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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.
I thought the Big Dig was supposed to go on forever.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
I thought the software was working fine? I mean, that little guy on the screen is going to town with that shovel...
OH, "Big Dig", I thought you said "Dig Dug".
Nevermind.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
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.
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.
Remember the Denver airport opening delays because of the baggage system bugs?
Larry Bossidy, the just-retired CEO of Honeywell, one of the Dig contractors that may contribute to delayed openings of the tunnel sections, is in town tomorrow to give a speech at the Marriott Long Wharf to promote his new book. The title? Funny you should ask. It's called "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done."
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
The Big Dig is a massive highway tunneling and reconstruction project to solve some of the serious gridlock problems Boston has. Since Boston competes with New York for convention attendance, this is relevant to many business travelers. (And MacWorld was once held there, and my be held there again.)
I know this, and I'm not even from there! You see the Dig mentioned regularly on other news sites from time to time; been going on for years now.
Those who complain about affect & effect on
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.
So how much will it cost to drive on the highways in Boston after the Big Dig is completed? And why did everyone else in the country have to pay for something that will potentially not be free to drive on?
Impersonating Tycho from Penny Arcade since before there was a PA.
That mindset is part of the problem. Most likely what happened was they needed something done a different way than originally planned, and since they assume software is the easiest to change, they put the burden on them to conform to everything. My guess is they tried to separate the software from the rest of the system and just assume the software would be easily able to change and keep up with everything else as needed, when instead they should have been developed together and treated as parts of a whole.
What?
I know this isn't exactly about the article (software related), but I saw a television program on Discovery or TLC or something recently about the Big Dig, which described the ventilation system would make the air INSIDE the tunnels CLEANER than the air OUTSIDE!
1. Sell out your construction company to an Irish mafia project
2. Chill out for about 20 years. Take your time doing anything. Make sure you hugely overstep your price quote.
3. PROFIT !!
I-93. Where else can you park in downtown Boston for free?
That's likely due to the fact that the road involved is Interstate 93, which is grossly incapable of handling the current traffic loads through downtown Boston. The fact that it's an Interstate means that the Federal Government funds a portion of the construction.
Err that well known "Democratic Party" Candidate and President Ronald Regan signed up to the funding of the Big Dig, funding was continued by another Democratic leader called George Bush.
See those things waving at you in the distance ? They are the Facts, wander over and see them some time.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Building more roads to combat traffic congestion is like buying a bigger belt to combat obesity.
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)
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.
no, it's not behind schedule. The original plans were for 1994, but those got scrapped as the project got bigger and they realized exactly how long it would take
:o)
So why don't they just ask the geeks how long the software will be, and then push it back again?
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.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I'm a programmer on the project also, he got everything exactly right.
"Let me open these blinds so the snipers can see in." - Kevin Giffhorn
Get back to work, you.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Kinda chaps your quiddick, don't it?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Congress controls the budget, not the president. Congress was mostly controlled by the Democrats at the time the dig was approved.
The President only gets to sign or veto whole spending bills. They have little control over the specifics. Presidents can send it back and say "you have spent too much" but it is politically impossible for him to say "take this out, put this in, take these 3 things out, put these two in". That is why I wish the President had a line-item budget veto. A Republican congress tried to give a Democrat president (Clinton) but was overturned on Constitutional grounds (probably for good technical reasons). But I wish they would amend the Constitution on this one.
Brian Ellenberger
But I didn't know the hole was in Boston.
paintball
"You need weasly city planners."
The Reagan administration vetoed the fed funding for this project calling it a huge pork barrel.
Our senior U.S. Senator, a big fat pork expert, managed to push it through.
Whenever there's a bridge in the news, you can expect to see the name Ted Kennedy.
There are 4 lines on the Subway system, and all are based upon getting people downtown. The subways head downtown and out. Within each of the 4 colored lines (5 if you count the new Silver Line, which is a fancy bus at this point, but will be a legit extension to the Subway system in 10 years when completed) there are some splits, where they go to different, yet similar locations.
This was useful when all employment/shopping was downtown, but presents some problems as the economy spread from downtown Boston. If you are going anywhere that requires switching trains, you will be spending a minimum of 30-45 minutes on your trip. Busses can help with this, as they cut between different lines, but until a few months ago the route numbers weren't posted and the website remains difficult to use. While commuters can figure out the busses to simplify their commute, it simply isn't practical for an individual trip.
Beyond that, the system gets really slow. I live out on the Green Line, which is the most residential of the trains. After Kenmore Square, they become "Trolley lines" that are above ground, but have a dedicated area for their tracks. This means that the trains can't pass one another if one gets bogged down, and there is no meaningful way to run express trains.
The road system is a collection of disasters because of Boston's heritage. Boston is unable to rework their roads without shutting down the city, and an execessive number of buildings are declared historical, stopping progress.
On top of that, the elevated central artery, which the big dig will replace, cuts through Boston. Now ask yourself who would want to live right near a highway (and walk underneath it), and you realize why the Central Artery trashed the neighborhoods. Walking under a highway is a strange thing, and it cuts neighborhoods apart. This results in social costs in excess of the traffic.
Part of the problem with the subway system is that it is too slow. Even in Rush Hour, it is faster to drive then take the subways. If the trains go above ground (the Green Line), they are stuck waitting for lights like cars, and they have a 30 MPH limit (same as the official speed limit) plus they need to stop.
An additional problem is the system only runs trains once every 10 minutes (most busses are every 30 minutes). This makes the subway painful for short trips. If you are only going a few stops, you might spend 15 minutes waitting for the train for a 5 minute trip.
Boston has transportation nightmares. Unlike New York, that does construction at night, all road construction is done during the day in Boston, including during Rush Hour. The unionized workers don't have to put in overtime, so sometimes jobs will involve ripping up a street on Thursday/Friday, then MAYBE getting to fix it Monday or Tuesday of the next week. However, if it wasn't planned that way, it may be a week or more before they return with equipment.
The Big Dig will help with the highway crunch, but won't solve the general problems in Boston. The only nice thing will be if the Big Dig does enough, then people will take Highways (they'd be faster than city streets for a change) which might alleviate some of the other traffic. More likely, driving to work in Boston will be more pleasant, so people will get more cars bringing us back to the status quo.
Well, at least the friends of the powerful were able to buy all the slumlands next to the highway that is about to become parkland. They're going to make a fortune on those luxury apartment complexes that used to be crack houses or slums.
Alex
Lots of cities have terrible traffic problems. I'm stuck halfway between Baltimore and D.C., both could use a new multi-billion dollar traffic infrastructure.
And when the Big Dig is finished, and Baltimore, D.C., Manhattan, Detroit, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. see how cool it is, they'll know how to do it because we'll show them how.
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
How long have you been doing corperate software?
You make the polling configurable as suggested by the requirements - of course the only option you can choose when configuring is... 3 seconds!
Then when they ask to add to the range, you note that the entire system was built around requirement (1), and that you'll need one year to add any other options.
Unless of course for brevity you've left out that the operator had to be able to change the polling to a certain range of values. Then you're toast.
Seriously though, good luck to all of you - I've been in projects with requirements like that before.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Further invesitgation into software delays in Boston's Big Dig project traced the source of the problem to an internet technical news site, Slashdot.org.
A survey of the projects network logs showed that queries to the Slashdot website occured at an average interval of 37 seconds, or 3 minutes and 5 seconds per user assigned to the project.
Project spokesmen indicated that a planned installation of software to curb employee access to the website has been delayed due to lack of available programmers to do the installation.
paintball