Ian… GBH….. the whole team…THANK YOU! Everyone I know in RI thinks I’m nuts for investing so much of my time in this series. But as a dam removal project administrator… this has been THE best therapy tool. I never want the series to end.
I don't know how I found this series, but I'm glad I did. Your work was thorough and entertaining; you truly did an outstanding job. Many times large infrastructure projects only focus on the impact of the majority, but you did a wonderful job showing the sacrifice of the people in the community for the greater good. Being about your age, I too remember glimpses of the central artery when my father would take me into Boston for a day. We usually parked under it, and took the T around the city. Years later visiting the city it just felt like the city was always designed that way with everything being open. It's not until you look back at the size of the project do you realize how greatly it has impacted the city. Not only has it improved the quality of life for those living in it, but anyone traveling to, or thorough it as well. And lest we forget how much it has helped out Logan airport as well. In the end, the juice was definitely worth the squeeze.
@@therealcmj Have you even seen any of the drawings of the tunnel proposals, post axe? went to many of the "save the rail link" meetings. and know this is fantasy,
@@nesman You should have seen the footprints for the stations, and the multitudes of deeper than Porter Square escalators proposed. not only that, the stub stations would still need to remain; just count the trains. It would make great flood storage to keep the highway open for the buses that would be regularly deployed with every storm.
"are former secreteries of transportation officially allowed to jaywalk?" "I'm a Bostonian. It's an inherent right of Boston-born people to jaywalk." You couldn't be more right Fred!
@@johncassani6780I know. And I've been trying to get one for years! Because it'd be an awesome thing to have framed and hanging somewhere in the house.
Jaywalking is technically illegal in Boston, but it’s one of those things everyone does even though they’re not supposed to do; kind of like checking the box that says “I have read the Terms of Service Agreement” when they haven’t.
I am old enough to have driven on the Central Artery and then the O'Neil tunnel. I can't add to this but the lessons that will be learned will probably won't come to light until after I stop driving. There is always the good, the bad and the ugly to construction projects. My take is the good is the green space that came out of this, the bad was the years of construction and the ugly was the cost along with the leaks and the death. I'm hoping that now the T is taken on and put on the road to being what it should be. Fast & efficient enough that traffic is pretty much the same on the roads no matter what time of day it is! And thanks for taking this on. It was enlightening and educational and brought up memories that I will now have to share with the youngsters in my family.
This series has changed my perception of the Big Dig. I live about an hour outside Boston and as I was growing up in the 90s and 00s, it was constantly in the news-and never in a good way. I also remember the Boston Science Museum’s exhibit on the Big Dig, which is gone now. If I remember right, animations and videos in that exhibit were never updated, so every time you watched them it was just a reminder of how expensive and long the project had become. Seeing the whole project from another perspective has been really enlightening!
This has been one of the most amazing podcasts for a project that defined much of my childhood. Thank you for your work in producing it… now I dont know what im going to do homework to while i finish this semester out
I played a very very small role but remember that time fondly. This series really brought back a lot of memories of the events and players of the day. Kinda sad and nostalgic but the beautiful city we have today makes me happy. @@swampyfox8688
Totally agree! We send so much money abroad to other countries no one batts and eye anymore, I am super happy when we get to spend it a home and change our own lives. Thank you for your efforts!
I can’t agree. The fact that the people who use it still are not bearing any costs for it in the form of tolls is absolutely absurd, when people who drive the Mass Pike are still paying tolls despite the fact that they were supposed to end once the bonds were paid off, which was 30 or so years ago. Also, Boston has definitely become a nicer city for tourists, perhaps, but there’s so little parking in the city, especially since the waterfront was developed. And, the city, along with the whole metro area, is now utterly unaffordable for working class people. Costs matter, and they should be borne by those who benefit most.
Thank you for doing this amazing series. I learned so much about this project and even though I dont remeber the elevated structure, the historian in me appreciates it and all the history of the dig. We will certainly be talking about it for generations.
Thank you for all the time and effort that went into making this Podcast/documentary!!! I grew up in NYC in the 80/90s, but when I was in the military I dated someone that lived in Boston and I remember all the traffic I hit on the elevated Central Artery… I also remember that Boston’s MOST (Museum of Sci&Tech) had an entire exhibit on “The Big Dig”, that was the first time I ever heard the term… Then 10 years later I returned to Boston for Graduate School and spent 2 years living in the area and was great full for the change that this project made to the city… I’ve even shared before/after photos with friends of this project and NYC’s Times Square eliminating car lanes of traffic for pedestrian plazas… “When you build a city for cars, you get traffic… but when you build it for people, you get more people to enjoy it”
This was an amazing journey for someone who doesn't live in Boston. Truly excellent work. Thank you Ian and GBH. Thanks also to Fred for demonstrating Steve Jobs level vision and determination.
