Sinking the Central Artery/I-93, via Buric Global.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the completion of large-scale construction on the Big Dig. The 15-year effort expanded I-93 and, more importantly, put its Boston portion underground; extended I-90 to Logan Airport via the Ted Williams Tunnel; added two bridges over the Charles, including the Zakim; spawned 300 acres of open space; and reconnected downtown Boston physically and psychologically with the waterfront. If it sounds like a particularly intricate infrastructure hat-trick, it was: MassDOT calls the Big Dig "the largest, most complex, and technologically challenging highway project in the history of the United States." Just a couple of statistics to help you appreciate the scope of the project's construction: It involved excavating 16 million cubic yards of dirt, enough to fill a stadium to the rim 16 times; and workers poured 3.8 million cubic yards of concrete, enough to build a sidewalk three feet wide and four inches thick from Boston to San Francisco and back three times. Here's to remembering the work—and the disruption—that went into it all.
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Signs from March 2004.
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Motorcade around the construction.
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Construction near the waterfront.
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Tunnel building! Note the old FleetCenter sign on the left. Via InfrastructureUSA.org.
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More tunnel building, via bdsstructural.com.
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Yes, more tunnel building. Putting I-93 underground was the Big Dig's singular achievement.
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Construction barriers everywhere, forever.
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Everywhere.
· Our History Lessons archive [Curbed Boston]
All photos from Nantaskart! via Flickr unless otherwise credited.
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