Boston’s Big Dig Complete, Yet Incomplete
Officially completed in the past month, Boston’s Big Dig now sits ready to be measured. Costing $15 billion and spanning close to two decades, the Big Dig has left most people skeptical that the money, time, construction headaches, and loss of life were worth it.
Photos of the same portion of Boston’s Big Dig, before and after. Courtesy of NY Times.
The first quantifiable measure turned in is the average through trip, down 16.7 minutes from 19.5 to 2.8 mintues according to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Meanwhile, the New York Times takes a look at the other measures the Big Dig must live up to, it’s impact on the urban fabric and local economy.
The article highlights many viewpoints. Those who need it to succeed for their own credibility…
“It’s going to be way better, I think, than anything I dreamed of,” said Frederick Salvucci, a former Massachusetts transportation secretary who helped conceive of the Big Dig in the 1970s and championed it through multiple delays and cost overruns.
Mr. Salvucci and others hope the new corridor, replacing what he called “a big ugly slash in the city,” will eventually rival cherished public spaces like Las Ramblas in Barcelona and the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
Development of landscape design at Boston’s Big Dig. Courtesy of NY Times.
Those who see it as a failure…
Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning and design at Harvard, said that the parks lacked boldness and creativity and that the corridor remained “an urban void.” It might have been more interesting, Professor Kayden said, to leave the highway intact as an elevated park like the planned High Line, formerly a railway, on the West Side of Manhattan.
“One would be hard-pressed to say this is a creative, cohesive, singular public space that will redefine the city of Boston,” he said. “And that is too bad, when you have that much space.”
Expansive lawn from the greenway over the completed Big Dig. Courtesy of historygradguy.
Those who are optimistic, and understand that the full impact of change is not instantaneous…
Others say the space merely needs to evolve, and that in time, the greenway and the development that rises alongside it will have the same impact that filling in the Back Bay — formerly tidewater flats along the Charles River, now one of Boston’s most upscale neighborhoods — did more than a century ago.
“I think you’ll see these spaces realizing the same kind of historic contribution that the Boston Common and the Public Garden have made,” said Richard Dimino, president of A Better City, a business group that has closely monitored the Big Dig. “But I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Master plan for Boston’s Big Dig. Courtesy of MTA.
Personally, I think this is a project that was always meant to be a process. I believe the city will ultimately be better off for this change. Whether it was approached the correct way is tough to tell, but we can’t necessarily retrace our steps and start over. While the article is quick to point out that the instability of the current economy has shelved or stalled several projects, I find this to be an opportunity. This may give us the time to reflect on the progress of the changes so far and re-calibrate our plans for future development. Many of these decisions may be in the hands of private money, but the local communities and their residents will have time to evaluate which direction forward will most positively benefit the character and economy of Boston.
Ultimately, though, I think its success hinges on it’s ability to incorporate itself across a multitude of scales. It has already achieved success on a regional scale, when considering the traffic improvements. It is beginning to improve on the scale of the city by providing residents a view of the park, rather than the old elevated highway. Now is the time to make sure it operates successfully within the economic landscape, the streetscape, and the architecture of Boston. In the end, this may be a great lesson in infrastructural geography, a term recently coined by Juan Herreros. It is not often we get to see such a massive change to a city of this size.
A view inside the tunnel of Boston’s Big Dig. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for….
I believe this project also reinforces my point that infrastructure is the new Bilbao.
Aerial view of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge of Boston’s Big Dig. Courtesy of MTA.
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