Comments by "interstellarphred" (@interstellarphred) on "It took a feat of engineering and a power struggle to connect the Ted Williams tunnel to Boston" video.

  1. When in the transit advocacy culture from mid'90s, I was being mentored by a senior partner in a small Cambridge architectural Firm, who knew a lot of people in high places. He would go on at length about the opacity of Bechtel, as he was trying to revive the railway link, and wanted to see the ongoing design engineering in progress. His observations corroborates years in advance, what is reported in this installment. There is so much stuff that happens behind the scenes that never makes it to the news. From bag job studies, to slow walking, turf skirmishes, political grudges, and "burning bridge" engineering, to assure some concepts are doomed to an endless cycle of study and re-study as stalling tactic, to dissipate the energy of citizen-advocates.
    9
  2. Jim was a highway guy, and if transit would need to remain stagnant or degrade to cover the cost overruns, so be it.
    4