Hey Big Dig Podcast listeners! Would you be interested in seeing extra archival source material from the time of the Big Dig? Let us know:

If only they connected North Station and South Station by rail, then the project would be considered a success. Instead we got an expensive tunnel--just for cars, mostly for people that don't even live in the city.

Worth noting, the neighborhoods the highway would have cut through had low car ownership, i.e. these were roads for people outside the area to bypass those neighborhoods. There was a similar unfinished highway in Baltimore. Other states unabashedly demolished huge swaths of land through communities without too much thought for the people being displaced.

Holy crap. This is so well written and presented i feel moved and like i was living through this. It's amazing.

Very well done. As a lifelong Bostonian it was great to understand things i only saw as a kid. Hats off and much thanks to WGBH. So great to see our local station exploring and informing us about our city and providing insite to help us make better choices..i hope..OH anyone else notice that in all the clips no one used their blinkas

"A highway miracle knifing through the heart of new England" nice choice of wording.

Thanks for this. I grew up in Greater Boston in the 60s and 70s and remember a lot of this, including the berms in Saugus that were supposed to be I-95 north of Boston, and of course I grew up next to 128, which naturally became I-95 on its diversion around Greater Boston. This history is invaluable to record, well done. I look forward to your reporting on the Big Dig, which did get rid of the Central Artery, which as a kid I remembered all too well.

Thank you for this. I worked for a few months in Boston in the mid nineties. Looked at drainage in the rail yards related to the "big dig" which i knew little about. Its wonderful to see the bigger picture 30 years later. Thank you.

Thanks for this. I look forward to watching more as a kid who grew up in Boston during this project.

Fun fact, when the interstate system was built one of the largest groups fighting against it were residents of rural America. They knew that the interstate, as designed, would kill small town America. They were right of course, but ultimately ignored and forgotten. 1,000,000 people were displaced just to build the interstates, this doesn't take into consideration the displacement caused by the down wind effects, such as the perpetual recession that's consumed small town America.

I'm of working class Italian decent and also a civil engineer. I heard the same argument Fred Salvucci's parents made: "be a good worker and then go to college and become a good engineer and afterwards, see which one you like". 30+ yrs later, my engineering degree has taken me around the world. oh, and BTW, my college engineering building was in an old candy factory. Great podcast series, GBH.

Wow, what an incredibly well done documentary. I have no investment in Boston, but I was sucked in. Bravo!

The Big Dig is not alone in excessively over budget and behind schedule. I-45 between Houston and Galveston took 30-40yrs. For an essentially straight and level rebuild. No tunnels or fancy bridges. Currently, the section of I-45 running through downtown Houston started replacement studies in 2002. Shovel work is expected to start in 2024. Completion is expected to be in 2041 apparently.

So, there were already train tracks there, and no one asked "why don't we build a train?"

I remember flying into Logan airport each summer to visit my family in Burlington. Wondering if all the construction there and in the city would ever finish. Family would not drive to or from the airport to collect me so traveled on the bus to Woburn where they met me. Sadly those days are gone, matriarch of the family no longer with us and cousins now scattered due to politics. Have wonderful memories of those six weeks school holidays stays.

Thank you and well done! I'm looking forward to the whole series.

1:21 "6 lanes, 3 in each direction". On screen - 4 lanes! 😂

The turnpike ad: "knifing through the heart of New England" --didn't see the irony. hst, as a longtime Boston area driver who lived through the Big Dig, it was desperately needed and actually fairly successful--not saying the construction wasn't an epic fiasco

As a lifelong Massachusetts man who grew up in the 90s-00s I loved every second of this

As a lifelong MA resident, and someone who came of age while the big dig was being completed, it was a failure for many, many reasons. Firstly, every single man in Massachusetts that was of working age was participating in some kind of scam that involved the big dig. People were signing up to do "no show" and "no work" jobs for construction companies involved in the project. Basically you would allow your information to be used to pay wages like you were working on the big dig when you never were. You would split the money with the construction company. I know at least ten people that did it. It also didn't help that the big dig was ramping up at the very start of the opioid epidemic in MA. People were scamming the big dig to get money for OC. It was an absolute mess.

