The Big Dig

What to do with the BQE? It’s a one of a kind highway in desperate need of repair, but no one can agree how to fix it. 

Guests: Polly Trottenberg, Lara Birnback, Stephen Nessen

Recorded live at WNYC’s Greenspace.

Archival audio courtesy of Municipal Archives, City of New York.

Every American city is divided by crumbling old highways. Every city is trying to figure out what to do with them. But even if the problems with these structures are obvious, the solutions are not – often they are contentious. Welcome to The Big Dig Highway Teardown Tour.

Just dropping in to share some news about the show, and what's coming next. 

Part 9: It’s been fifty years since the Big Dig was first conceived, thirty years since construction began, more than a dozen years since it was completed – and the final twist is: the project has largely delivered on its promises. How do we reconcile that reality with the scandal and outrage we’ve heard so much about?

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 8: Just as the project turns the corner towards completion, its entire legacy becomes clouded. The tunnels are leaking, concrete suppliers are being arrested, and everyday drivers are forced to wonder: are these tunnels safe?

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 7: By the year 2000, the Big Dig has passed through many hands, but in its final years a power struggle spills into public view – over who will determine the project’s fate, and who will take responsibility for its mistakes.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 6: As work progresses through the 1990s and the tunnels take shape, the true cost of the Big Dig remains unknown to the public, until a series of revelations pulls down the curtain and shakes confidence in the whole project.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 5: In 1991, the Big Dig is handed off to a new leader – the brash, aggressive, hatchet-toting Jim Kerasiotes – who makes it clear he plans to shake things up. The one thing he can’t shake is the equally aggressive private company managing the project. Now they have to work together.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 4: The project faces an unexpected challenge on the home front: resistance from local environmentalists and residents – the very people the Big Dig was intended to please. Now, they say that Fred Salvucci has lost his way.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 3: The Big Dig needs federal funding. House Speaker Tip O’Neill is determined to get it; President Ronald Reagan is determined to stop it – setting up a final showdown in one of the great political rivalries of the 20th century.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He