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

It's supposed to end?

[IPFreely]

I thought the Big Dig was supposed to go on forever.

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

Waiting on Programmers?

[da3dAlus]

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.

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

[Frothy Walrus]

Most of us up here in Boston just want the damn thing to end. It's getting there -- they've finished the bridge and lots of ventilation buildings, and they are starting to close up some of the massive holes they've dug.

Mass transit in Boston is pretty good. you can go anywhere on the subway for $1, and the buses do a decent job of coverage too. The thing that sucks is that the subway turns into a pumpkin around 12:30am.

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

favorite quote

[skydude_20]

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."

Re:IWNRTFA

[DLWormwood]

Why is it assumed that every article on /. pertains just to you?

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.

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.

Tolls

[Tycho]

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?

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

[Peyna]

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.

I-93

[Anne_Nonymous]

I-93. Where else can you park in downtown Boston for free?

Re:Why Should You Care?

[daoine]

a decent chunk (>$13Bil) of FEDERAL tax dollars has gone to pay for the "Big Dig" boondoggle in Boston.

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.

Regan the democrat....

[MosesJones]

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.

More roads

[YrWrstNtmr]

Building more roads to combat traffic congestion is like buying a bigger belt to combat obesity.

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.

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.

Re:I'm a programmer in BigDig...

[rodbegbie]

Forgive me if I misquote:

* It's not our fault, it's the previous contractor's.

* It's not our fault, it's management.

* It's not our fault, it's the client.

* It's not our fault, the requirement are fuzzy.

* It's not our fault, it's the politics.

Well, bad news, bucko: Welcome to the software industry. You've just used up your quota of excuses. You cannot bitch about a project until the next fical year.

rOD.

Re:I'm a programmer in BigDig...

[poot_rootbeer]

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

Oh come on, four-star software sounds pretty good to me. You're scoring it on a five-star scale, right?

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.

Mod parent up.

[TheReverend]

I'm a programmer on the project also, he got everything exactly right.

Yet you have time to read /.

[gatkinso]

Get back to work, you.

Re:IWNRTFA

[smittyoneeach]

What does it do for those of us living in just about any other city?

Excavates your wallet.
Kinda chaps your quiddick, don't it?

I know my taxes go into a big hole in the ground..

[raehl]

But I didn't know the hole was in Boston.

Boston's Big Dig Delayed because of Slashdot?

[raehl]

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.