Boston's "Big Dig" has 60 new problem spots

This is a tragedy, a travesty, and a national embarssment. After all, the "Big Dig" is, ultimately, part of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, an engineering marvel which just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

I'm from the Boston area and have lived with the Big Dig for all the years of construction .There where some engineering marvels accomplished that will unfortunately be overshadowed by some stupid mistakes .It's usually at the end of a job when people start cutting corners .I wonder how you hang a 3 ton panel with no redundancy or extra saftey leash

I, like the rest of the country who had to pay for most of this thing, are sorry to see that our money was so poorly spent.

Didn't Bectel run that job? being 1 of the few companies big enough to do it. in a nearly no bid situation. Effective oversite on such a large job is problematic @ best.

This is just another example of pork spending without any oversight, or accountability. The entire state of Mass. owes the American people a refund. Imagine a privately funded project being so far behind schedule and so excessively over budget. It would not last.
Instead the Big Dig has become America's money pit. Ironic that Sen Kennedy accuses Bush of lying to get us into Iraq, yet no one is questioning Sen Kennedy's "intelligence" when it comes to getting us into this mess.
Lots of local contractors became rich, all Americans were ripped off, and now unfortunately some have died. Of course after all the invesitgations, and reviews are complete, the answer will be obvious. THEY NEED MORE MONEY AND TIME!
I for one will never visit the state again-I had visited Boston once on vacation a few years ago, and at that time the Big Dig was the was being used as a joke for the "Duck tours" amusement.
Knowing a refund will never happen- I will extract my own by spending my vacation dollars elsewhere. Perhaps we will receive a partial refund in 10 years (after Boston is underwater), and the History channel pays for the rights to air it on "Engineering Disasters'

Easy buddy I assume your aware that we are spending the equivalent of a big dig every two weeks in Iraq .I would rather fix New Orleans every bridge pothole etc. in the country and pay three times the going rate than be in Iraq.As with any muicipal project things tend to get out of hand but what would you suggest for a positive alternative just do nothing and piss and moan . .Whatever cost overruns and waste happened on the big dig they will never rival the military and the final product of the big dig no matter how flawed ,will serve a usefull purpose to society .

Without a doubt; dollar for dollar spent America is getting much more for it's money spent in Iraq. Consisder the price of doing versus the "cost" of not doing.
My positive alternative would be to implement a system that contained consequences for poor performance. The consequences would adversely effect those responsible for the poor performance. Thus self correcting and progressing. (kind of like a free market)...
If truly needed the dig would still have been dug, the money would have been found closer to home where it could be watched.

As far as serving a useful purpose to society, I guess that is based on one's perspective. 100% of American taxpayer's paid. I would be impressed if 10% ever use it.

Thanks for your reply I respect your opinions and agree as well .I'm just sick of people making useless negative attacks .Theres no doubt there should be performace but there where alot of variables and I doubt anyone could have done the big dig on a bid .In fact the technical challanges where well handled the administration was not. Remember all states share in federal dollars you got yours too.Pork has always been a problem remember $200 toilet seats .If you think by going to Iraq "America is getting much more for it's money " that's your right .But I can think of more constructive things to do .

BIG DISASTER:

1) Bechtel is being run by the first Bechtel decendent not comming from Engineering. He is a lawyer and is more worried about being sued and being in court than construction projects.

2) Because of Bechtel's past glorys, the engineers got away with trying something that has never been implemented in permanent construction practices (i.e. Leaking water = slurry walls are normally used to support the project while construction of the real walls are completed). The tiles falling from the ceiling and killing people had to do with the glue they specified to hold massive blocks against gravity over traffic.

3) Procurement purchased the wrong materials (i.e. bolt typos)

4) Q/C & Q/A (come on it's Bechtel, they have Q/A) didn't catch it.

5) Construction crews accepted the materials and built it.

United States new Business Model: Hey let's do it wrong the first time so everyone gets to make more money for fixing it the second and third time. (How bout them Six Sigma Black Belts!!!!)