Boston's Big Dig: Cost, Controversy, and Impact
This paper examines Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, widely known as the Big Dig, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history. It traces the project's origins in traffic congestion on the elevated Interstate 93, its approval process, and the formidable political, financial, and engineering obstacles it faced. The paper details the dramatic cost escalation from an initial $2.8 billion estimate to over $22 billion when interest is included, as well as the criminal charges, safety failures, and construction defects that marked the project's troubled execution. It also highlights the significant urban, economic, and transportation benefits the project ultimately delivered to the city of Boston.
- Introduction: The Most Expensive Highway Project in the U.S.: Overview of the Big Dig's scale and cost
- Origins and Purpose of the Big Dig: Traffic congestion driving the project's rationale
- Political, Financial, and Engineering Obstacles: Approval process and geological challenges faced
- Controversy, Criminal Charges, and Safety Failures: Arrests, leaks, deaths, and legal consequences
- Engineering Achievements and Construction Advances: Innovative techniques and construction milestones
- Economic and Urban Benefits: Traffic improvements, investment, and urban renewal
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its claims in a mix of government reports, newspaper articles, and academic law review sources, lending credibility to both the cost figures and the policy analysis.
- It balances the project's failures — criminal charges, safety deaths, cost overruns — against its genuine achievements, giving readers a nuanced view rather than a one-sided critique.
- Concrete statistics (62% improvement in traffic flow, $167 million per year in travel savings, $7 billion in private investment) make the economic impact section persuasive and specific.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of multiple source types within a single argument. The author synthesizes data from an economic research group, legal scholarship on "givings theory," investigative journalism, and an encyclopedia overview to construct a comprehensive picture of a complex public infrastructure project. This multi-source triangulation is a strong model for undergraduate research writing on policy topics.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a broad introduction establishing scale and cost, then narrows to the project's origins and rationale. A middle section addresses obstacles and controversy in detail, followed by recognition of engineering innovations. The paper closes with documented economic and urban benefits, ending on a measured but positive note. This problem-then-outcome structure is well suited to infrastructure and public policy topics.
Introduction: The Most Expensive Highway Project in the U.S.
Boston's Big Dig project is best known as the most expensive and arguably the most controversial highway project in the United States. The "Big Dig" describes the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), a massive undertaking that rerouted the Central Artery (Interstate 93) — the main highway running through Boston — into a 3.5-mile tunnel beneath the city (Wikipedia, 2008). While the project was originally estimated to cost $2.8 billion when first proposed in 1985, it ended up costing over $14.6 billion according to 2006 estimates.
The Big Dig project included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway in the space vacated by the previous I-93 elevated roadway.
An article in the Boston Globe (2008) noted: "In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds of pages of state documents. It will not be paid off until 2038."
By the time the project was handed off as "completed," it had resulted in exorbitant costs, criminal charges, injuries, and death (Wikipedia, 2008). The Massachusetts Attorney General ordered the contractors involved in the project to refund taxpayers $108 million for failing to deliver work of acceptable quality. On January 23, 2008, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the company responsible for managing the project, agreed to pay $407 million in restitution for its poor oversight of subcontractors and accepted responsibility for the death of a motorist (Wikipedia, 2008).
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.