How Boston's Big Dig survived President Ronald Reagan's 1987 veto
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2023
- The great political rivalry of the 1980’s was between President Ronald Reagan, a fiscal conservative and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Massachusetts liberal. O’Neill was a champion of what was then known as the “Central Artery Third Harbor Tunnel” project. Money for the project was included in the 1987 Federal Highway bill. Reagan vetoed the bill calling it a “textbook example of special interests and pork barrel politics.” By then Tip O’Neill had retired, but his influence on Capitol Hill remained.
Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Mitch McConnell both had a role in what happened next.
This is the third in a nine-part podcast series about history and politics of the Big Dig - one of the most notoriously troubled infrastructure projects in American history.
It was created as an audio experience. This presentation includes archival images.
Episode 1: • The Big Dig began with...
Episode 2: • How two competing tunn...
Episode 4: • Here's why Boston's be...
Episode 5: • It took a feat of engi...
Episode 6: • Here's how billions of...
Episode 7: • How a power struggle o...
You can find more about The Big Dig podcast at www.wgbh.org/podcasts/the-big...
And you can hear more about Tip O'Neill in this GBH News radio interview with The Big Dig host Ian Coss: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-...
GBH News is a premier source for in-depth local news and original story telling based in Boston, Massachusetts.
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What memories do you have of Reagan's involvement in the Big Dig?
Appointing a most unqualified Secretary of Transportation In Elizabeth Dole.
@@interstellarphred You mean appointing a conservative which you hate? We understand
Never got the Globe to bring Reagan linked to the tunnel. . But again, at the outset, I was barely out of the boat. And not too soon , Teleprompter reading Reagan was on his way out and replaced by comatose Bush ( probably one of our best president in foreign policy , yet a total disaster in domestic affairs ).
Regan’s idea of pork barrel was “Star Wars “, that pie-in-the-sky plan to create some aerial shield against missiles that never got off the ground . Such an hypocrite. Bush actually, in fairness, cut the defense budget , which lead to increase in consolidation and M&A s amongst defense contractors.
Clinton actually capitalized a lot on the big dig, even through was not his initiative.. I remember him making a few more trips to Boston around then . Construction was at full steam and he campaigned a lot through the region, collecting campaign funds.
@@robertfetrow4612 you can stereotrump all you like, which only demonstrates ignorance; She knew nothing about transportation except that during her tenure, the federal investment in Conrail paid back all the loans, and was making a profit, thus an embarrassment to the popular ideologue demagoguery. and sought to quietly sell it off before anyone noticed.
@@robertfetrow4612 Hate is more of a right wing thing; projecting?
This series on the big dig was incredibly fascinating story of the history of it. As a young teen I’m western Canada I was very fascinated and intrigued about the big dig. Thank you for the incredible backstory that led to its construction.
Thank you for listening! We are so glad you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for more.
Love this series! As aProud Masshole, born and raised, the depth of history to be learned here is incredible. Keep ‘em coming!
More to come! So glad you're enjoying the series.
I moved out of MA as the Big Dig was coming to its completion, honestly when I lived in MA, I could drive from Worcester to Boston in about hmm 40 minutes and it would take longer than that drive just to make it to Logan. Once the new tunnel opened it was an absolute blessing. Now I relocated to GA and driving through Atlanta with its 6 lanes is as bad as Boston use to be with all the highways merging and only 3 lanes. Oh man Atlanta blew my mind 6 lanes and where I20 intersects with I70 and I85 it's a major nightmare and being from MA all I could thing is how could this be. All I know right now is getting in and out of Logan is a cake walk and while I have not been home in quite some time I hope and pray it's a breeze and if that be the case then the Big Dig is worth its weight in gold. I have traveled all over the USA and while the Interstate system is nice its way too congested, and we really need to focus on public transportation. Being from Worcester I can tell you I would ride the bus before driving my car if the buses could get me to where I needed to be. Where I live now there is no public transportation so you had to have a car to get around and I only live 2.5 miles from work, I would walk but there are no side walks, I would ride a bus but (sigh) not busses here and everyone driving thinks its NASCAR so not exactly safe to walk along side of a road.
