Ace of Spades HQ

« George W. Bush: Real Ultimate Power | Main | Chris Matthews: "Suppose -- hypothetically, mind you-- that America were a 'good country'" »

November 18, 2004

Big Dig Blues

Son of Nixon on the most expensive public works project in history, now apparently sprining hundreds of dangerous leaks.

And part of the project is named after Rose Kennedy, just to annoy you further.

What does everyone else think about the Big Dig? I'm conflicted. On one hand, I've been bothered for some time that America doesn't seem to do big engineering projects anymore. The Japanese are busy building artificial islands and superlong under-ocean tunnels, and the best we can do is patch up our crappy highway system every other day.

I kinda like the bigness of the thing. The price tag, of course, is something else again.

And of course this thing was sold completely dishonestly, with a ridiculously dishonest "estimated" pricetag of $3 billion or so; now it's up to $15 billion, and it will probably get worse. And that pricetag is inflated by a gold-plated PC style of construction-- lots of work at night, heroic efforts to keep down noise so that no one is in the least inconvenienced by this mammoth undertaking. Yeah, that keeps Teddy K's constituents happy, but if they weren't prepared to deal with the natural consequences of a multibillion dollar construction project, honestly, perhaps we should have just given the whole thing a pass.

It goes without saying that you-- non-Massachusetts citizen you -- are paying for most of this. Your dollars, Teddy K's political credit.

What is most annoying is that this thing was sold so dishonestly, turned out to be so expensive, and could only be built with a billion-dollar citizen-comfort style of construction that I fear it just may be the last major civil engineering project we see for twenty years.

The Kennedy political legacy-- the gift that keeps on giving.

posted by Ace at 01:41 PM

Comments

John F.Kerry did his share of pitching for Federal dollars, too, and got campaign contributions from important contractors who were working on the Dig.

His local nick was Cash N' Kerry.

Posted by: lauraw on November 18, 2004 01:52 PM

Wait a minute, I thought the most expensive public works project in history *WAS* the Kennedy legacy?

Cheers,
Dave

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on November 18, 2004 02:02 PM

The big advantage for the Big Dig (speaking as a Kennedy), is that unlike a bridge, you can't drive off a tunnel.

Posted by: Master of None on November 18, 2004 02:12 PM

Compared to middle-class entitlements like Social Securitiy or Medicare, big-time infrastructure projects cost nothing. Plus, they can be really cool. Sometimes almost as cool as a AC-130.

The problem is that our pre-eminent cool infrastructure project, the so-called "Space Shuttle" has been such a disaster. Every blast-off costs $300 million. Whats the point of having a re-usable spacecraft if it costs $300 million? Plus, it kills a lot of people. You know the Russian space program never kills anyone. I wouldnt buy a Russian can-opener but they can still put men in space.

Posted by: wally on November 18, 2004 02:13 PM

thanks for the link ace. been too busy playing Halo2 to buzz around the blogosphere lately.

Posted by: sonofnixon on November 18, 2004 02:46 PM

Although this project obviously suffered from political manipulation and corruption, a lot of folks don't understand just how expensive tunneling really is. It can also be fraught with risk due to inherent uncertainties in geotechnical engineering.

In most cases, one is probably better off building above-ground structures, even if they are somewhat elaborate.

Posted by: Nathan S. on November 18, 2004 03:55 PM

Thanks, Nate.

Now get back to some sneering derision and outrage, dammit.

Posted by: kelly on November 18, 2004 04:36 PM

As someone who lived through it for some time as a resident of South Boston, I'm kind of pissed that it disrupted my commute for so long and caused cracks in the plaster of my 135 year old row-house (when you remove that much dirt, things shift). I'm pissed that a bunch of mobster union guys were allowed to run the project, which had more "no show" jobs than you'll ever see on the Sopranos. I'm pissed that they named part of it after a Kennedy. I'm pissed that it cost so much more than it should have. I'm pissed that the very attractive bidge component was named "Zakim". Now I'm pissed that they messed it up and need to fix it, with more union mob guys benefiting.

