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Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Originally Posted by That_One_Guy
The big dig is extremely impressive and I think other cities should look to Boston as an example and try to copy that. Especially for cities that have non-grade separated freeways running right through the city core.
The Big Dig also went way over budget (which was high to begin with), and was a real fiasco. It would've been cheaper and less hassle to reinforce the previous Elevated Mass Pike
The Big Dig also went way over budget (which was high to begin with), and was a real fiasco. It would've been cheaper and less hassle to reinforce the previous Elevated Mass Pike
I feel like that would still be sooooo satisfying and worth it though! Especially in a city as dense and walkable as Boston. Maybe I’m wrong, I’m not from Boston. But if anyone from Boston is here I’d love to hear your thoughts and/or the general public opinion too.
Seattle’s a couple years away from completing a replacement of the waterfront viaduct with an underground tunnel. What Seattle REALLY needs is a total overhaul of I5 which slices through downtown like a big ditch. It’s also poorly designed and created massive delays. In a dream scenario, it gets completely redesigned and lidded.
There will likely never be another project like the Big Dig in the US (thank god). That project was the poster child for mismanagement, shoddy quality, and corruption. The $2.6 billion budget ballooned to over $15 billion and the project was finished 8 years behind schedule.
Lake Shore Drive in Chicago always struck me as pretty disruptive to the area.
I believe that ALL Chicago's expressways were rebuilt last decades with Lake Shore Drive the last to be done. Some downtown parts were moved for the Museum Campus and around Soldier field and S-curve reworked as less sharp. But still much is due to be remade.
Plans to totally bury it were already altered. Originally...... it was to be a boulevard NOT a expressway. It was in the 1909 Daniel Burnham plan as such but was altered as the 50s had more a expressway built. A more 1909 approach is looked at in a redo adding more parkland.
Either way both a redo and adding even more green and lake-fill .... seems to be the plan to lessen the Drives separating of the city and lakefront. Though it is mostly ground-level and not a ugly elevated blemish as some ... along most of its 26 miles or so.
Pictures of the Drive toward and away from downtown Chicago. Drawings from link. Burying part of the drive is probably no longer planned? But more Parkland is. Removed probably not.
City drawings Now and Future - Current views looking toward and outward from downtown
I believe that ALL Chicago's expressways were rebuilt last decades with Lake Shore Drive the last to be done. Some downtown parts were moved for the Museum Campus and around Soldier field and S-curve reworked as less sharp. But still much is due to be remade.
Plans to totally bury it were already altered. Originally...... it was to be a boulevard NOT a expressway. It was in the 1909 Daniel Burnham plan as such but was altered as the 50s had more a expressway built. A more 1909 approach is looked at in a redo adding more parkland.
Either way both a redo and adding even more green and lake-fill .... seems to be the plan to lessen the Drives separating of the city and lakefront. Though it is mostly ground-level and not a ugly elevated blemish as some ... along most of its 26 miles or so.
Pictures of the Drive toward and away from downtown Chicago. Drawings from link. Burying part of the drive is probably no longer planned? But more Parkland is. Removed probably not.
City drawings Now and Future - Current views looking toward and outward from downtown
That is very nice. Hopefully it goes through. I remember being surprised there was a freeway cutting off that area of the lake from the core. More retail coming will really bring the two together.
The Big Dig also went way over budget (which was high to begin with), and was a real fiasco. It would've been cheaper and less hassle to reinforce the previous Elevated Mass Pike
Most of the added cost was decades of delay (i.e. inflation, not real added cost) and a great deal of added scope. But it was still a mess.
Most of the added cost was decades of delay (i.e. inflation, not real added cost) and a great deal of added scope. But it was still a mess.
In Seattle, two issues here. First, the new tunnel on the 99 will be tolled. So by definition, it will be bypassed by many.
I-5 is indeed in need of reconstruction through the central city. The freeway currently narrows to two lanes NB in central city. Unfortunately, there is no budget to rebuild this section. I believe the original construction was built with the idea the most NB traffic would exit into downtown. Unfortunately, most traffic does NOT exit at downtown, they want to move through downtown. A critical planning error from 50 years ago. Why this can't be corrected is beyond me, but my best guess is an anti-freeway bias is keeping this from even reaching a proposal.
Bypassed by many...and others will go out of their way to use it because it's more free-flowing.
Agreed, am glad this project is finally coming to completion. There was a period a couple years ago where it was really uncertain. But now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. (I wish it would have been built bigger with more lanes, but that is a moot point now.).
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