Plenty of videos here on RUclips about how the US f***ed itself (with lots of help from the auto & oil industries) by going car- and highway crazy after WW2. (Thanks a lot, Ike!) Too many negative effects to believe we went down this road (literally): suburban sprawl, economic segregation, degraded environment, etc. I live in NYC and I thank GOD I don't need to own a car here! (I've visited Boston a lot & you have a pretty healthy mass transit system - it's one of the few places I wouldn't mind moving to if I ever left NYC.)
Okay, I first encountered that 6-lane hwy in high school & immediately thought ATL was crazy!
Thank you! What a great series. I can't wait until the next episode is released.
So glad you enjoyed it! More to come!
I'm really digging this podcast! 😉
I lived in Boston in the late 80s and while certainly aware of the traffic problems, was frankly oblivious to all of the groundwork for the tunnel. This comprehensive look is very eye opening!
These RUclips videos are quite engaging. Obviously these podcasts are all about the audio, so much of the time there's just stock footage of Boston traffic (my shoulders tense up from the triggered memories) -- but when there's synch footage of people such as O'Niell or Reagan it's so powerful to see them in action. (Young Mitch McConnell is still pretty creepy...)
We're so glad you "dig" it! We are experimenting with the visuals we use on these posts, so stayed tuned for more.
As a later transplant (moved in 07), I only know the post-Big-Dig Boston. It's absolutely WILD to see what it used to look like. I'm looking forward to when we get to its effect on the buildings immediately around it - I imagine all the people working in the financial district breathed a big sigh of relief when traffic stopped rumbling right outside their windows
My dad is the only one who got to drive/see on the Central Artery in my family and he very much prefers the Greenway. It's pretty and made the surrounding places so much better (esp. Chinatown by the gate & North End). He was so happy to show my mom and I the Zakim bridge and the new airport tunnel when we first immigrated to Boston. When the Greenway "opened" in 2008, it felt like a new era as well, with Obama coming in as president (or soon at least).
This is fantastic! And thanks for adding footage of the main events.
You’re welcome! More from The Big Dig and the GBH archives landing here each Wednesday.
The series has been amazing. Great job all around. Do more stuff like this. I could watch this stuff all day
This series is really excellent. I am looking forward to further episodes.
Great job with this series. Amazing behind the scene look at all the pieces/people that were a part of this.
Excellent series!
This video correctly reports that the 1956 Fed Hwy Bill initiated a phase of infrastructure spending unprecedented in American History. What this video doesn't tell you however is that even with all that money the Interstate Highway System was still built "on the cheap". The whole system was built with only an average life expentancy of about 60 years. 60 + 1960 = 2020. Does that tell you why Brandon was able to finally push through an infrastructure bill, now that the highway system is in its projected "twilight years" ??? The truth is that building a highway system with a 200 year life expentency in 1960 would have only required better quality materials and more of them. But the people in Washington back then thought that building better atom bombs and more of them was more important than building high quality infrastructure for The People.
God Bless America !!!
The interstate was for the military, not "the people"
Amazing work, again. Can't wait for the rest.
Yo this pod is lit. I’m learning a lot
As a transplant from the south, who arrived after the BigDig finished, I have always wanted more context.
Thanks for this, and keep it up!!
This podcast is fantastic. I really cannot stop listening!
Thanks for listening!
This is a great series
Preserved forever in the B-roll at 43:13 is one car hitting another at the bottom of the screen.
Had Reagan's veto stuck Boston might have a more robust MBTA system, electrified commuter rail, and a north-south railway link. The 93 viaduct in Charlestown, the Leverett Circle Connector, the Central Artery in Charlestown and Downtown Boston, and the Southeast Expressway Albany Street viaduct would all have been torn down because of LACK OF FUNDING FOR PROPER MAINTENANCE.
