The history of the Big Dig

Elon Musk thinks flying cars are silly, and that to counter skyrocketing traffic, we should tunnel underground instead. Does the Big Dig support his theory?

After researchers calculated that Boston’s rush hour would eventually last 16 hours, in 1990, Congress allocated $755 million to save the city. Officials then embraced what some consider to be the greatest engineering challenge in American history: the urgent construction of bridges and tunnels called the Big Dig.

$15 billion later, the project remains controversial. The Boston Globe asserts commute times increased from suburbs, and that major road projects require parallel investments in public transit.

– Chris Butsch