That said, it works nicely. It's pretty damned cool and has helped traffic. It's made a very nice improvement in the area of the old elevated highway downtown. The Ted Williams tunnel to Logan airport rules (and was built properly).

Posted by: SteveL on November 18, 2004 04:45 PM

Leaks aside, Mass residents should insist on a section being named after Teddy Kennedy.

OK, so let Teddy's section flood. Call it the Teddy Kennedy Chapaquiddick Memorial Tunnel.

Posted by: Cedarford on November 18, 2004 07:22 PM

Ace -

I don't see this debacle as stifling future civic projects at all. A few weeks ago I saw on PBS (hey, don't judge. I'm unemployed and the soaps bore me) a show about similar projects in the Pacific Northwest that are using Boston as their model. Since Oregon and Washington state aren't exactly populated by small-government Reaganites, the trend seems to be leaning towards the "spend... Spend... SPEND!" philosophy of urbun renewal.

And it isn't just blue country wackiness! Here in my hometown of Louisville, KY we have a million dollar fountain located in the middle of the Ohio River. A "gift" to the city from one of our wealthiest legacy families, it costs the city (i.e. taxpayers) a million dollars a year to maintain. A MILLION A YEAR! Some gift. Lately we've only run the fountain three times a year, Christmas, New Year, and to open the Kentucky Derby festival.

Posted by: Kadnine on November 19, 2004 01:47 PM

Yeah, if the King Country Democrats manage to scrounge up another 262 "missing" ballots during the recount,I would expect the Upper Left Washington to embark on some sort of huge project in the next few years. They;ve been threatening us with rebuilding a number of viaducts and bridges, and taxing us for thebillions they will spend on them.Seattle is the only city in the world that is paying the bill for three sports stadiums, one of which it blew up.

But in the large project dept, note that the Bay Area of California is building a new east half of the Bay Bridge. That's about the size of things these days-- rebuilding what they did 70 years ago.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega on November 19, 2004 06:56 PM

Best link on the Big Dig for sheer "someone's-not-taking-his-medications" amusement value!

http://www.revelation13.net/bigdig.html

Posted by: Mamma B on November 20, 2004 01:37 PM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

TJM definitively ranks the films of Alfred Hitchcock

@KFILE 21m

Politico is reporting that multiple people have abruptly resigned from Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign: "Members of senior leadership have departed the campaign, including Courtni Pugh, a strategic adviser who served as Swalwell's top liaison to organized labor groups."

So the campaign is collapsing due to the truth of the sexual harassment allegations.
That hissing sound you hear is the air going out of the Swalwell campaign. UPDATE: No it wasn't, it was just Swalwell one-cheek-sneaking out a fart on camera
Eric Swalwell more like Eric Farewell amirite
thanks to weft-cut loop.

This is the dumbest AI bullslop I've seen in a while: the CIA can use "quantum magnetometry" to track an individual man's heartbeat from twelve miles away
I wouldn't click on it, it's not interesting, it's just stupid clickslop. I just want to share my annoyance with you.

Oil prices plunge on bizarre realization that Eric Swalwell may actually be straight. A rapey molester, allegedly, but a straight one.

Artemis II Crew releases clearest images of the Far Side yet recorded

Classic Rock Mystery Click
This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker.
And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win
Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.

Sarah Longwell spotting

Tuq'r's makeover is 100!

Alfred Hitchcock learns to talk with TJM

Ryan Long goes to the No Kings rally to pick up young liberal hotties and is greatly disappointed in the quality of the mish
thanks to stevey

You know we "joke" about the GOPe just "conserving" leftist things?
David French just posted:

Populists ask what conservativism has ever conserved?
Well its about to conserve birthright citizenship!
Posted by: 18-1

I couldn't hate this queen of the cuck-chair more if it paid seven figures and came with a corner office.

TJM definitively ranks the films of John Boorman.

Kid punks CNN chump by speaking truth to retard

Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment and SCOTUS, no boots in Iran, Artemis II and refocusing NASA, the NBA's hatred of everything non-woke, and more!

In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
Great marketing arranged by Amazon to promote Project Hail Mary. Okay not really but it does work out that way.

TJM talks John Boorman, director of Excalibur

Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.