These projects are slowly getting funding. Medford Green Line extension , extending the Commuter Rail through New Bedford.
Or more likely, we would have none of those things plus a Big Dig.
This was the time frame when the railway link was eviscerated from the long term vision, over much protest from transit advocates.
It was always too early to talk about it; right up to the time it was too late. The Reagan administration was openly hostile to intercity rail, so it was thrown under the bus.
Thank you for this. Fascinating podcast.
Thank you for listening!
This series is really good
Thank you for watching/listening.
Thank you for sharing a great guy!!😊😊
Why did I watched the 2 other episodes and this one back to back, sure I’m a Bostonian but I never knew how different this city is to the rest of the nation
What a roller coaster ride.
Rush hour from Logan to downtown before the Ted Williams tunnel ….30-40 minutes for a 5 mile stretch under the Harbor. When the new Southie Tunnel came online, 5 minutes.
The old way, you had to wiggle through the busy North End tip by Hanover Street.
The only inconvenience The Big Dig brought , during its construction phase , were the nearly daily changes in routes throughout downtown Boston.
Suddenly, I am looking with a newly found appreciation towards America’s favorite boogeymen , Mitch O’Connell.
The other (western) terminus of I-90 had also gone through quite a bit of legal drama to get completed. Plans were first drafted in 1963 and construction started later during the '60s. But from 1973 until 1982, construction of the last 7 miles from the eastern shore of the East Channel Bridge to Seattle's SoDo terminus was held up. During that time, Seattle drivers had to look at graffiti laden "ramps to nowhere" of the incomplete I-90/I-5 junction, and additional years of reversible lanes (which began in 1960) designed to ease rush hour traffic, but also causing fatal head-on accidents. But starting in 1982 , construction finally resumed, and was all but completed in 1993, despite the November 1990 sinking of the original Lacy V. Murrow I-90 floating bridge between Seattle and Mercer Island. It was undergoing renovation to be the new I-90 eastbound lanes when stormy weather and inept renovation practices sank the 1940 built bridge. Oddly enough, the Reagan administration moved IN FAVOR of it's completion. Go figure!
Excellent comment and contribution!
YAY!!! ACTUAL PICTURES ARE BACK!!?
The Big Dig has not lessened traffic! Cost over runs were terrible.
Baker,who later "served" as Governor" as a "moderate" Republican,transferred 1.8 billion in debt from the cost over runs of the project onto the MBTA.(Overall cost over runs were VERY high and shoddy materials,leaks etc were a result of lack of proper oversight.That ballooning debt was disastrous over time.
Baker, the "charming moderate. later presided over a dismal management(or lack thereof) of the MBTA. He has contempt for pubic transit and public projects and public depts in general.
It's unfortunate that "big" is considered impressive,regardless of the actual value of a project.
A gigantic boondoggle. And in 1987 it was, at the FHWA's complication of 30 cents on the dollar in return, it was a $2.7 billion cost and $900 million in projected benefits. Imagine how much with $22 billion in construction costs!
They didn't understand "more lanes = more traffic". More importantly, there's no reality where cars don't mess things up by default. They're expensive, huge and require too much space waiting to be used again.
It is a microcosm of the whole highway system and a harbinger of the consequences of discounting externalities.
Are you including the populations & densities of both time periods? Because it's easy to see from the old footage that it's better
5:30 The pictures are gone...
I caddied for good ol' Tip O'Neill at the GHI ---> Greater Hartford Open, Summer 1977. The ol' times still are memorable. I carried his golf bag, 18 holes . . . He drove a golf cart ! 🏌️🇺🇲 🤪
I always wondered why there hasn't been any new highway built in decades. I didn't know the program had ended. The highway systems are not keeping up with the ever increasing traffic volume in big cities.
