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To: altair19 who wrote (26618)	5/29/2003 8:25:16 AM
From: Clappy	of 104167

I watched a show in TLC or Discovery last night about the Big Dig in Boston. The show was called Extreme Engineering or something like that. This week's episode showed how much planning and problem solving has gone into the massive civil engineering feat of putting Interstate 93 under ground. Incredible. The ideas were amazing. I can't fathom that they actually did what they did. One stretch of the underground highway was tunneled underneath existing highway, an underground bus station, and subways without disturbing service... Another stretch of ground had soft clay passing under a large railroad yard. So what they did was install tons of refrigeration to freeze the ground. Then they tunneled under the frozen ground which held up the trains and track. They propose to tear down the existing stretches of elevated highways and convert the land under it to miles of parks and plazas. It should be nice if it actually materializes. Have you driven in any of the new tunnels? Have they removed any of the old highway? How long has the Ted Williams tunnel to the airport been open? It seems that was one of the earlier stages of the project. There appears to be 7 ventalation buildings and they can redirect air flow away from traffic should there be a fire. It certainly seems to be an engineering marvel. Hopefully terrorists will not use it as a target. One truck with enough explosives could knock out the highway and rail system in one blow and do some serious flooding. Probably something not a ton of thought went into when designing back in the safe 80's. Or maybe they did. They sure used a lot of steel and concrete... That is a pretty fancy looking suspension bridge with the cables supporting it. What was it named? Larry Bird Bridge? <g> It is nice looking. I don't think I ever saw it before. I think I remember something about the Big Dig starting back in '86 when I took a drunken road trip with a van load of buddies from college. One Tuesday night we went out to a bar one night and upon returning to the dorms one guy said, "How cool would it be to wake up in Boston tomorrow?!" "LET'S DO IT!" was our reply. 6 hours later in mid hangover we found ourselves there. Did the walking tour of the historic places, visited Quincy Market (I think it was new), and drove by Fenway and The Bull and Finch Tavern (Bar from Cheers). That has been my only trip to your fair city. Really enjoyed it. I sort of remember something about the big dig but didn't fully understand what was going on until last night. Has it been a nightmare for commuters? Or has it just become commonplace after a while... -Clapping

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