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2005-03-15 Home Front: Tech

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Posted by Steve 2005-03-15 2:48:38 PM|| || Front Page|| [11137 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I left Boston in December of 1992 just as the Logan tunnel project was getting underway. There were problems with that as well (one of which was the mud being dredged from the bottom of Boston Harbour was contaminated waste and couldn't be dumped just anywhere) but not on the scale of The Big Dig. Teddy Kennedy scores another financial windfall for his cronies in Massachusetts but isn't held the least bit accountable. I really wish someone would ask him some very tough questions about this. I swear if I ever get the chance to piss on his leg like he's been pissing on the American taxpayers all these years I won't hesitate.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2005-03-15 3:43:38 PM|| 2005-03-15 3:43:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 As the Big Dig neared completion, the question was raised as to what to name the thing. One wag suggested "The American Taxpayer" Tunnel, since that's who's paying (and paying and paying) for it.

Posted by Seafarious 2005-03-15 3:50:54 PM|| 2005-03-15 3:50:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Sunday's "Tale of The Big Dig" was driving over the lovely Zakim Bridge while being bombarded by the giant chunks of ice from the last snowstorm that were falling off of it and onto the cars 100 feet on the roadway below.
The man who pushed real hard to get this thing here was the legendary "Friend of the Working Man" Tip O'Neill, who never met a government buck he didn't want a piece of and who leaned hard on Reagan to sign the papers for the Federal backing. There was real serious talk about naming the tunnel after him by the local Dem hacks but, funny thing, you don't hear that idea "floated" much anymore.

Posted by tu3031 2005-03-15 4:15:25 PM|| 2005-03-15 4:15:25 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 As someone who travels back and forth to Logan Airport almost weekly there are a couple of things to which I can attest:

1) For a brand new tunnel system they spend an awful lot of time fixing things...
2) The sections through South Boston (most of it) were carefully engineered to maximise the revenue to the Boston Mafia headed up by James "Whitey" Bulger whose brother Billy was the head of the Mass Senate before being given the sinecure as President of UMass. This job Romney managed to force him out of after he took the 5th at US Senate hearings about his mudering, FBI corrupting brother.
3) Mass politics and Boston in particular is so Democrat controlled (despite the run of RINO governors) that corruption is unopposed and the few Republicans seem more than happy to go along.

Posted by AlanC 2005-03-15 4:29:10 PM|| 2005-03-15 4:29:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I don't think anybody is warning of a structural failure of the tunnel.

The risk may be that many of the joints between the structural members would leak and the electricity for the lighting in the tunnel would fail.

Posted by mhw 2005-03-15 4:40:19 PM|| 2005-03-15 4:40:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I hear they're going to start the Regatta in the Liberty Tunnel this year...

Posted by Raj 2005-03-15 4:57:03 PM|| 2005-03-15 4:57:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Politics and construction projects. A BAD MIX.

Here is another "civil" project, done between 1173 and 1350 which had less than desirable results :

Posted by BigEd 2005-03-15 5:06:20 PM|| 2005-03-15 5:06:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Even the Chinese would build this kind of project with better engineering and less corruption.

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2005-03-15 7:52:57 PM|| 2005-03-15 7:52:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 guarantee responsible engineering took a back seat to other concerns. IMHO The responsible engineers should lose (for at least 5 yrs?) their licenses, and their higher-ups should go to prison, including the colluding contractor and politicians

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-15 8:19:01 PM|| 2005-03-15 8:19:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 # 8 Classical liberal- Right on about the Chinese!

Andrea Jackson

Posted by Andrea Jackson 2005-03-15 9:37:15 PM|| 2005-03-15 9:37:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Why bite the hand that feed you? The taxpayer!

We all paid for this so why not hit us for more money? You have the fox in charge of the hen house

Agree??

Andrea Jackson

Posted by Andrea Jackson 2005-03-15 9:38:39 PM|| 2005-03-15 9:38:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Since it takes one to know one, I supspect the engineers were conservative - they always are. Someone in management might have over-rode them, like the Challanger catastrophe.

Posted by Bobby 2005-03-15 9:43:07 PM|| 2005-03-15 9:43:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 exactly, Bobby - I'm a licensed engineer: civil with structural specialty, and nobody in their right minds gets tolerances that close, usually 1.5 to 3 safety factors, minimum - I actually think they should go at the engineers first (who are probably not at fault) and they'll show where the suits and contractors cheated and skimped, happily

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-15 9:52:08 PM|| 2005-03-15 9:52:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Ahhh... Frank! Civil, myself, but not structural. So you know tunnels leak. The (self-named) inventor of the New Austrian Tunneling Method once told me "You can not waterproof a tunnel, you can only control the water"

Posted by Bobby 2005-03-15 10:27:07 PM|| 2005-03-15 10:27:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 They should've moved the MTA offices into a side tunnel ....

Posted by AzCat 2005-03-15 11:39:18 PM|| 2005-03-15 11:39:18 PM|| Front Page Top

10:08 Hawk Eye
10:08 Hawk Eye
23:57 Kalle (kafir forever)
23:49 Sobiesky
23:48 3dc
23:44 Laurence of the Rats
23:44 Aris Katsaris
23:43 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
23:39 AzCat
23:16 dcreeper
22:57 Kalle (kafir forever)
22:49 mojo
22:48 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
22:43 Kalle (kafir forever)
22:43 trailing wife
22:40 Kalle (kafir forever)
22:38 Sobiesky
22:33 Bobby
22:30 trailing wife
22:30 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
22:29 SteveS
22:29 AzCat
22:28 anymouse
22:27 Bobby