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Central Artery: The Big Dig

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The Central Artery/ Tunnel Project (known as The Big Dig), is recognized as the largest, most complex, and technologically challenging highway projects in the history of the United States. The goal was to significantly reduce traffic congestion and improved mobility in Boston, one of the most congested cities in the United States. Helping improve the environmental emissions was also an added bonus in this project. The project centralized around a congested elevated 6 lane highway called the Central Artery that ran through downtown Boston. The Central Artery was only designed to carry about 75,000 vehicles a day, however, in the 1990s; it was the route for about 200,000 vehicles each day, making it one of the most congested highways in the United States. The original plan of for this project consisted of 2 major parts. Part 1 was replacing the six lane elevated highway with an eight to ten lane underground expressway beneath the existing road, and a 14 lane, two bridge crossing of the Charles River at the northern end. After the underground highway was opened to traffic, the elevated highway was to be demolished. The newly …show more content…

There would have been a budgeted amount for each phase of the project to go along with sufficient time to complete the project correctly the first time around. There also seemed to be a lack of teamwork throughout the project. I would have had a set plan in place throughout the entire project life cycle. The main problem I feel like contributed to the failure of the project is the lack of quality. Design specs should have been standard across the project regardless of what contractor was doing the work. The time and money spent redoing portions of the project was a major setback. Continuous improvement is also a key essential to any project. Last being ethical and honest about everything within the project should have been done from the

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