A project where nothing was done right

It leaks. A woman was killed when a concrete ceiling tile fell off and crushed her. It virtually bankrupted the state.

And now we learn, from Boston Globe reporter Matt Carroll, that the folks who gave us the Big Dig even managed to botch the little things in deadly ways: a pedestrian railing with unnecessarily sharp edges was installed too low, resulting in deaths and dismemberment.

Discover more from Media Nation

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

7 thoughts on “A project where nothing was done right”

  1. I think “nothing was done right” is an overstatement. Being in the Haymarket nowadays, or along the western edge of the North End is a real delight now that the Central Artery is down. Without the new construction we would undoubtedly be talking about fatalities caused by the crumbling old artery. When assessing the Big Dig, these benefits are often overlooked.

    But yes, there is a lot that is still wrong with the Big Dig. I was horrified to find that this pedestrian railing issue took so many incidents before it was publicized. Why didn’t we know after the FIRST such accident?

  2. Massachusetts Whistleblower at Oversight Watch Massachusetts
    Massachusetts: Government/Business/ Labor Oversight This blog is dedicated to all Massachuestts citizens striving for Government, Businesss, and Labor Accountabiity and Oversight in the continual battle against.waste, fraud, and abuse.

    FRONT PAGE STORY IN BOSTON GLOBE ABOUT LAWSUIT CONCERNING ALLEGED UNSAFE TRAGIC GUARDRAILS ON THE BOSTON CENTRAL ARTERY PROJECT BIG DIG…THE MOST EXPENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PROJECT IN THE WORLD RIDDLED WITH WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE

    I cannot believe this news story. The Boston Globe management and several reporters have been enablers for no accountability and oversight on the Big Dig from start to finish.

    When Globe Reporters such as Peter Howe, Charles Sennott, and John Coughlin tried to report on inefficiency, waste, and mismanagement on the Big Dig, they were dismissed, demeaned, or intimidated. Conscientious Citizens that pleaded for and presented evidence received a similar fate. Even the highly respected Washington based group Project on Government Oversight led by Scott Amey suffered the same fate. The Special Interests were listened to and damage control was the philosophy by so many at the Boston Globe. As former Globe editorial writer Jon Keller said, both Boston newspaper editorial boards were “in the tank”.

    The international monument for the most expensive flawed no bid cost plus transportation project in the world that went from an original cost of $2.3 billion to $23+Billion riddled with inefficiency, waste and mismanagement with little or no oversight lives on.

  3. It is a shame. The first question I had before I completed reading the Globe piece was what about the Sumner/Callahan tunnels? I hadn’t remembered any similar incidents in those tunnels. I wondered about speed, curves, differing heights between the two systems, then at last learned that the S/C tunnels use tubular rails, while the new Big Dig system uses stylish, flat column rails. Is it just me, or does everything the Commonwealth do run into these kinds of problems? Why wasn’t the tried and true tubular system good enough for them?

    1. @Bill: We took a bunch of kids on a field trip, and we brought 90 percent of them safely home. Even Ted Williams in 1941 failed 60 percent of the time. Why are these parents complaining?

  5. What is puzzling me more and more is why haven’t we heard about this before now? It seems that any piece of bad news about the Big Dig is immediately seized upon and trumpeted to the heavens. Why not this story?

  6. “It seems that any piece of bad news about the Big Dig is immediately seized upon and trumpeted to the heavens. Why not this story?”

    Too many folks like Bill.

    Too few folks like John.

Comments are closed.