I just miss the Rock Of Boston. 104.1 WBCN FM.
i'm literally having flashbacks to the Reagan era and OMG McConnell enters the swamp
In spite of the opposition, he won Massachusetts' electoral votes in 1984........
When is the next episode?
On Wednesday.
@@ferky123 Cheers!
I found it funny how the traffic footage is so repetitive. Like you can't acquire endless hours of traffic video in boston
They probably didn't have access to much from the 80's
I wish they had shown the interviews.
🤨 How are you complaining? This is an audio podcast, & they were nice enough to bring back footage from old WGBH Big Dig segments
Let the grahics go, this is forever gbh
Excellent well crafted documentary voice over perfect great choice what a shitshow graduated 1999 high school locally and this project was worth it now bridge from Chelsea next project
They could do with a Speaker like Tip today
RIP Brian Donnelly
When the devil looks you in the face and says, "clearly, you are the problem..." - that was actually Ronald Reagan, the biggest devil of them all.
Ted to Terry: "Err-a I will drive you off a crappy bridge in your err-a state."
23:27 did bro just mack?
Sam Rayburn was Speaker of the House for 20 years.
You are correct! However, those years were not served consecutively. Thanks for listening to the podcast, and keeping us on our toes.
14:40 Yay! Videos that actually match the audio! (Even just a few helps...)
Oh Ted put the screws to Sanford. There's no time to bribe him, it was threats.
Mm wll need geet pay doble ok por su leata y trabajo ok
I left Boston just as the Big Dig was getting underway. I haven’t explored the result. The failure to connect rail traffic through North and South stations is unforgivable. Since 2015, Governors Michael Dukakis and Willam Weld have championed getting the job done now. We would all be able to ride Amtrak from Maine to Florida without getting off the train except Boston makes it impossible. It was one of the most tremendous public transportation infrastructure failures of the twentieth century. It’s highly inconvenient, it wastes time and it wastes money, and, it’s fairly embarrassing. So last millennium.
No one outside New England is begging to go to Maine.
This was when America was great?
There is no aspect of American life that wasn’t made worse by Ronald Reagan.
true yet nothing which cannot be fixed & fixing/reversing the damage is a vital & urgent MUST nationally
God. bless President Reagan. We need someone like him now, more than ever.
@@jamessimms415 How so?
no part of the country was safe from reagan.
also its really funny hearing someone call montana 'out west', like california wasnt a state in the 80s or something😶
It IS west. California ain't the only state.
All politics IS local? Why would I bother to watch this when the poster doesn't know when to use ARE and IS.
It’s a direct quote from Tip O Neill. I would argue the use of “are” vs “is” is an example of elitism vs the common man…the common man more likely to use “is”; laying waste to grammatical rules; making a statement therein.
@@can72287 bollocks
Tip O’Neil was probably downing his Sunday doughnut and coffee by his favorite Donut Shope around Belmont, when he uttered this gramatical sacrilege, while tending to his locals . He got it done, while you are pestering about some gramatical nonsense.
They Pahk the cash in that Havid Yard. Live with that.
This might be the worst docu on RUclips
No one except yourself, forced you to watchl
Why do you think that. I’m interested to hear your point of view. I’ve been enjoying these first three episodes
Well it's not a documentary. It's a podcast, as is clearly stated.
Yeah you can thank Tip O'Neill do you remember that that tunnel collapsed killing a woman
The Panama Canal killed thousands. All complex infrastructure can lay claim to lives. The fact that only one passed is a miracle in the scheme of things.
The Haitian couple. God rest her soul. And no, the tunnel did not collapse. A tunnel ceiling concrete plaque suspended by a rusty and under dimensioned fasteners gave in and fell.
Soil around the tunnel was clay and a lot of water from humidity seeped throughout various parts of the tunnel.
The plaque crushed the car , and spare her husband, on the driver’s seat.
@@serafinacosta7118. Should’ve been back in Haiti where they belonged
@@jamessimms415 that is an awful thing to say at the expense of someone else’s tragedy.