Thoroughly enjoyed this series. In 1987, My husband and I left the South Shore before this all started and after he was stuck in a traffic jam in the tunnel from the airport at 2:30 in the morning. Shortly thereafter he said…enough and resigned from the Gillette Co. He talked often about the manufacturing area and the concern about the blades being damaged if tunnels were built near by.. it was a very real concern. I’m glad they were able to work around the situation and that the company could keep on making blades in Boston. Many of the factory jobs were legacy types. Grandfather, father and son kept the jobs in the family. Not sure if that is true today. Maybe one day I can return and enjoy the parks and walkways and make a stop in the North end for a cannoli. Thanks for the ride.
Listening to salvucci walk and reminisce his battles with people who didn’t want the project. Man do I feel that. Worst part about working for a dot…the people and their complaints…all the while trying to keep it civil. There’s nothing civil about being a civil engineer.
Maybe I am biased, being a local. But this is my favorite podcast. Listened to the whole thing. Then found these videos and had to watch it all. Feels like going back home to a place that doesn’t exist anymore, but also a completely new appreciation for what we have now. Thank you❤
Great job on the series...and I really enjoyed the "shots" of The Pot Shop for The Omelette Pan in the North End, which used to be owned by Vincent Zarrilli, who also ran a little campaign against the Big Dig called the Boston Bypass. Zarrilli, a North End resident, put up these Back the BB signs all around the North End. I worked with his son and in 1989, had some free time at the end of the year and helped Vincent paint some of those signs. Sadly Vincent died in 2018, but his memory lives on in the shop, which is now only online.
Thank you for making the series. I've listened to the whole set. I was on the GLX on opening weekend for Union Square and opening day for Medford/Tufts. Boston has a lot of potential to do more with public transit and build the alternatives so that fewer people have to drive. I hope we do.
what a gem of a podcast, THANK YOU to everyone involved! < 3 (and yet, again - still baffled by the fact the main reason the big dig shouldn't have been built wasn't even mentioned: the induced traffic associated to it / the traffic evaporation just tearing it down would demonstrably have led to)
Enjoyed the podcast very much from the other side of the ocean. Nine episodes of slow TV, I really loved it. Gave both the insight that things are different over there as well as that things are pretty much the same.
Real great series! Amazing work and I’m sad it’s over. It’s sad that the upbeat note this series ends with has been tainted by the recent revelations about shoddy work on the Green Line Extension. A lot more work is needed to rebuild the trust unfortunately.
Oddly enough I appreciate this series /because/ of the current issues with the GLX. It gives people a look into how big projects happen with all the usual issues. It's easy to hear about the gauge issues and compare it to, say, the slurry wall. I hope it gives people insight into how the big infrastructural sausage gets made.
Wow, excellent job putting all this together! You pretty much connected all the dots behind the messy history of this infamous project, which was extremely painful but necessary in getting rid of the even more infamous elevated highway over Boston and adding greenery to the city. Keep up the great work in future series!
Wow, this makes me so homesick. When I was in college in Boston, that "other green monster" was my reality. Can't wait to go back and see how much this area has changed since then. Thank you for such tremendous reporting! I've lived in Seattle long enough now to have witnessed our own big dig, a tunnel excavated by the biggest drill in the world and the removal of a viaduct that has allowed for a revitalized waterfront. Visitors want to see the typical tourists spots, while I point out the infrastructure marvels that truly make this city great. By the end of this year, tourists should be able to take a skybridge from the iconic Pike Place Market right down to our beautiful, more accessible waterfront. I'm pretty sure none of this would've gotten through Seattle's notorious city government process without Boston's Big Dig providing inspiration. If that had been easy, Seattlites might have given up when the project here hit bumps. That Boston persevered makes all the difference for other cities with the guts. My heart will always belong to Boston, but at least Seattle is giving it a go!
I just wanted to thank you for making this documentary! I'm from Rochester NY but my mom is from Boston and my wife lived there in the late 90's. We visit at least every other year and love the city, we have a favorite restaurant in the North End and this past labor day we stayed right across from the Greenway and it was beautiful, as an outsider I think the project was a great success. We walked to the North end every day to eat and the Greenway was bustling with people, probably people visiting and enjoying the city! Great documentary!
Very nice podcast, never been to Boston and I am not even american but it's really well done and it gives an amazing insight which can be applied to many large cities across the world dealing with large scale projects. My personal opinion is that, whereas the final result is definitely good, I hardly believe it can be considered a "success story" considering the huge mismanagement, financial and not, it went through. Frankly speaking spending 14-24 billions dollar for something like this is ridiculous.
Nothing good comes easy; but without the pain, the suffering and the cost it does not come at all. Boston lives and is a better place because of the Big Dig.
Bravo, well done. I laughed, I cried, I learned things and I remembered things. Thank you all so much for this, it was incredible. Thank you for the ride, Ian! And everyone at GBH. ❤
Great series. Really enjoyed all 9 episodes. Good job to the team on this. The Big Dig is a fascinating work of engineering and the impact it had on the community is huge. There are negatives and positives to all of it. The crazy thing is that the traffic is still horrendous. The other day I was headed home during rush hour and was in the tunnel for almost an hour smh.
Somehow I think the people who are now saying it was 'worth it' (at 15 billion) would still say so if it costed $150 billion. They are focused on the result, to them there's no such thing as too much, and that's really not the right view of have on this. I think the real test of whether such a project is 'worth it' is if other cities want to follow suit. I think other cities look at the big dig and say ,no way we would ever spend anywhere near that amount on such a project.
