We saw Boston as an obstacle in our Sunday route from Cape Cod to Boothbay, Maine. The best option seemed to be I-495 that skirts Boston to the west, but it’s 45 minutes longer than going straight through downtown Boston. However, the thought never occurred to us that we might consider going through downtown through the tunnel.
Then slowly George began to recall a documentary he had seen on the “Big Dig” as Boston’s downtown highway construction project was called. Curiosity and intrigue set in. George began to research the big dig and also posted a message on the Country Coach forum asking if anyone had driven a coach on I-93 through downtown Boston. A local Country Coach owner responded and said he drives his coach through there when he is going to New Hampshire. That news capped the plan. The Busbloggers would drive through the big dig in a big rig.
The big dig is the largest highway construction project in the history of the United States and cost 14.6 billion dollars. It was completed in 2004 after the first planning stages began in 1982. The project involves the 3.5 mile Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neil, Jr. tunnel underneath downtown, and the spectacular Zakim cable-stayed bridge connected to the tunnel on the north side.
One side benefit of the project is that the space above the tunnel that formerly was underneath the elevated expressway has now been turned into a beautiful linear park for the people of Boston called the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
The controversial project has incurred criminal arrests, cost over-runs, death, and tunnel leaks. Readers may recall that a couple of years ago a woman was killed when a piece of the tunnel ceiling fell on her car as she passed through through. Charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials and fraud on the part of contractors resulted in for their having to make reimbursements to the construction authority.
Significant engineering challenges were encountered in building the tunnel including glacial debris, foundations of old buried buildings, subway lines, and even several sunken ships. Special supports had to be built to support the commuter rail lines above and also supports to hold up the overhead expressway while the tunnel was being excavated. A technique to freeze some unstable earth to make it safe to excavate even had to be employed.
Our trip through the famous (or infamous) big dig went well and we will long remember it.
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