What went wrong with the Big Dig project?

The project was plagued due to construction delays, cost overruns, flaws in the design, poor execution, use of low-quality material, and construction accidents. As per the earlier estimation, the project should have been completed by the end of 1998 with an estimated cost of USD 2.8 billion.



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The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the United States, and was plagued by cost overruns, delays, leaks, design flaws, charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal charges and arrests, and the death of one motorist.

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The result was a 62% reduction in vehicle hours of travel on I-93, the airport tunnels, and the connection from Storrow Drive, from an average 38,200 hours per day before construction (1994–1995) to 14,800 hours per day in 2004–2005, after the project was largely complete.

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The Central Artery/Tunnel Project was the largest, most challenging highway project in the history of the United States. It reduced traffic and improved mobility in one of America's oldest, most congested major cities. It built a framework for continued growth in Massachusetts and New England.

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But few had a bigger stake in the project than four high-stakes players: •Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/PB) the joint venture hired by the Commonwealth in 1985 to manage Big Dig design and construction; •Federal Highway Administration (FHWA—in the U.S. Department of Transportation), the federal funding agency for the ...

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However, the project was completed in December 2007 at a cost of over $8.08 billion (in 1982 dollars, $21.5 billion adjusted for inflation, meaning a cost overrun of about 190%) as of 2020.

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The Big Dig, a project funded by federal and stated monies (about 60/40), was substantially completed late in 2007 for nearly $15 billion.

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Planning began in 1982; the construction work was carried out between 1991 and 2006; and the project concluded on December 31, 2007, when the partnership between the program manager and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ended.

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