Wednesdays have been fun thanks to you guys! In a weird way I miss the old artery. Just because it was what I knew as a kid. I miss seeing that building with the giant flag hanging in the arch. I don’t miss the jam of traffic. It certainly is better traffic wise. A big thanks to all who made it happen!
Great podcast! I miss New England and this made me feel back at home. This last episode must must have been recorded before we found out about the green line extension track problems or that last several minutes would have been different!
An incredible series. Well put together and very informative. Not just the story of one building project but a lesson on what it takes to attempt to take a huge transformative project to the finish line. Any one off project will run into numerous problems that no one has predicted. A large part of the population does not tolerate the unknown. We saw this with Covid. No one had the answers when a novel virus appeared. We live in a world where the difficult problems do not have easy and obvious answers. Politicians are risk adverse so shy away from the big problems of the day. A tax cut is safer for them than attempting to fix the T.
Growing up as a kid from the south coast, I remember many summers having to drive through the central artery during the end construction phase of the big dig. Remember vividly being on the lower level of the central artery over the Charles River in that traffic when the vacation was coming to a close and my father was driving us all back home. I can remember my parents dismay of having to drive through Boston. Its been 20 years since the tunnel first opened, and i think it was absolutely worth the cost and heartburn to make it a reality.
Excellent series! Loved every bit of it. Was there corruption and mistakes made in the big dig? Of course there were. But the benefits vastly outweigh the negatives. Looking forward to seeing what chaos the Tobin bridge replacement will bring
Holding up the GLX as "hope"? Haha how's that working out for you? Looking forward to the "special bonus episode" of the podcast where you level with people.
I love that there was a huge fight over the name of the Zakim bridge and yet Lechmere station is still called that even though its been a Best Buy for 30 years.
What a well-made piece of work -- the series, not the dig. I was driving semis cross-country back in the late '70s, so had the "opportunity" to drive from Marblehead out to Orleans one day on the old elevated highway -- couldn't imagine doing that every day or even once a week. Either way, from '08 to '19 I drove from Logan west on the Pike several times and had a number of opportunities to drive north and south on the new 93. It's a nice road, and the parks are pleasant. Whether it's all worth what it cost is a very real question. Sooner or later you run out of other peoples' money.
This entire series is incredible. I live in Houston and we're about to start our "Big Dig". I found this incredibly insightful. Perhaps a look at what's to come for my city.
Two very different cities / infrastructures. Aside from the existing congestion and a convoluted infrastructure, the City of Boston had the natural barriers of the Harbor, the Charles River and a very harsh Winter climate standing the way (not to mention decades of political traffic jams)
Through the 80's until I retired in 2001, I was managing operations and maintenance for the Boston School Bus system, starting as a Supervisor then promoted to Branch Manager and, in my last years, as General Manager. As the Big Dig progressed it became a daily part of our routine to adjust, reroute, and - sometimes - think seriously about quitting. But we made it work, and our team achieved a 98% on-time record despite the obstacles we encountered daily, eventually providing over 175 million student passenger trips. But it wasn't our team only that made it work, and great credit must be given to the coordination between the Boston School Department, the managers of the Big Dig Project, and Boston City Hall. One thing, however, was not anticipated as we worked through this. Homeless rats. As they were displaced by the construction, these "Wharf Rats" as we called them scurried around everywhere, looking for food and new homes. So one of our Branch Managers brought a cat to his part of the operation in a futile effort to control the rats. The cat was slaughtered. 😖 Aside from that, however, it all worked out. Thanks for the memories!
The cost was obscene then, and now, and should never happen again. I lived in Boston in the 80's as a young man, now in Louisville. I seldom took the train to Waltham, or rode the T. My commutes we're generally easy, except for the too often snow. I'm pretty sure Boston today is like Louisville or any American city, and there is less traffic because of the changing office work force, and deserted downtowns. But I will say the absence of the old Artery has been replaced by a beautiful front door for Boston.
I remember in the 90's if you wanted to walk to the North End from downtown you had to walk in that ugly corridor under the highway that was dark and dank, and smelled like urine, with a bunch of bums drinking down there. The city is so much nicer now. For all the problems with the project the results have been pretty great.
I'm about the same age as you, from central MA. I grew up hearing nothing but BS and FUD about the project, that it was a disaster, a waste, etc. I never saw the artery tunnel until I was an adult, driving through it alone, by myself, for the first time. I still remember being in awe of it. If you come from the south, the contrast going from the tunnel up onto the Zakim bridge and elevated I-93 is dizzying. It was worth every penny.
Fantastic series. Thank you. Crazy to imagine that the project has roots put down before I was born…and I am not young 😂 The BD was not perfect but it was transformative.
Worth every single penny. I do agree we could do with a big dig style project for the T. And the big dig should be used as evidence as to why to do something like this as opposed to not.
Like a lot of things in life, the Big Dig was messy in all the ways a thing like the Big Dig can be messy. It should not be used as a reason to stop investing ourselves, our communities, our country.
