Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a massive, federally funded project to build freeway tunnels underneath the city and Boston Harbor, will cost $22 billion including interest payments, according to a July 17 story in the
Boston Globe. The project, known as the “Big Dig,” was originally budgeted to cost $2.8 billion.
Despite receiving federal funding, the Big Dig was subject to a union-only project labor agreement (PLA) that required project contractors and subcontractors agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on the job, use the union hiring hall to obtain workers, pay union wages and benefits, and obey the union's work rules, job classifications and arbitration procedures. The project was plagued by delays and problems throughout its history.
According to the article, in order to cover the cost of the project, Massachusetts will have to pay close to $600 million annually over the next several years, taking money away from the maintenance and repair of roads and bridges across the state.
In addition, that article pointed out that the Big Dig project, which represents only 7.5 miles of an 11,000 mile highway system, has sucked up nearly 40 percent of the state highway funds over the last 17 years. In order to recoup that loss, the state has been forced to borrow money to meet the current needs of the highway system.
Because of the state’s mounting debt, 80 percent of workers for the Highway Department are being paid with borrowed money, compared to only 14 percent before the Big Dig, the
Globe noted. State officials are hesitant to raise taxes, but that may be the only way to fight the massive pile of debt caused by the Big Dig project, the article said.
To read the
Boston Globe article, click
here.
To learn more about the problems faced by the Big Dig, click
here.