We need to stop widening roads because of congestion. Instead, we should be building mass transit on those same routes.

This was so good! I can't wait for the next episode!!!

I remember when Route 128 was built. "The road to nowhere". Now, even four lanes each way isn't enough.

This is such great content. All these episodes. Also a big fan of the simple bass lines throughout the episodes.

I used to be amazed at our infrastructure, how the bridges towered over cities, how tunnels crossed vast rivers, how we managed to connect every place in the US with a superhighway. And then I came to the realization that because of my vision, I cannot drive a car. On, I thought, how much difference could that nake? I see people take the bus on TV and in the movies all the time, can’t be that hard! Well, I live in Colorado Springs, which is statistically the worst city in terms of public transportation above 500,000 on earth. Not in colorado, not in the US, on EARTH. I need to walk 2 miles to get the bud, and even then, I can’t get everywhere I need to go conveniently or quickly. If I miss a transfer, I’m stuck for at least 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour! So, I started researching other cities. Surely Denver is better, right? Barely, but they have their own problems. And then I found out how absolutely terrible our intercity transportation is. You think it’s bad in an urban area? Your in for a nasty surprise. What if I want to visit my grandpa in Grants, NM? Good luck getting between Colorado Springs and Albuquerque! And don’t even think about getting from there to Grants! It didn’t use to be like this, if I wanted to go visit grandpa in the 1850’s, I could have gone by rail, or bus. And it would have been trivial! But the interstates, then the airlines killed the railroads, and the bus companies got only the folks which no other option, and turned to shit. I am going to be a civil engineer with a focus on transportation. But instead of designing highways and huge interchanges like I thought I would do when I was younger, I’m going to try and get public transportation projects going. I’m not the only one who can’t drive. The financially disadvantaged, the elderly, the young, people with medical conditions that make operating vehicles difficult or dangerous, all can’t drive. And I plan to be in their corner, helping push through projects that will make their lives easier. I do hope I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I hope I will have allies in the government and private engineering sector. But if I don’t, I’m going to do my best anyway.

Can’t wait to watch/listen to the rest! This was an amazing overview of this story. This gave me more perspective of what the highway building atmosphere was like back then, a clearer view than anything else I’ve seen.

Americans are able to build, construct, design, and manufacture whatever he puts his mind too. However, that dream is fading away, faster and faster everyday.

great docu-news video series, look fwd to exploring this - as a Canadian I had heard of the big dig but only as one of those 'Massive Projects' videos on Discovery.

I commuted from New Hampshire to Boston by bus during the construction of the Big Dig. I considered it an exercise in massive and complicated construction. Not only was an ugly ancient road destroyed it was replaced with a veritable maze of tunnels and underground intersections. Driving it is great, if frightening fun. The most important thing this project did was to support much of new England through some hard times. That result justifies the cost. I am retired and do not use this thing except to travel by bus to Logan Airport or Amtrak out of south Station. Quite convenient for me.

A great work! I am looking forward to the rest of the story.

I am 1000% here for the next episode, and any following. I moved to Boston in 2011, and have always wanted to hear more about the origin of the project, the causes and effects, etc.... Very well made, loved it...

Expressways are good, only so long as they are kept outside the major cities. In countries such as Italy, the point is to facilitate movement of goods to outskirts, which is where warehousing districts are, ie perfect logistical setup for last mile delivery. The way highways/expressways have been built in USA is very harmful. Highways should never be going in and near downtown areas. You have some cities in USA that have their urban core sliced off by four plus freeways.