The problem is that you have a large group of people who are naysayers. They throw rocks at other people's accomplishments. The Big Dig was an EXTRAORDINARY accomplishment.
For those viewers that came away with the warm fuzzies due to ending with the Green Line Extension opening, new flash, they measured the gauges incorrectly, increasing the risk of a derailment, and had to fix about 80% of the track from the project....
The Big Dig is awesome - I've always felt that way - but please, someone has to pick up the gauntlet again - - 95 MUST be completed - - the reasons don't require explaining and I'm baffled as to why it's hardly ever spoken about. It's so completely obvious to anyone using our highway system, every single vehicle heading north toward the city, from Rt3, Rt24, Rt95 and Rt128 itself (which yes, is actually "south"), every single vehicle is making it's way to the South East Expressway - and yes, it's a long standing joke, "Expressway" couldn't be any more of an oxymoron as it applies to that poor overrun 11 mile stretch of, again, oxymoron, highway- the failure to complete 95 has kept our state's highway system crippled - it should be at the top of the list of our transportation authorities.
I wish they had First addressed the mass transit system to make that the mode of transportation that was most affordable, pleasant and easy for people to use. Then, fix roads after that. With that kind of money, there could have been high speed rail across the state AND it likely could have been offered for free to users for some amount of time or permanently. What a shortsighted waste of money and resources it was...
The green line extension was the best of the SIP/MOU projects, In that unlike the Old Colony lines, does not just go out to a parking lot wasteland, but into the thick of transit oriented development. The North Shore got screwed! AGAIN! No one loses elections screwing transit, or its users.
thank u sir 4 this kind iof viodeo, i still say this is / was one of the difficult project after the canal ever humans buiklt, factewr in the human factor
The first mistake was building downtown highways. The second was assuming that having the entire country fund the Big Dig was a ‘great thing.’ Don’t get me wrong, I am very much in favor of the burial of the highway. It was Tip O’Neill’s greatest gift to Boston. I just observe that the cost was paid by some poor smuck in Peoria!
Notice how, two decades after the Tip O’Neil Tunnel opened, MassDOT still has not used the correct MUTCD striping on both directions (at least as shown in this video) to indicate Exit-Only Lanes. Which leads to confusion and last-minute lane changes. It´s a sad commentary on how “Independent” the asphalt planning in Massachusetts can be. And why, when the tunnel is never subject to snow or ice, is there absolutely no use of raised reflectors or “Bott Dots” to emphasize the lanes there? $23 Billion was the true cost, it came from the rest of the USA, but Massachusetts follows the beat of its own drummer.
This entire series was a tremendous piece of journalism and storytelling. Thank you!
I feel exactly the opposite.
@@timlynch5710What complaints do you have, specifically?
Ian… GBH….. the whole team…THANK YOU! Everyone I know in RI thinks I’m nuts for investing so much of my time in this series. But as a dam removal project administrator… this has been THE best therapy tool. I never want the series to end.
I don't know how I found this series, but I'm glad I did. Your work was thorough and entertaining; you truly did an outstanding job. Many times large infrastructure projects only focus on the impact of the majority, but you did a wonderful job showing the sacrifice of the people in the community for the greater good. Being about your age, I too remember glimpses of the central artery when my father would take me into Boston for a day. We usually parked under it, and took the T around the city. Years later visiting the city it just felt like the city was always designed that way with everything being open. It's not until you look back at the size of the project do you realize how greatly it has impacted the city. Not only has it improved the quality of life for those living in it, but anyone traveling to, or thorough it as well. And lest we forget how much it has helped out Logan airport as well. In the end, the juice was definitely worth the squeeze.
Man I'm bummed the NSRL got axed from the big dig. We truly needed that for boston to connect north and south station.
It's not too late! The construction was done so that when the time comes it's (relatively) easy to do. Just dig it out, lay the tracks, and boom done.
@@therealcmj Have you even seen any of the drawings of the tunnel proposals, post axe? went to many of the "save the rail link" meetings. and know this is fantasy,
@@therealcmj I'm not so sure about that man. I read the study about doing it and they'd be tunnel boring it all.
@@nesman You should have seen the footprints for the stations, and the multitudes of deeper than Porter Square escalators proposed. not only that, the stub stations would still need to remain; just count the trains. It would make great flood storage to keep the highway open for the buses that would be regularly deployed with every storm.
"are former secreteries of transportation officially allowed to jaywalk?"
"I'm a Bostonian. It's an inherent right of Boston-born people to jaywalk."
You couldn't be more right Fred!
It’s practically enshrined in state law! It’s a $1 fine for the first 3 offenses in a twelve month period, and $2 for every additional offense!
@@johncassani6780I know. And I've been trying to get one for years! Because it'd be an awesome thing to have framed and hanging somewhere in the house.
Jaywalking is technically illegal in Boston, but it’s one of those things everyone does even though they’re not supposed to do; kind of like checking the box that says “I have read the Terms of Service Agreement” when they haven’t.
Its only Jaywalking if you 'steal' the right of way from a car. No car? No Jaywalking.
