The Big Dig: What Can We Learn from Boston’s Last 20th Century Mega-Project?

The completion of Interstate Highways 93, 95 and 90 in Boston - known as the Central; Artery/Tunnel Project or the “Big Dig” - is a multi-faceted story of urban transportation policy and planning, citizen activism and its impacts on how transportation systems were built in the last decades of the 20th century through the present day, the resolution of extraordinary design and engineering complexities, and the politics of paying for such a massive infrastructure intervention. It is also a story about urban renewal - not in the classic mid-1950s sense but in a more modern sense of knitting communities together following the neglectful planning of mid-century America.

This IAP offering requires participants to listen to each of the 9 episodes of the recently released WGBH news podcast, “The Big Dig.”  Each 90 minute session will require participants to offer reaction, reflection and insights from the podcast, and provide an opportunity to I ask questions of two MIT lecturers and former state transportation secretaries: the architect of the Big Dig, Fred Salvucci, and the architect of the Metropolitan Highway System operating and funding legislation, Jim Aloisi.  Fred and Jim will facilitate the conversation and attempt to link lessons learned from the Big Dig to the planning and policy context that informs our thinking today.

Open to MIT community only (students, staff, faculty, DUSP alums).  To resister, email Jim Aloisi (jaloisi@mit.edu).