the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker
Hill Bridge.
Construction is about 85 percent done on Boston’s Central Artery Tunnel Project – the Big Dig. The project is now expected to be completed in 2005, at a cost of $14.6 billion.
Last week, cranes began the long-awaited tearing down of the elevated Central Artery, when workers started to dismantle the old ramp from I-93 southbound to Leverett Circle. The dismantling of the 350-foot ramp, which runs right behind the FleetCenter, was scheduled to take about two weeks. The remainder of the Central Artery will be torn down next year by Cambridge, Mass.-based Modern Continental construction company, as part of the largest contract on the Big Dig.
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Matthew Amorello, the chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the state’s top overseer of the Big Dig, has planned public dedication events for the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge on Oct. 4-6.
The project, begun 11 years ago, is the largest and most technologically challenging highway project in American history. It was undertaken to reduce traffic downtown Boston on the six-lane Central Artery – arguably the most congested elevated urban highways in the nation.
When it was built in 1959, the Central Artery carried about 75,000 vehicles a day. Today it carries upwards of 200,000 and traffic crawls for more than 10 hours each day. The accident rate on the deteriorating elevated highway is four times the national average for urban Interstates.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 1998, at a cost of $5 billion. In 2000, with the project still half done, scandal broke when it was revealed the cost had skyrocketed from $10.8 billion to $12.2 billion.
That information led to a probe of the project’s finances and contracts currently being conducted by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC launched its probe after reports surfaced that former Big Dig chairman, James Kerasiotes, and others kept the project’s true cost under wraps when issuing bonds in December of 1999.
It was recently reported that the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the agency responsible for overseeing the Big Dig, is considering settling its case with the SEC. The Pike has spent a reported $2.5 million in legal fees defending itself, Kerasiotes and others.
A review of the Big Dig’s progress issued last week found that the much-anticipated completion of the project will occur more than two months later than Big Dig officials have stated. But the delays will not increase the project’s $14.6 billion price tag, according to the report.
Deloitte & Touche, a major auditing firm that has conducted several analyses of the Big Dig’s finances and schedules, conducted the independent review of the Central Artery’s finances and schedule.
Deloitte & Touche also found that as much as $108 million in potential savings at the project will likely be spent to pay rising contractors’ claims.
The review, commissioned by the Massachusetts Office of Administration and Finance, comes as the overseers have said repeatedly that the Turnpike/I-90 portion of the Big Dig will open Nov. 8, and I-93 northbound will open Dec. 10.
Amorello has given the project a six-week margin of error on opening dates. But the report found that those dates are unrealistic, even if the final construction push goes flawlessly. While project schedules call for Jan. 8 as a worst-case date for I-90, the audit said Jan. 16 is the more probable date, barring more problems. For I-93 northbound, the official worst case calls for Feb. 10, but Deloitte & Touche says it will probably be March 5.
As for I-93 southbound, which is supposed to open no later than April 10, 2004, according to the project, the audit says that will probably not happen until May 18, 2004 – if all goes smoothly.
In its report, Deloitte and Touche raised a concern that the Pike’s “excessive zeal” in opening roadways on a tight deadline could pose a danger to the public.