Jaywalking was invented by the auto industry to take away the rights of pedestrians to cross the street.
Maybe the real big dig were the friends we made along the way ❤️
😂
I am old enough to have driven on the Central Artery and then the O'Neil tunnel. I can't add to this but the lessons that will be learned will probably won't come to light until after I stop driving. There is always the good, the bad and the ugly to construction projects. My take is the good is the green space that came out of this, the bad was the years of construction and the ugly was the cost along with the leaks and the death. I'm hoping that now the T is taken on and put on the road to being what it should be. Fast & efficient enough that traffic is pretty much the same on the roads no matter what time of day it is!
And thanks for taking this on. It was enlightening and educational and brought up memories that I will now have to share with the youngsters in my family.
It's really sad and ironic that the Green Line optimism has already vanished with finger pointing over how the rails are the wrong width.
This series has changed my perception of the Big Dig. I live about an hour outside Boston and as I was growing up in the 90s and 00s, it was constantly in the news-and never in a good way. I also remember the Boston Science Museum’s exhibit on the Big Dig, which is gone now. If I remember right, animations and videos in that exhibit were never updated, so every time you watched them it was just a reminder of how expensive and long the project had become. Seeing the whole project from another perspective has been really enlightening!
This has been one of the most amazing podcasts for a project that defined much of my childhood. Thank you for your work in producing it… now I dont know what im going to do homework to while i finish this semester out
It would have been worth it at twice the cost. I'm proud to have been a contractor involved in this project. I can't even imagine the city without it.
Hey man… thank you for the thankless job you did… and all the bullshit you had to put up with. I’m proud of you… and I’m grateful for you.
I played a very very small role but remember that time fondly. This series really brought back a lot of memories of the events and players of the day. Kinda sad and nostalgic but the beautiful city we have today makes me happy. @@swampyfox8688
Yes, thank you for what you did despite all the hate. Boston likes to complain about everything, but it’s a undoubtedly a better place now.
Totally agree! We send so much money abroad to other countries no one batts and eye anymore, I am super happy when we get to spend it a home and change our own lives. Thank you for your efforts!
I can’t agree. The fact that the people who use it still are not bearing any costs for it in the form of tolls is absolutely absurd, when people who drive the Mass Pike are still paying tolls despite the fact that they were supposed to end once the bonds were paid off, which was 30 or so years ago. Also, Boston has definitely become a nicer city for tourists, perhaps, but there’s so little parking in the city, especially since the waterfront was developed. And, the city, along with the whole metro area, is now utterly unaffordable for working class people. Costs matter, and they should be borne by those who benefit most.
Thank you for doing this amazing series. I learned so much about this project and even though I dont remeber the elevated structure, the historian in me appreciates it and all the history of the dig. We will certainly be talking about it for generations.
PS: Thank you Fred… for your hard work… perseverance… and most of all…. for caring.
Thank you for all the time and effort that went into making this Podcast/documentary!!!
I grew up in NYC in the 80/90s, but when I was in the military I dated someone that lived in Boston and I remember all the traffic I hit on the elevated Central Artery… I also remember that Boston’s MOST (Museum of Sci&Tech) had an entire exhibit on “The Big Dig”, that was the first time I ever heard the term…
Then 10 years later I returned to Boston for Graduate School and spent 2 years living in the area and was great full for the change that this project made to the city… I’ve even shared before/after photos with friends of this project and NYC’s Times Square eliminating car lanes of traffic for pedestrian plazas…
“When you build a city for cars, you get traffic… but when you build it for people, you get more people to enjoy it”
Now the GLX is filled with slow zones, narrow tracks, etc The story rhymes yet again!
This was an amazing journey for someone who doesn't live in Boston. Truly excellent work. Thank you Ian and GBH. Thanks also to Fred for demonstrating Steve Jobs level vision and determination.
Thoroughly enjoyed this series. In 1987, My husband and I left the South Shore before this all started and after he was stuck in a traffic jam in the tunnel from the airport at 2:30 in the morning. Shortly thereafter he said…enough and resigned from the Gillette Co. He talked often about the manufacturing area and the concern about the blades being damaged if tunnels were built near by.. it was a very real concern. I’m glad they were able to work around the situation and that the company could keep on making blades in Boston. Many of the factory jobs were legacy types. Grandfather, father and son kept the jobs in the family. Not sure if that is true today. Maybe one day I can return and enjoy the parks and walkways and make a stop in the North end for a cannoli. Thanks for the ride.
Listening to salvucci walk and reminisce his battles with people who didn’t want the project. Man do I feel that. Worst part about working for a dot…the people and their complaints…all the while trying to keep it civil. There’s nothing civil about being a civil engineer.
Maybe I am biased, being a local. But this is my favorite podcast. Listened to the whole thing. Then found these videos and had to watch it all. Feels like going back home to a place that doesn’t exist anymore, but also a completely new appreciation for what we have now. Thank you❤
Great job on the series...and I really enjoyed the "shots" of The Pot Shop for The Omelette Pan in the North End, which used to be owned by Vincent Zarrilli, who also ran a little campaign against the Big Dig called the Boston Bypass. Zarrilli, a North End resident, put up these Back the BB signs all around the North End. I worked with his son and in 1989, had some free time at the end of the year and helped Vincent paint some of those signs. Sadly Vincent died in 2018, but his memory lives on in the shop, which is now only online.