I was born in 2005 and started driving maybe 3 years ago I was young for the start of the big dig but the driving portion I got to experience when it was completed and nothing beats cruising under all of those heavy traffic to Boston streets when I am going to see my friends and girlfriend in college

Fun fact: Everything you have ever bought at your local grocery store, Walgreens, clothing store, restaurant, etc., gets there by highways. Every trip to the local emergency room gets there by highways. Highways are the backbone of the world's economy.

i didnt know boston accents could sound nice, but hearing fred salvucci talk was actually pleasant 👀

Great start to the series! :)

Another thing (sorry about the previously long post) about the cost overruns: some of this has to do with harassment lawsuits that delay these projects and inflate the cost of it as well. In California it doubles and triples the cost of doing just about anything. In fact, often in determining the cost of a project, the people involved in planning projects will also take into account how much it will cost for the Court fights involved too. It's often more than the cost of the project itself.

It is always interesting to see something of the past and how it shaped the present day. However, I think it must be stated that you could only imagine what would have been if the highway progress wasn't stopped when it did. Luckily, remnants of the time is still completely visible on Google Maps so here is a little guide, starting from the south working northward.... Canton, MA: Where I-95 makes a sharp turn and I-93 ends, you can actually see the clove-leaf intersection with 2 pigtails heading north. This was where I-95 was suppose to continue into Boston. If you continue northward from there, you will get past the woods to the Providence/Stoughton Commuter Rail line. You can continue on that rail line (eventually connecting to the MBTA Orange Line) into Boston to see where the I-95 was suppose to go. Boston, MA: On the Boston side, you can see the bottom portion of the Inner City Beltway and in fact, people drive along it every day. However, it goes by a different name, Melnea Cass Blvd/Mass Ave Connector. Somerville, MA: Although there was great discussion of the highway being proposed to go through Cambridge, MA, it should be noted of where the northern section of the Inner City Beltway was to be connected to present day I-93. Looking at Somerville where the I-93 Northbound exit towards Sullivan Square and where Storrow Drive connects to I-93, you can still see the little offshoot where the northern portion was suppose to begin.

Thank you!

I moved to the Boston suburb from Sweden in '95 living from the near beginning, duration, finish, and enjoyment of the Big Dig. The benefits of it is surmountable before its existence, the Rose Kennedy Park is enjoyable and better than the highway viaduct that existed prior, but it could have been EVEN better. If not the absurd cost overruns, we could have seen an even bigger revolution on multi-modal transit for the people connecting South Station and North Station of what is today two separate commuter rail spokes into a regional rail behemoth in the USA rivaling that of SEPTA, NJ Transit, Metro-North, LIRR. Maybe not on the last two. Regardless, that rail connection between South Station and North Station would have electrified commuter rail service in the Greater Boston area earlier.

This felt like watching a documentary made in the 2000s, in a good way.

This old footage of Boston areas makes me miss my grandparents and parents and ponder things they lived through that we might have never fully gotten to talk about 😢😢

Interesting and well done. Thank you.

We called it the big pig. I remember the construction. It was a pain in the ass for me living in Eastie.

The Interstate highway system was built as part of the Defense System of America. Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Allied Commander of World War II brought his experience with logistics to the office of President. When he took office it was clear that there was no way to quickly and efficiently move military equipment around America in the event of an invasion. The Interstate Highway addressed that. With this system and its wide, sturdy roadways things like tanks and supply trucks could move swiftly and efficiently from anywhere to anywhere in the US. This is also why there are long straight, unobstructed sections that could serve as runways for aircraft. It is why all the highways were numbered with odd numbers running North and South and even numbers running East and West. Any driver would immediately know the direction of his travel from border to border and from coast to coast. Before the interstate there were only "routes" which were a series of local roads and highways drivers could follow to follow long distances such as Route 66 or Route 27 the Lincoln Highway. These route often ran right through populated towns with narrow roads and lightly built bridges. Not at all what the military would require in an emergency.

Looking forward to the next episode

The Big Dig was costly for Boston, for Massachusetts for the US. It has had longstanding ramifications for public works projects going forward. However, it did make Boston immensely better. Getting rid of that awful raised highway improved downtown boston by orders of magnitude. Its cleaner.

if you hate highways so much prioritise public transit not underground highways

My last trip to Boston, I picked up off the last exit when the ceiling fell in on the big dig. It's pretty scary not sitting in traffic in Boston, really.

