Americas Largest Engineering Innovation: The Big Dig Project
The concept of this project was brought up by the Secretary of Massachusetts, Fred Salucci. His idea consist of demolishing an existing elevated highway that traveled through the heart of Boston and constructing a tunnel highway underneath it. In addition, his vision included the extension of this tunnel to cross the South Bay of Boston to the Airport that is built under a river and the red line subway transit. The Turnpike under the Fort Point Channel into South Boston meets the Ted Williams Tunnel. The I-90 goes underground where it crosses the Southeast Expressway I-93 at the South Bay interchange and passes beneath one of the busiest tracks carrying Amtrak and commuter trains.
The Big dig project is the largest heavy civil projects in the United States. The original elevated Central Arterial highway was
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The bridge also had to meet the expectations of local state and federal agencies.
Throughout the planning of this construction giant. A series of environmental studies were necessary. Thousands of federal, state, and local environmental permits, licenses, and approvals were required for the project. A part of these include the environmental reviews. These were continued throughout the course of construction.
In addition, the excavated material from this program will also benefit surrounding cities. Three landfills are being reused into a major recreational complex that includes two golf courses, four baseball fields, and two soccer fields. Big Dig materials are also being used to fill Quincy's Swingles Quarry. This Quarry is an abandoned quarry pit that has been a public safety hazard for numerous