[Alina20100]

Big Dig Nation!

In the late '80s and early '90s, the Big Dig was seen as Tip O'Neill's gift to his home state, a giant infusion of federal cash in the midst of a deep recession. Everyone wanted their piece: the unions, looking for thousands of high-paid jobs with lots of overtime; the environmentalists, demanding acres of parks and millions in "mitigation;" the politically-connected neighborhoods of Southie, Eastie and the North End, demanding perks and discounts.

And, of course, the architects, engineers, contractors and the project manager, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, all of whom had lobbyists. They all knew how to bid low and use change orders to ratchet up the price.

They all knew how to push the politicians' buttons. Don't think about the cost, they said. Think about the jobs, the economic boost, the greenway reconnecting downtown Boston to the harbor, the smooth flow of traffic, the many ways the Big Dig could make Boston a "world class" city.

...At the start, the feds were paying 90 percent of the Big Dig's costs, estimated to be a modest $2.35 billion in 1983. According to the Globe's figures, Massachusetts will end up paying 73 percent of the final $22 billion cost... we'll be paying for it until 2038.

...Big Dig [debt service] is draining highway repair money from every other needed project, as it has for more than a decade. Almost 80 percent of state highway workers are being paid with borrowed money, the Globe reports. When you factor in the interest, that means an $18-an-hour worker is costing the state $28.80 an hour.

Rick Holmes: 'The ride ain't free' I'd be less skeptical of our prospects for truly improving our infrastructure if it was driven by planners and responsible public servants with a realistic understanding of the perils of public debt. But I'm afraid we're more likely to have hysterical politicians feverishly lobbying for a chunk of 'free federal money' with all the attendant hangers-on riding their coattails.


That said, I can't think of a better project, (aside from Tappan Zee upgrade 4A), than the Boston to Montreal High-Speed Rail corridor.

Direct rail services between Boston and Montreal using the proposed route operated for approximately 110 years until the early 1960’s. In the first half of the 20th Century, the Boston-Montreal services along this route ran using steam locomotives with two or three round trips per day, with one way trip times in the range of 10 to 12 hours. By 1961, a diesel propulsion service along this route was offered with one round trip per day making fewer stops, with a one-way trip time of 8 hours and 30 minutes.

...the BMHSR Corridor is 329.4 miles



Highest Speed Express Service could potentially make the trip in 4 hours 30 minutes with four intermediate stops accounting for an hour of that, have a max speed of 110 mph with no restrictions for existing horizontal curves (meaning substantial trackage and crossing improvements).

...there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done...- BHO