so, i'm on phones for four hours this morning, so i'm reading slashdot while talking to people. the thread they had on the big dig is fucking hilarious. it's amazing how many times people can say that the federal government only paid for some of the original estimate of 2.6 billion dollars, and that the remaining 13 or so billion were borne entirely by the citizens of massachusetts, and people still decry it as a waste of the country's money. fuck all those people. seriously. my parents' commute generally is to logan airport probably one day a week (averaged annually). when i first moved here, i remember sitting in the sumner tunnel for two hours because it dumped you at an intersection with a couple of traffic lights while you did a U-turn around and under the supports of the central artery to get on and sit in another traffic jam. the fact that they no longer have to do that makes it worth it to me. seriously. it takes 15 minutes to get to the airport from newton now at rush hour (and just 10 to get to the harpoon brewery to load up on growlers!). it used to take up to an hour. the big dig was corrupt and overpriced, but that has no bearing on whether or not it was worthwhile. it's an amazing thing, and i consider my tax dollars well-spent indeed. i'd like to think that if, say, texas, decided to build some huge, ambitious, but profoundly necessary highway project, i'd not begrudge it to them, and be equally interested in whatever pbs documentaries came of it. it's just too bad they won't give tours of it after it opens, like the hoover dam or something. judging by the popularity of the ones offered before it opened, they could probably recoup some of the costs that way...
big dig pictures (old)