Billed as the biggest and the most expensive civil engineering project in U.S. history, the Big Dig was meant, according to planners, to build a highway underneath Boston. Billions of dollars of commodities now flow annually through the Big Dig freeway arteries or those connected to it. The primary beneficiaries are the military-industrial complex, Big Oil, the affluent white suburbs and tourism.
In 1985 the Massachusetts state legislature awarded the Bechtel/Parsons Brinck erhoff partnership the Big Dig contract to design and manage the project along with other corporations.
Originally, the partnership was under the direct control of the state legislature. But in 1997 the legislature moved the project to an “independent” authority, and created an “integrated project organization” that joined the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and B/PB together as co-owners of the project.
Part of the reason for the switch was the exposure of former Massachusetts Gov. Wil liam Weld’s collusion with B/PB. For one thing, Weld’s top aide, Peter Berlandi, was also Bechtel’s liaison to Weld’s administration.
The original partnership estimate for total Big Dig construction was $2.6 billion. In 2003 taxpayers had already footed $14.6 billion for the Big Dig’s ostensible “completion.” This made it the most expensive public transportation project in U.S. history, at $1.8 million per mile.
According to a February 2003 investigative series by the Boston Globe, on more than 3,200 occasions since 1991, the state paid extra money to contractors to compensate for Big Dig design flaws based in un-centralized capitalist chaos.
The state guaranteed Bechtel’s profits —even on work required to correct its mistakes on the cost overruns.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-11-17 05:50 am (UTC)Billed as the biggest and the most expensive civil engineering project in U.S. history, the Big Dig was meant, according to planners, to build a highway underneath Boston. Billions of dollars of commodities now flow annually through the Big Dig freeway arteries or those connected to it. The primary beneficiaries are the military-industrial complex, Big Oil, the affluent white suburbs and tourism.
In 1985 the Massachusetts state legislature awarded the Bechtel/Parsons Brinck erhoff partnership the Big Dig contract to design and manage the project along with other corporations.
Originally, the partnership was under the direct control of the state legislature. But in 1997 the legislature moved the project to an “independent” authority, and created an “integrated project organization” that joined the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and B/PB together as co-owners of the project.
Part of the reason for the switch was the exposure of former Massachusetts Gov. Wil liam Weld’s collusion with B/PB. For one thing, Weld’s top aide, Peter Berlandi, was also Bechtel’s liaison to Weld’s administration.
The original partnership estimate for total Big Dig construction was $2.6 billion. In 2003 taxpayers had already footed $14.6 billion for the Big Dig’s ostensible “completion.” This made it the most expensive public transportation project in U.S. history, at $1.8 million per mile.
According to a February 2003 investigative series by the Boston Globe, on more than 3,200 occasions since 1991, the state paid extra money to contractors to compensate for Big Dig design flaws based in un-centralized capitalist chaos.
The state guaranteed Bechtel’s profits —even on work required to correct its mistakes on the cost overruns.
(www.boston.com)