Globe reports frozen dirt under a section of the Big Dig is thawing out faster than expected, causing a cavern down there that is filling up with water.

Yes, of course there's thawing frozen dirt - engineers froze the dirt to make it easier to put in tunnel segments. State officials say nothing to worry about - the segment will act like a bridge if the underground lake gets too big - and no need to ask for legal help from an unfrozen caveman lawyer.

A gushing review of the Big Dig

adamg — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:21:01 +0000

The Globe gets a copy of an engineer's report on continuing water problems in the tunnels, such as a design flaw that's leading to cracks that let in water. Will require expensive repairs, natch.

Cable ties help hold up some Big Dig lights

adamg — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:58:41 +0000

That plastic must be pretty tough. At least they won't rust.

UPDATE: Apparently, the fact that plastic doesn't rust is just why they're in place.

$150,000 salary, not Big Dig lighting fixtures, might be too much of a strain for state transportation czar to handle

adamg — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:02:37 +0000

The Globe reports Jeffrey Mullan will depart as state transportation secretary this fall because he needs to make more money, not because of any concerns over his handling of Big Dig safety issues.

Mullan, however, issued a statement after the Globe report came out:

Reports of my departure as Secretary of Transportation this fall are premature.

In May, I discussed with the Governor my intention to transition from the administration within the year for personal reasons. However, we made no final decisions regarding my future at that time. While I still intend to transition out this year, I have made no final plans. I am fully engaged in the role of Secretary and CEO at MassDOT and look forward to leading the organization in the weeks and months ahead.

Mullan presided over the amalgamation of a variety of formerly independent state departments and authorities into a single Department of Transportation.

Holey moley: Boston firefighters pull another worker out of a shaft

adamg — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:39:09 +0000

EMTs get injured worker to ambulance. Photo by BFD.

Boston firefighters spent two hours early this morning getting a state transportation worker out of a shaft connected to the Ted Williams Tunnel.

According to the Boston Fire Department, the worker plunged 20 feet down a shaft into a pool of sludge around 1 a.m.

Using ropes and pulleys, firefighters lifted the worker out after about 2 hours in the hole. He was washed down as part of a decon.

The worker was taken to Mass. General. The department says the firefighters who rescued him were not the same ones who rescued an MBTA worker at the bottom of a shaft last week.

The shaft. Photo by BFD.

You begin to wonder what's being secured to the ceiling by duct tape in the Big Dig tunnels

adamg — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:28:07 +0000

The Globe reports MassDOT Secretary Jeff Mullan, who previously said he didn't tell the governor or the public about crashing, corroding Big Dig light fixtures to let his underlings get to the bottom of the problem, now says what really happened is that those underlings didn't tell him about the problem for a month.

'The residue and the stench of Big Dig culture' waft up again

adamg — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:32:28 +0000

The Globe reports the latest on the plummeting light fixture in the Big Dig: Transportation officials withheld news for a month and it turns out the "stem to stern" investigation ordered by the Romney administration didn't include actually disassembling any of the fixtures to see if they were rotting from within, which, it turns out, some were.

State probes crashing light fixtures of doom in O'Neill Tunnel

adamg — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:20:01 +0000

After one of the 110-lb. fixtures plunged to the roadway last month, the Herald reports.

It was a massive public-works project that didn't get all the large amenities its builders promised

adamg — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:53:44 +0000

No, not the Big Dig and the Greenway. The dam at the mouth of the Charles River. Eric Papetti draws the parallel between that Big Dig of the turn of the century (the 20th century, that is), with today's big turn-of-the-century project. He quotes from Karl Haglund's Inventing the Charles River:

As a public open space, however, many people declared the basin a failure. "It is, indeed, a wondrous picture - of still life. The breathing space is there, plenty of it, the broad sheet of almost currentless water is there, but the people - where are they? They are not there." ... Although the lower Charles was a "scenic and sanitary triumph, it failed to live up to expectations as a water park." ... For a number of Bostonians, the water park was a great disappointment.

Charlie Baker gave it 10%

adamg — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:42:34 +0000

Baker owns up to just 10% of the Big Dig financing plan.

World's most expensive median strip posts new vacancy

Cynic — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:09:07 +0000

The New Center for Arts and Culture is the latest in a string of institutions to pull out of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the Globe reports. Apparently, backers were able to raise just a quarter of the $80 million in projected costs. It joins the Horticultural Society's Garden under the Glass and the first proposal for the Boston Museum on the scrapheap. The second bid from the Boston Museum backers, which would require $120 million, and the proposed new YMCA are officially alive, but have shown no apparent ability to raise the necessary funds.

Perhaps this would be a good moment for the city to step back, take a deep breath, and rethink the entire Greenway scheme.

Big Dig equipped with killer safety rails

adamg — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:13:01 +0000

The Globe documents the death of seven motorists - "most of them gruesomely dismembered" - due to the railings intended to keep maintenance workers from falling into traffic.

He pines for the Central Artery

adamg — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:01:21 +0000

Stephen Heuser acknowledges the Central Artery had to come down, but, darnit, he misses the muscular exurberance of infrastructure that wasn't afraid to admit it was infrastructure. Yes, really.

Via Commonwealth Unbound.