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Boston's Big Dig Delayed Because of Programmers?

Posted by chrisd on from the twelve-billion-beautiful-dollars dept.

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.

12 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. The Big Dig by (H)olyGeekboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read about the Big Dig last year, thanks to someone's Slashdot .sig.

    Read more about it here.

    Basically, the thing has gone on forever, and will likely go on forever, thanks to beaurocracy. Blaming it on the programmers/cablers is probably little more than spin at best, or pre-election blame shifting by local "oh-fish-shulls" at worst.

    The Big Dig is apparently a huge fiscal landmine that some people claim will never reap the rewards of the optimists who keep greenlighting the moneystream.

    (On the other hand, I live far away, and am only going on a few websites' worth of info. So that's only one point of view. :)

    1. Re:The Big Dig by Zelet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I had a friend that lived in Boston for a long time. The traffic problems are so bad throughout the city that the people of Boston (a majority) wanted this to happen at all costs. This is a huge undertaking and I wish luck to all those who worked to complete it. One thing that I am not sure about (I should ask him), is what is the mass transit like in Boston? Do they have subways and busses that are easy and cheap?

      --
      ...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
    2. Re:The Big Dig by Shynedog · · Score: 4, Interesting


      The Big Dig has indeed been going on for over a decade now. As a Boston resident, I'm definitely tired of it. But to be fair, it's not behind schedule simply due to incompetant beaurocrats (although there are plenty of those). The project itself is the single most complex undertaking of civil engineering in the history of the U.S. Any project of this scale is going to have delays.

      They actually have a pretty good website It has a really neat gallery of huge aerial photos, as well as some great maps of the whole thing. A good time-waster, if you enjoy looking at maps.

    3. Re:The Big Dig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      living in Boston, I can attest to the fact that traffic is a mess. However, the Big Dig is part of the reason for the mess. Also, according to some projections, once the Big Dig is finished the new capacity it creates will be just enough to deal with the growth in traffic expected.

      As some people say: If you plant roads you will harvest traffic.

      Also, in order to pay for all the cost overruns, the only good thing in my opinion, a new subway line, was cut down to a bus line. Bostons subway system is in urgent need of repairs and upgrades.

    4. Re:The Big Dig by dubiousmike · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Subway and bus system is ok, though at times of the day is far too crowded to even get on when it arrives. Where the "T" can't be found, buses can. The coverage is commendable. Having said this, you would think that its pretty decent.

      But alas, I lived in Brighton (part of Boston - uses Boston police force) which is about a 10 minute drive from my work (near South Station, heart of Big Dig). For me to take pulic transportation to work, I had to use a combination of bus and "T" or just another bus that was few and far between. It would take me at least an hour to get to work via public transportation with either method.

      This is why I moved an hour south of Boston and drive (or occasionaly bus) to work. My rent is now 1/3 of that in Boston and my travel time is the same as before. Of course, my commute also contributes to the traffic problem. I am 55 miles south - commute ranges from 60 to 90 minutes. Commute home can take longer at times.

      FYI, there is a commuter rail that is planned to extend into the town (Fall River, MA) I live in in a year or two. This was supposed to actually be up and running by now. Unfortunately, the budget for the commuter rail is tied to the Big Dig as well. So when the Big Dig f's up and needs more money, they push back the expansion of said commuter rail.

      Exasperating. :P

    5. Re:The Big Dig by dhogaza · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, it's not just due to incompetent beaurocrats. This is Boston, after all, and there's been the traditional overhead of corruption, too. In fact, the dude who was project manager until one or two years ago has been blackballed by the Feds, i.e. will never be allowed to manage a federally-funded project again.

      Not only did the project go over budget by a big chunk, but a big chunk has been unaccounted for (or was during the days when I was spending about three weeks out of every eight in Boston, days which came to an end 15 months ago).

      No one knows for sure where all the money has gone, though anyone familiar with Boston is not surprised nor unable to make a few guesses.

  2. Project Management by SexyKellyOsbourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Though government waste -- and that's what the entire project is -- is always bad, at least in this instance they're looking out for the public's safety, unlike private corporations that often neglect to do so.

    Project managers unable to handle scope creep may demand unreasonable schedules, but thank Cthulhu in this instance that they are not deploying the code ahead of time and deciding to patch it later!

  3. Software holdups...? That's kinda silly. by wls · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't understand how the software developers are holding up laying of the infrastructure. One would have thought that the software would be fairly independent of the media on which it operates.

  4. Re:It's supposed to end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Let me get this straight. It's costing about $14 billion right? With that kind of money, couldn't you just build a road AROUND the city or over it on bridges? Who the hell had the bright idea to tunnel under it? What's next, a tunnel from Boston to Washington, D.C. so they can smuggle more of our tax dollars out of there?

  5. Re:Big Mess. by Havokmon · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I wish they'd throw billions of dollars into my city and redo all the roads for us too.

    You need weasly city planners.

    For example. The federal govt WILL help pay for Interstate and intrastate highways. Around here, there's a lot of renaming of roads so the feds help rebuild/repave them. They do have to be used as 'Hwy 200' for a certain period of time before they can become eligable, but it's a way to get more money to widen/improve an older road.

    Either that, or the people who setup the road system did a really poor job. Considering I sometimes have to wait 25min for a train by my house, on a 4 lane intrastate hwy, I wouldn't entirely rule out past incompetance.

    --
    "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  6. Re:Sure, blame the programmers. by TheReverend · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh yeah, not to mention we've been given the most ridiculously obsolete software that we've had to adapt to this project... and the requirements change every few minutes, usually to something completely illogical...

    --


    "Let me open these blinds so the snipers can see in." - Kevin Giffhorn
  7. Re:I'm a programmer in BigDig... by Snotnose · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That finger pointing rings a bell. I used to work on Globalstar, the Qualcomm/Loral attempt at satellite phones. We had a huge deadline and there was no fricken way it would be met. We also had a launch of our first 12 satellites coming up soon. They were on a Russian Bird with something like a 25% failure rate. We all watched the launch live. When it, ahh, forgot to deploy the satellites before hitting the ground we all looked at each other and had looks of relief. Sure enough, Russia took the hit for G* being 6 months late, when in fact nothing from software to the antennas to the phones were ready yet.

    I still think they picked a known faulty booster to ensure the finger of doom pointed away from "the good guys".