Robert Moses ruined many urban areas in New York using eminent domain laws and building highways. Unfortunately his methods and ideas became very popular with urban planners nationwide.

23:34 I love that mural! I see it every time I go to Microcenter.

This is very interesting. Thank you.

I worked for the commuter rail until January. Now work for Amtrak The Big Dig is better than the central artery……But it’s still a failure. The traffic is still absolutely f***ing terrible. It merely buried it underground. You know what would’ve ACTUALLY reduced traffic? A North-South Rail Link would connected the heavy rail systems between North Station and South Station. The Downeaster is the only Amtrak route that isn’t directly connected to the remaining national intercity rail system. It’s INSANE. To tangibly reduce traffic you need to get cars off these stupid highways. The only good way to do that is to connect these two incredibly busy railroad sides of Massachusetts together.

Fun fact: the interstate highway system was created as a way for the government to deploy its troop more efficiently anywhere in the country. Each highway road is built to withstand and line of tank’s running down it.

Can't help but think that fully removing the highway instead of just covering it up would have been a much better solution

I live just north in Chelsea, they recently announced to replace the Tobin bridge and hopefully we could get our own big dig

In Manhattan we were wrong to oppose "Westway", the proposed underground replacement for the West Side Highway. As a result, all our beautifully developed parks along the Hudson River are compromised by street level traffic.

Waited longer for rapid transit to North Shore in lieu of the cancelled highway; Central Artery/ Tunnel sucked out the oxygen for fifty years out, now the mass transit railways are falling apart faster than they can be maintained.

wait this all started because some woman said "I'm smart and bored, lets go protest?"

I lived in Boston with the big dig start to finish, In Dorchester and Somerville. I now looking back at this 13 billion dollar project and that it might have set Boston back and what it squandered, We now complain about public transportation but it's obvious that Boston is still in the hangover phase of this project. Who benefits from this short stretch of underground and did it really alleviate any traffic? I believe it was GBH way back before all this, and asked a study group of women what they through of this project and the budget and they responded with The 13 billion dollars should have been put into public transportation and road enhancements. I wonder what Boston would have been like if that were done?

As a Mainer, I think if Boston builds a north-south tunnel, Portland, ME should build a double tracked tunnel of its own under the promenade so that there can be an Acela/commuter rail station under Monument Square. While Portland is small, the downtown has a walkable traditional urban core that goes on for a couple miles, and many of the small surrounding towns are the same way. There are also a couple abandoned railway lines with very convenient alignments that could be used for transit if there was a central tunnel/station to tie everything together. A tunnel is also needed because the current Portland Amtrak station is held back by not being in a walkable or attractive location near tourist areas. Although there is a push for a station by the Medical Center, it's still over a mile away from the Old Port and Commercial Districts, where the density and tourist areas are. It's also worth mentioning that a fair number of European cities with similar populations/settlement patterns have pulled similar networks off (Luzern and Innsbruck come to mind), and I think proper planning, we could fully utilize the tunnel (and have a de-facto 5 stop downtown subway line), by funneling a few low frequency commuter rail lines into it (accumulating into semi-decent headway for inner-city journeys). If the tunnel existed, we wouldn't really need any new railway tracks to get regional rail service going as the freight companies have essentially abandoned the corridor between the East End bridge and Yarmouth. The Midcoast Downeaster route going north also already has walkable, underutilized station sites in Freeport, Brunswick, and Bath (currently not in use), and it has the potential to offer a Park & Ride at Exit 15 on I295 for commuters. Looking south, the same goes for Biddeford/Saco, Old Orchard Beach, and Wells. There's another convenient/unused corridor starting at Westbrook Mills that goes by the soon-to-be-finished mixed use Rock Row development and Jetport that could function more like an LRT. These lines might serve small towns with less demand, but even half-hourly service on 2-car trains could accumulate into 7-minute headway for downtown trips.