Thanks GBH and Ian. Amazing work
One of the best podcasts I've listened to in a long time. Completely changed my perception of the Big Dig. Well done.
Thank you for making the series. I've listened to the whole set.
I was on the GLX on opening weekend for Union Square and opening day for Medford/Tufts.
Boston has a lot of potential to do more with public transit and build the alternatives so that fewer people have to drive.
I hope we do.
What a nice ending! I truly appreciate this video adaptation providing footage of the open spaces created by moving the HIGHway UNDERground. BRAVO!!
I listened, thank you to all the team, thank you for the excellent work
what a gem of a podcast, THANK YOU to everyone involved! < 3
(and yet, again - still baffled by the fact the main reason the big dig shouldn't have been built wasn't even mentioned:
the induced traffic associated to it / the traffic evaporation just tearing it down would demonstrably have led to)
Enjoyed the podcast very much from the other side of the ocean. Nine episodes of slow TV, I really loved it.
Gave both the insight that things are different over there as well as that things are pretty much the same.
Great job putting this together. Knowing the history of this project has made me appreciate it so much more.
This was an amazing series. Great job
Real great series! Amazing work and I’m sad it’s over.
It’s sad that the upbeat note this series ends with has been tainted by the recent revelations about shoddy work on the Green Line Extension. A lot more work is needed to rebuild the trust unfortunately.
Oddly enough I appreciate this series /because/ of the current issues with the GLX. It gives people a look into how big projects happen with all the usual issues. It's easy to hear about the gauge issues and compare it to, say, the slurry wall. I hope it gives people insight into how the big infrastructural sausage gets made.
Nicely done, Ian and GBH! Thank you for the content!
Fantastic job, thanks for the whole series. As someone who has never lived in Boston but has always been interested in the Big Dig this is so good.
Great job, Ian! Great storytelling! Awesome effort!
Wow, excellent job putting all this together! You pretty much connected all the dots behind the messy history of this infamous project, which was extremely painful but necessary in getting rid of the even more infamous elevated highway over Boston and adding greenery to the city. Keep up the great work in future series!
Wow, this makes me so homesick. When I was in college in Boston, that "other green monster" was my reality. Can't wait to go back and see how much this area has changed since then. Thank you for such tremendous reporting! I've lived in Seattle long enough now to have witnessed our own big dig, a tunnel excavated by the biggest drill in the world and the removal of a viaduct that has allowed for a revitalized waterfront. Visitors want to see the typical tourists spots, while I point out the infrastructure marvels that truly make this city great. By the end of this year, tourists should be able to take a skybridge from the iconic Pike Place Market right down to our beautiful, more accessible waterfront. I'm pretty sure none of this would've gotten through Seattle's notorious city government process without Boston's Big Dig providing inspiration. If that had been easy, Seattlites might have given up when the project here hit bumps. That Boston persevered makes all the difference for other cities with the guts. My heart will always belong to Boston, but at least Seattle is giving it a go!
Great work to Ian, GBH, and PRX! Thank you! Almost 9 hours worth of stories and history! Loved it!
I just wanted to thank you for making this documentary! I'm from Rochester NY but my mom is from Boston and my wife lived there in the late 90's. We visit at least every other year and love the city, we have a favorite restaurant in the North End and this past labor day we stayed right across from the Greenway and it was beautiful, as an outsider I think the project was a great success. We walked to the North end every day to eat and the Greenway was bustling with people, probably people visiting and enjoying the city! Great documentary!
Hats off! I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a ton from this series!
Thank you so much, makers of this podcast. It is informative, entertaining and eye-opening, and I totally enjoyed listening to every episode.
Very nice podcast, never been to Boston and I am not even american but it's really well done and it gives an amazing insight which can be applied to many large cities across the world dealing with large scale projects. My personal opinion is that, whereas the final result is definitely good, I hardly believe it can be considered a "success story" considering the huge mismanagement, financial and not, it went through. Frankly speaking spending 14-24 billions dollar for something like this is ridiculous.
Nothing good comes easy; but without the pain, the suffering and the cost it does not come at all. Boston lives and is a better place because of the Big Dig.
I've loved this podcast, thank you!
Bravo, well done. I laughed, I cried, I learned things and I remembered things. Thank you all so much for this, it was incredible. Thank you for the ride, Ian! And everyone at GBH. ❤
Thank YOU for listening to the podcast!
Great series. Really enjoyed all 9 episodes. Good job to the team on this. The Big Dig is a fascinating work of engineering and the impact it had on the community is huge. There are negatives and positives to all of it. The crazy thing is that the traffic is still horrendous. The other day I was headed home during rush hour and was in the tunnel for almost an hour smh.
This podcast is a great reminder to donate to WGBH!
This was a great series, thank you so much for all the work you and your team have dedicated on creating this informative series.
Somehow I think the people who are now saying it was 'worth it' (at 15 billion) would still say so if it costed $150 billion.
