Boston's Big Dig Delayed Because of Programmers?

dalewj writes "This article in the Boston Globe explains that Boston's Big Dig will be ready to open on time, if the software developers and cable layers can get their act together." Turns out honeywell's software isn't quite ready.

Comments

Why Federal $$$ Are Being Used.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because of the Federal Aid Highway Act (FAHA) of 1956. Impressed by the autobahn's usefulness during WWII, Eisenhower wanted the same thing to be available in the U.S. in case the damned Russians ever invaded and we needed to move a lot of troops quickly. All major cities and their airports were supposed to be accessible, and the Big Dig was funded because it connects I-90 to Logan airport. The tunnels are also able to withstand heavy conventional bombing. Pretty damned cool.

Re:Why Federal $$$ Are Being Used.

[stratjakt]

Actually, the Eisenhower dollars were to be meted out back in the 50's and 60's.

Boston had already jumped the gun, and spent their own cash building their SkyWay, which turned out to be an utter piece of crap.

So in the 70s they realized it was worthless, it divided the city in half, was ugly as hell, and couldn't support anywhere near the amount of traffic they had. So they came up with the idea of moving it all underground.

Now, they couldnt afford it. So they went to congress with the notion that "hey, we didn't use up our eisenhower dollars, so you can give them to us now".

Critics noted that Eisenhower wasn't president anymore, and the dollars for the Interstate plan at the time were a 'use it or lose it' type of thing. Many cities and states didn't use their entire allotment - they can't just go to congress now and ask them to pony up the dough.

They got preliminary approval, but then Reagan scrapped it, calling it pork-barrel politics. Which it was.

Funding was eventually re-approved, and here we go. Pissing away billions to correct a localised inconvenience.

Most non-bostonians call it the Money Pit.

I'm a programmer in BigDig...

[LordHunter317]

The problem is not the programmers. Its the **** software we were given to work with.

The problem starts with the fact that we are the second contractor to pickup this problem, and we are required to adapt the first contractor's software to our needs. The software we have been given to work with is shoddy, badly coded, and still targets VAX C (even though it runs on an Alpha). Problems tend to crop up, and no one here really understands the system, including our contractors from the original system.

We also have all sorts of problems hiring (due to problems both on our side and their side of the table). We are never given enough money or time, and everyone here is vastly overworked.

The CA/T (Central Artery/Tunnel, or the BigDig) doesn't understand our needs or concerns, and getting help from them and their reps is like pulling teeth. Its like going to a frickin' Wrestling match, with petty arguments and name calling and bullshit all around.

Their requirements are frequently illogical and unclear, meaning time has to be spent on fixing the requirments that could better be spend on coding. We have all sorts of reliablity problems with the Alphas and assoicated hardware. It also takes about a pound of paper work and 3 days to be able to do anythign to the production systems in Boston.

The project is just one political mess, and to be honset, we are the CA/T's bitch, and get blamed for anything. The truth is that ev eryone is behind schedule, and that even if we are late deliviering, it will not matter because the tunnel will not be physically completed anyway. Kinda hard for the software to work if there's nothing out there for it to work with.

Ok, enough ranting for now. Feel free to reply or e-mail questions.

Facts back At You...Veto Override

[N8F8]

Kennedy, Senator Edward M. -

U.S. Senator who ensured the passage of the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987. This act included the federal funding for the Big Dig. President Ronald Reagan had vetoed this bill earlier that year. The senate voted to sustain this veto. Senator Kennedy allied with West Virginian Senator Robert Byrd to force a revote in the senate to override Reagan's veto. The revote was approved. At that point Kennedy and others put pressure on the deciding vote, namely, Senator Terry Sanford of N. Carolina. They threatened to pull tobacco subsidies to North Carolinian farmers. Under this pressure, Sen. Terry Sanford changed his vote and the Big Dig bill became law in April of 1987.

Re:It's supposed to end?

[connorbd]

The original plan was for several roads around it; someone mentioned 128, but there was also I-695 that was supposed to just skirt downtown. It was never built because it would have utterly destroyed a number of poor but vital neighborhoods, and because the inhabitants of those neighborhoods no longer trusted the Mass Highway Dept to take care of their interests (i.e. relocation, etc); there had been an awful lot of bad faith building the Mass Pike and the (old, elevated) Central Artery. Check out www.bostonroads.com for the gory details.

Boston's highway system (with the exception of the Pike, which has its own connected but separate history) was designed around I-95 and the Inner Belt, but two major segments of I-95 (Canton to the South End and Revere to Peabody) were never built (the segment that was built is now I-93 downtown and Route 1 north of Boston), and the entire system is a half-baked mess because the core of the system was never finished. Depressing the Central Artery is supposed to alleviate at least some of the resulting mess by increasing the downtown capacity to handle the traffic that the Inner Belt was supposed to deal with.

(And no, they can't build the Inner Belt now -- the northern ramps (built, but cut off -- a news crew once put up a prank sign saying "Out of town drivers exit here) now lead to Storrow Drive, one of the major roads that runs along the Charles River, and the southern ramps were demolished and replaced with a commercial-vehicles-only connection to the airport.) /Brian