| Witness the final stages of one of the largest, most technically challenging infrastructure projects in American history: Boston's Big Dig. An effort to alleviate the city's notorious traffic congestion by burying a super-highway 120 feet below the city's surface, it's a project that will rival the pyramids in terms of sheer engineering marvel. Engineers and city planners have worked on the project for a dozen years, and are now only three years from completion. Join them as they explain how this subterranean artery will work. Ten lanes of asphalt will burrow beneath the heart of downtown, snaking above and below existing subway lines – and within inches of skyscrapers – to relieve gridlock and reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 12 percent. It's a gargantuan undertaking, costing more than $14 billion and shifting enough dirt to fill 15 football stadiums. But, while computer animation demonstrates the tunnel's resistance to massive earthquakes, technicians reveal that a simple two-car accident in the belly of the multi-lane beast could sink the entire project. Could Boston's Big Dig be the answer to the city's transit troubles, or will it drive motorists to seek higher ground? |
