Big Dig Race In Final Lap [“It's Monumental!” ...BARF!]

When the southbound side of the Big Dig opens this morning, a new era of better traffic flow will begin, not only in Boston, but well beyond, project managers say. Speeds are projected to increase throughout the urban core, with bumper-to-bumper conditions occurring only during peak evening rush hour, in the case of the southbound side. Fewer entrance and exit ramps will mean less traffic jumping on and off the Central Artery, and the elimination of the direct connection from the Sumner Tunnel to Interstate 93 south will reduce volume on the downtown stretch further still.

As a Massachusetts resident who uses these roadways regularly, I can tell you that this project is a scam perpetrated upon the taxpayers. This project provides only a marginal improvement in traffic flow and adds little new capacity. As the article states, improvements are only noted when travelling from certain points to certain points. For instance, it is easier to get to Logan Airport from points west and it is easier to go from Logan to the South Shore. The latest opening of the northbound lanes will now make it easier to get to the North Shore (without having to go through that horrendous Revere/Saugus stretch of Route 1A/Route 1. But you are still going to hit lots of traffic most days. For that money that was spent, the "improvements" are simply not worth it.

A far better solution would have been to widen Route 128 to four lanes from Gloucester to Braintree, make Route 3 four lanes from the Sagamore Bridge to I-93 and make I-93 four lanes through Boston (using the surface artery) and on to the NH border. Then once that is done, "zippers" could be used to widen these highways to five lanes in a given direction during rush hours, as is already done on part of the Southeast Expressway (the I-93 stretch south of the city).

All of this would have costed far less than burying all those roadways deep under the city and disrupting the lives of citizens for many, many years.

...without having to go through that horrendous Revere/Saugus stretch of Route 1A/Route...

You ain't joking! I was up in Boston recently working on that big gas pipeline running from Peabody to Weymouth, and getting to and from work via Route 1A was hell for me. As for a CoonAss driving in the snow, well that's another story...

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