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Big Dig" collapse a blow to urban dream
Reuters ^ | July 18, 2006 | Jason Szep

Posted on 07/18/2006 12:39:19 PM PDT by libstripper

BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston's $15 billion "Big Dig" was meant to inspire awe, an engineering marvel on scale with the Panama Canal that would thrust U.S. cities into a new era.

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Instead, it faces a crisis of public confidence after a fatal tunnel collapse that could derail plans for other U.S. urban mega-projects.

With 7.5 miles of underground highway and a 183-foot (56 meter) wide cable-stayed bridge, the Big Dig replaced an ailing elevated expressway to fix chronic congestion and reunite downtown Boston with its historic waterfront neighborhoods.

But cost overruns, leaks, delays, falling debris, criminal probes and charges of corruption plague the nearly completed 15-year project, giving ammunition to opponents of similar plans in other cities considering tearing down aging elevated highways built in a construction boom in the 1950s and 1960s.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigdig; boston; contracting; corruption; graft; publicworks; scandal; skimming; smartgrowth; taxdollarsatwork; youpayforthis
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To: weegee
No doubt about it. This was another multibillion dollar attempt at socking away some money, power, and influence.

And not just an attempt, a success for the perpetrators. Just think - didn't they get money, power, and influence from the Big Dig?

The losers in this are the taxpayers of the U.S., and commuters of Boston. All the criminals got away scott free.

How do citizens clear out such corruption without resorting to vigilantism? This is maddening.

41 posted on 07/18/2006 2:06:18 PM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
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To: KC_Conspirator

Thank You!!


42 posted on 07/18/2006 2:08:16 PM PDT by Common Tator
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To: RS
Thought you might be interested in how the South Koreans handled that type of problem recently -

Looks nice - of course the comparison just happens to be helped by crappy smoggy weather when they shot in 2003, compared to the sunshiny day when they shot in 2005.

But I have a question: where does all that expressway traffic go now?

43 posted on 07/18/2006 2:11:30 PM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
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To: andy58-in-nh
The Big Dig - For you, the taxpayer, it's a Quagmire from which there is no clear Exit Strategy.

Very good!

44 posted on 07/18/2006 2:17:21 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Rabid ethnicist.)
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To: Yossarian
How do citizens clear out such corruption without resorting to vigilantism?

They don't.

45 posted on 07/18/2006 2:22:28 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (You can't qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it-Sherman)
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To: Fudd
How would you like to be one of the lucky property owners that went from eyesore to waterfront property in two years?

How would you like to be a first time auto insurance buyer in Boston these days? Yikes!
46 posted on 07/18/2006 2:28:57 PM PDT by Republicus2001
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To: libstripper

Actually, Boston is so full of it - they needed a massive slit trench latrine....

It IS Massoftwoshits...

Semper Fi


47 posted on 07/18/2006 4:00:23 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: libstripper
I don't believe there is anything wrong with the concept of the "Big Dig", it's just that when you do it in a blue state its doomed to failure from day 1.
48 posted on 07/18/2006 4:06:22 PM PDT by VanDeKoik (Fitzmas Has Been Canceled.)
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To: Yossarian

Yep - seeing that ugly highway on a nice clear sunny day would have made it look MUCH more acceptable ...


Must be more traffic on the ring roads - kind of like when the West Side Drive starting falling down in Manhatten - they just closed it and that was it.


49 posted on 07/18/2006 4:31:02 PM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: libstripper; Liz; Howlin
Boston's $15 billion "Big Dig" was meant to inspire awe, an engineering marvel on scale with the Panama Canal that would thrust U.S. cities into a new era.

Next time, keep the cement ABOVE water. I've heard, in certain cities, bridges work pretty well...

50 posted on 07/18/2006 4:35:50 PM PDT by Libloather (All global warming is local...)
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To: libstripper
Boston's $15 billion "Big Dig" was meant to inspire awe, an engineering marvel on scale with the Panama Canal...

Considering the number of Big Dig tunnel leaks that I've been reading about, there certainly do seem to be some similarities to the Panama Canal.

51 posted on 07/18/2006 4:40:29 PM PDT by Bob
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To: RS
I didn't mean to imply that the previous raised freeway was pretty. Actually, I'm all for making cities as human-friendly and beautiful as possible - just not in a $15 billion, shoddily constructed, corrupt, and mob-enhancing fashion.

As an amateur photographer I'm always interested to see in the half-invisible editorialization that takes place in the way you frame a subject. You have to admit that the whole rest of the city would look dirty if the "2005" photograph was taken on a smoggy day, right? And that would take away from the impact of the river. That's all I'm saying.

52 posted on 07/18/2006 4:48:50 PM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
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To: Yossarian

Obviously, and the fumes from the cars coupled with the blocking of what breeze there was by the freeway would have made the local situation even worse. A simple matter like the highway stopping the rain from being able to wash away the dust beneath it would have had a great impact also.

I've walked one section before and after ... they did a great job.

BTW, as a photographer, you would love the fact that the bridges are all unique styles, many modern and one even using parts of an original bridge from the 1400's. The pathways below are ever changing, with "rapids", waterfalls and fountains - all lighted at night.


Google images for Cheonggyecheon


53 posted on 07/18/2006 5:49:17 PM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: TC Rider

Boston's $15 billion "Big Dig" was meant to ...provide full employment for unions, no bid contracts for mob contractors and unlimited graft for local pols.
_______________________________________________________


Never been said better than that!


54 posted on 07/18/2006 7:21:52 PM PDT by eleni121 (General Draza Mihailovich: We will never forget you - the hero of World War Two)
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To: eleni121

Bttt


55 posted on 07/18/2006 8:35:58 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican (Everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL)
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To: Bob

EUREKA!! Your post has given me an epiphany--the Beaners can solve the whole problem by establishing an express submarine service throughout the Big Dig.


56 posted on 07/19/2006 6:35:47 AM PDT by libstripper
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