When I was growing up I was just a kid and knew the Big Dig as a place I saw once on a field trip and the place where all the welders went when they went on strike at BIW.

I lived in Boston metro during the Big Dig project known as the Big Pig...budget for 2 billion and cost over 6 billion.. Never mind the amenities were cut back like parks and such and the tunnel was poorly constructed with tiles falling down, killing at least one person. Much corruption during building it. For example, cement trucks had a time span for their offload and had a time ticket...if it expired they went back to the yard..did not get a new cement load but a new time ticket!!! Also office workers getting paid for a week but only showing up one day ect

Structures like this have to be regarded in the long term. The Boston subway system was started 140 years ago. Every bit of tunnel was expensive at its time of construction but once built it is forever and today is regarded as an excellent investment. Same said for water systems. This dig may be a white elephant today but ridding the city of the SE Distressway will be a big positive in the long term. My only caution is that if one is from outside, familiarize yourself with the route before driving it. As one is only looking at concrete walls one has to know where you are from knowledge and memory. There are no visual clues. Take a wrong turn and you could end up anywhere but not where you intended. Speaking from experience.

That was great, thanks, I've never been anywhere near Boston.

Great documentary!

Massachusetts has some of the worst most outdated, dilapidated highways in the country. Haven’t improved them in over 50 years. The clover leaves at RT 93/95 and 93/495 need to go and they all need to be widened.

Surprisingly [To ME, that's who.], mes amis, this presentation IS quite grande !

This is exellent!

The interstates should never have been routed through the cities, but around them instead. Then let state and local government figure out how best to connect the inner city with the interstate outside of town.

'knifing through the heart of Massachusetts' Couldn't have said it better...

I can't believe what they got away with - doing that to peoples homes

So I grew up in Massachusetts born in Salem. I've asked all my Massachusetts friends this question and no one ever has an answer: So why hasn't I-84 ever been extended North into northern Massachusetts in New Hampshire? In other words Why was I forced to drive all the way East to Worcester and Lowell to get NH? Most people I ask agree so you have to pay the mass Pike tolls; But couldn't you just make the I-84 extension into Southern New Hampshire a toll road also?

Sir you must be the same age as myself. Construction from kindergarten until I was driving and starting college. It never seemed to end.

This should also be a book. Feels like I'm listening to a different version of The Great Bridge

Thank God for the preservationists that fought and blocked a proposed riverfront expressway along the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Had it gone through, it would have cut off not only the French Quarter, but nearly the entire city from the river that gave the city its reason to exist to begin with.

I grew up in Los Angeles and now live in Boston for work and benefit from the Big Dig as I never had to live through the nightmare construction. I was a child of the freeway system in Los Angeles. The Interstate system out west is absolutely vital given the distances we have to travel and even intracity on the eastern seaboard they have their place but the urban planners of the 40s and 50s went a bit nuts. One that comes to mind is the LOMEX or lower Manhattan Expressway that would have demolished the West Village where I lived in the early 2000s. I can’t even imagine a LOMEX let alone an inner Boston belt. It might provide some time savings traffic relief but my god would it have been an ugly scar. Glad people like Jane Jacobs stood up and fought back. Highways like any form of transport have their benefits and costs finding a balance is key and still a work in progress.

this is why you should fund PBS guys.

Wow! Look at Chuck Turner. He was so young back then but just as fiery.

I was stationed in the Army outside of Boston in the late 70's before the Big Dig and going in to the city was a nightmare. The Subway system was very good and the City was great but the highways were a nightmare. I still miss the New England Grinders...Mmmmm...