They are focused on the result, to them there's no such thing as too much, and that's really not the right view of have on this.
I think the real test of whether such a project is 'worth it' is if other cities want to follow suit. I think other cities look at the big dig and say ,no way we would ever spend anywhere near that amount on such a project.
This series was fantastic! Thank you Ian and team for all your hard work on this!
Very well done Ian, and all involved. It was a pleasure to learn the story of the Big Dig in a new, interesting perspective.
Great work of journalism. Unfortunately, as a 47 year resident of Boston, living here sucks, it's always sucked, and it will suck forever.
Wednesdays have been fun thanks to you guys! In a weird way I miss the old artery. Just because it was what I knew as a kid. I miss seeing that building with the giant flag hanging in the arch. I don’t miss the jam of traffic. It certainly is better traffic wise. A big thanks to all who made it happen!
this is the comprehensive series about the Big Dig I've wanted since I was like 15 or so thanks Ian for the work to make this happen
This series has made me fall in love with Boston all over again ❤
Great podcast! I miss New England and this made me feel back at home. This last episode must must have been recorded before we found out about the green line extension track problems or that last several minutes would have been different!
Absolutely amazing series - hats off to the entire team
An incredible series. Well put together and very informative. Not just the story of one building project but a lesson on what it takes to attempt to take a huge transformative project to the finish line. Any one off project will run into numerous problems that no one has predicted. A large part of the population does not tolerate the unknown. We saw this with Covid. No one had the answers when a novel virus appeared. We live in a world where the difficult problems do not have easy and obvious answers. Politicians are risk adverse so shy away from the big problems of the day. A tax cut is safer for them than attempting to fix the T.
Well said
And so, after 8 episodes of terror...IT ENDS IN TRIUMPH???
Yeah, pretty much like the Star Wars saga, right?
Agreed
Bravo, Ian and the team that helped you put this series together. I know the amount of work it took.
Love this series! Great insight, love the history.
Growing up as a kid from the south coast, I remember many summers having to drive through the central artery during the end construction phase of the big dig. Remember vividly being on the lower level of the central artery over the Charles River in that traffic when the vacation was coming to a close and my father was driving us all back home. I can remember my parents dismay of having to drive through Boston. Its been 20 years since the tunnel first opened, and i think it was absolutely worth the cost and heartburn to make it a reality.
Excellent series! Loved every bit of it. Was there corruption and mistakes made in the big dig? Of course there were. But the benefits vastly outweigh the negatives. Looking forward to seeing what chaos the Tobin bridge replacement will bring
Great series. It makes me nostalgic for Boston. Thanks for making this.
Holding up the GLX as "hope"? Haha how's that working out for you? Looking forward to the "special bonus episode" of the podcast where you level with people.
I love that there was a huge fight over the name of the Zakim bridge and yet Lechmere station is still called that even though its been a Best Buy for 30 years.
The Big Dig resulted in an undeniably successful outcome. The controversies will be forgotten to time, but the success will remain for generations.
What a well-made piece of work -- the series, not the dig. I was driving semis cross-country back in the late '70s, so had the "opportunity" to drive from Marblehead out to Orleans one day on the old elevated highway -- couldn't imagine doing that every day or even once a week. Either way, from '08 to '19 I drove from Logan west on the Pike several times and had a number of opportunities to drive north and south on the new 93. It's a nice road, and the parks are pleasant. Whether it's all worth what it cost is a very real question. Sooner or later you run out of other peoples' money.
This entire series is incredible. I live in Houston and we're about to start our "Big Dig". I found this incredibly insightful. Perhaps a look at what's to come for my city.
Two very different cities / infrastructures. Aside from the existing congestion and a convoluted infrastructure, the City of Boston had the natural barriers of the Harbor, the Charles River and a very harsh Winter climate standing the way (not to mention decades of political traffic jams)
aww the podcast is over.
Thank you for the history on the big dig.
Through the 80's until I retired in 2001, I was managing operations and maintenance for the Boston School Bus system, starting as a Supervisor then promoted to Branch Manager and, in my last years, as General Manager. As the Big Dig progressed it became a daily part of our routine to adjust, reroute, and - sometimes - think seriously about quitting. But we made it work, and our team achieved a 98% on-time record despite the obstacles we encountered daily, eventually providing over 175 million student passenger trips. But it wasn't our team only that made it work, and great credit must be given to the coordination between the Boston School Department, the managers of the Big Dig Project, and Boston City Hall. One thing, however, was not anticipated as we worked through this. Homeless rats. As they were displaced by the construction, these "Wharf Rats" as we called them scurried around everywhere, looking for food and new homes. So one of our Branch Managers brought a cat to his part of the operation in a futile effort to control the rats. The cat was slaughtered. 😖 Aside from that, however, it all worked out. Thanks for the memories!
The cost was obscene then, and now, and should never happen again. I lived in Boston in the 80's as a young man, now in Louisville. I seldom took the train to Waltham, or rode the T. My commutes we're generally easy, except for the too often snow. I'm pretty sure Boston today is like Louisville or any American city, and there is less traffic because of the changing office work force, and deserted downtowns. But I will say the absence of the old Artery has been replaced by a beautiful front door for Boston.
