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

The Big Dig

[(H)olyGeekboy]

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. :)

Re:The Big Dig

[Zelet]

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?

Re:The Big Dig

[Shynedog]

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.

Re:The Big Dig

[dubiousmike]

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

Re:The Big Dig

[dhogaza]

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.

Software holdups...? That's kinda silly.

[wls]

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.

Re:Big Mess.

[Havokmon]

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.