There was another highway stopped that lead from the PA Turnpike outside the city of philly. It was I-76. The road went from philly to Valley Forge. That was built in the 60 maybe 50. The state wanted it to run from I-76 to Reading. It would pass a newly built nuke power plant. It was stopped at Valley Forge by a boys reform home run by Catholic church of philadelphia. They had to go thru their land. Next to them was big beautiful houses not to old. It was held up for years, the boys home lost. So the people won. The church worked out a deal so not to knock down the building. I was a boy at the reform school at the time. We used to play on the unfinished part in 1980. The 6 lane highway stopped right at the edge till everyone agreed on the road.

My grandparent's house used to be at the Auburn, MA interchange of the Mass Pike. A lot of people lost their homes to eminent domain. The same with building I-290

It's unconscionable what the highway builders did to that stretch of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury --- turn thriving neighborhoods into a forerunner of the 1970s South Bronx and 2000s Detroit. But people were able to stop the roads that would have choked the city with even worse traffic! I worked at the Mass. Highway Department 1985 to 1999 and there were plenty of discussions about the Big Dig when I was in the South Boston highway district office. One of my coworkers worked on I-95 South through the Neponset River marshes and there was this enormous turtle 🐢 that had to keep moving downstream. And he said one fine day the turtle settled in behind Governor Francis W. Sargent's sister's house and that when she heard where the highway would go, she was livid. And my coworker said that was the real reason why Governor Sargent stopped the highways! I don't think it was the only reason.

I had two family members, one from each of my parents sides, they had to relocate or move their house in Chelsea for construction of Route 1/Tobin Bridge… however they were offered pretty good deals and payouts

I've heard that China is constructing 6 miles of new roads every hour. Not that I want to hold China up as an example of how everything should be done, but it raises the question: why do simple public works projects in the US take decades to complete? Your desire for a new era of infrastructure is commendable. The way forward involves betting on ourselves rather than relying on a government with its bloated bureaucracies. Wind and solar may indeed play a viable role in the future, but if left in the hands of politicians, these endeavors will, like 'The Big Dig' itself, enrich only a few at the expense of the many. Thanks for your video, very interesting.

I remember my college roommate telling me that the Big Dig was going to be free money. He was in construction at the time as an estimator.

No one wants the roads but damn they complain when its gridlock and it takes forever to get around. Cant have it both ways.

I use to live in Elizabeth NJ. Interstate 95 cut through the Elizabeth-port neighborhood. I read a book on how the interstate building destroyed neighborhoods. In Bakersfield California they did that building a freeway through an old neighborhood. One side an affluent neighborhood yet the other side not so. They are extending hwy 58 freeway. The freeway ends, just ends, been that way for decades. In the neighborhood homes and businesses were build on land designated for the freeway extension. Well they extended the freeway right through that neighborhood, homes were lost and businesses too.

This is a fascinating piece. In the end, I can only come to the conclusion that Thomas Sowell reminds us of one fact, there are no solutions to life’s problems, only compromises. That’s a realism not welcome and certainly not allowed in a political world.

The biggest reason that government projects go over budget is by the time you get all the environmental work and studies done the costs have risen also government tends to keep changing what The requirements of what they are making the longer it takes.

Govt usually sucks. But we keep voting for more of it.

Every job interview for city planners and engineers anywhere should ALWAYS and ONLY start with this: *_"Highways and interstates? Yes or no."_* You get answered "Yes" then the candidate doesn't deserve to work anywhere in this field. Would save so much time.

You guys think the “Big Dig” was expensive? Imagine the BQE replacement in NYC.

We have same problems montreal,quebec good integration,bad planning.good video😮

Controversial take: I like the big dig. I'm glad it was made.

I can't believe I watched this whole thing. 😄

Did I hear "turnpike" where you pay to use the road? If any money is flowing it should go to the landowners, if they want to use their land that way. Else it is theft.

As someone who uses the interstate system for a vocation, I see the need. If people want to eliminate highways then they need to go back to going their own food, quit shopping at places like Walmart and Amazon and live life with the level of access to good that we had in the 40's.

What about the Rt 3 ending at 128/95 in Burlington? The layout at the end there has always made me assume it was meant to continue on to Boston.

Us destroyed its cities for cars and highways