I remember in the 90's if you wanted to walk to the North End from downtown you had to walk in that ugly corridor under the highway that was dark and dank, and smelled like urine, with a bunch of bums drinking down there. The city is so much nicer now. For all the problems with the project the results have been pretty great.
I'm about the same age as you, from central MA. I grew up hearing nothing but BS and FUD about the project, that it was a disaster, a waste, etc. I never saw the artery tunnel until I was an adult, driving through it alone, by myself, for the first time. I still remember being in awe of it. If you come from the south, the contrast going from the tunnel up onto the Zakim bridge and elevated I-93 is dizzying. It was worth every penny.
Interesting that the week the series concludes, a report comes out that the MBTA needs 24.5 billion dollars to rehab aging T infrastructure
Fantastic series. Thank you. Crazy to imagine that the project has roots put down before I was born…and I am not young 😂
The BD was not perfect but it was transformative.
Worth every single penny. I do agree we could do with a big dig style project for the T. And the big dig should be used as evidence as to why to do something like this as opposed to not.
Like a lot of things in life, the Big Dig was messy in all the ways a thing like the Big Dig can be messy. It should not be used as a reason to stop investing ourselves, our communities, our country.
thank you for this, very much, thank you
it was,, fun and more than interesting
thank you
The problem is that you have a large group of people who are naysayers. They throw rocks at other people's accomplishments. The Big Dig was an EXTRAORDINARY accomplishment.
For those viewers that came away with the warm fuzzies due to ending with the Green Line Extension opening, new flash, they measured the gauges incorrectly, increasing the risk of a derailment, and had to fix about 80% of the track from the project....
I blame bechtel tbh
My ol' stomping grounds, before this transformation ! 🤠 🇺🇲 👍
I miss the food court eatery in Chinatown on Harrison Ave. & Beach St. aka The 2nd Floor.
The Big Dig is awesome - I've always felt that way - but please, someone has to pick up the gauntlet again - - 95 MUST be completed - - the reasons don't require explaining and I'm baffled as to why it's hardly ever spoken about. It's so completely obvious to anyone using our highway system, every single vehicle heading north toward the city, from Rt3, Rt24, Rt95 and Rt128 itself (which yes, is actually "south"), every single vehicle is making it's way to the South East Expressway - and yes, it's a long standing joke, "Expressway" couldn't be any more of an oxymoron as it applies to that poor overrun 11 mile stretch of, again, oxymoron, highway- the failure to complete 95 has kept our state's highway system crippled - it should be at the top of the list of our transportation authorities.
I wish they had First addressed the mass transit system to make that the mode of transportation that was most affordable, pleasant and easy for people to use. Then, fix roads after that. With that kind of money, there could have been high speed rail across the state AND it likely could have been offered for free to users for some amount of time or permanently. What a shortsighted waste of money and resources it was...
The story mirrors Seattle and I-90 goes from Seattle to Boston .
“It was done by all union labor”, “but it was not corruption” I am not sure those two claims can coexist!
They can’t.
The green line extension was the best of the SIP/MOU projects, In that unlike the Old Colony lines, does not just go out to a parking lot wasteland, but into the thick of transit oriented development. The North Shore got screwed! AGAIN! No one loses elections screwing transit, or its users.
"so why do the controversies define the project?” Simple, people like to complain about anything and everything, even when the result is a success.
thank u sir 4 this kind iof viodeo, i still say this is / was one of the difficult project after the canal ever humans buiklt, factewr in the human factor
Driving to the airport has never been easier
The funniest thing is the MDC cop directing traffic on the on ramp ,he must have made $$$$$$ in over time !
The first mistake was building downtown highways. The second was assuming that having the entire country fund the Big Dig was a ‘great thing.’ Don’t get me wrong, I am very much in favor of the burial of the highway. It was Tip O’Neill’s greatest gift to Boston. I just observe that the cost was paid by some poor smuck in Peoria!
Because it's a warning. Glad that things worked out, but lessons were learned
"But why do controversies define the project?" ...because it's Boston.
Now try that drive in the afternoon
In the past they build big catedrals to honour their gods. Now we build big roads to honour OUR gods.
Conclusions. Bury the motor vehicles.
You could get Robert Moses
He built everything in nyc because he headed up 16 agencies
So no arguing
Oh it was all union labor. You could have saved us 9 episodes and said that from the start.
Jk
Notice how, two decades after the Tip O’Neil Tunnel opened, MassDOT still has not used the correct MUTCD striping on both directions (at least as shown in this video) to indicate Exit-Only Lanes. Which leads to confusion and last-minute lane changes. It´s a sad commentary on how “Independent” the asphalt planning in Massachusetts can be. And why, when the tunnel is never subject to snow or ice, is there absolutely no use of raised reflectors or “Bott Dots” to emphasize the lanes there? $23 Billion was the true cost, it came from the rest of the USA, but Massachusetts follows the beat of its own drummer.
Drive that route at 8am and at 4:30-6p and tell me what you think.