How a power struggle over a Massachusetts Turnpike toll hike jeopardized Boston's Big Dig funding

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The Big Dig experienced two great shufflings of the leadership deck. The first was in 1990, when Fred Salvucci stepped down. The second was in 2000, when Jim Kerasiotes stepped down. But this time, there was no heir apparent to take up the mantle and lead the project forward.
Instead, there was chaos.
This episode is about a power struggle that played out at the highest level of state politics, over who had ultimate authority over the Big Dig. That might sound like a simple question. Isn't it the governor? Or the secretary of transportation? Or Bechtel-Parsons? Federal Highway? The DPW?
The answer is no.
True power over the Big Dig laid in a shadowy corner of state government that was only barely part of the government at all: the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
This is the seventh in a nine-part podcast series about history and politics of the Big Dig - one of the most notoriously troubled infrastructure projects in American history. It was created as an audio experience. This presentation includes archival images.
Episode 1: • The Big Dig began with...
Episode 2: • How two competing tunn...
Episode 3: • How Boston's Big Dig s...
Episode 4: • Here's why Boston's be...
Episode 5: • It took a feat of engi...
Episode 6: • Here's how billions of...
Episode 8: • Boston's Big Dig tunne...
Episode 9: • The Big Dig transforme...
You can find more about The Big Dig podcast at www.wgbh.org/p....
GBH News is a premier source for in-depth local news and original story telling based in Boston, Massachusetts.
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We can’t do it without you. Support our award-winning community journalism by donating today: bit.ly/Support... is the fifth in a nine-part podcast series about history and politics of the Big Dig - one of the most notoriously troubled infrastructure projects in American history. It was created as an audio experience. This presentation includes archival images.

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16 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 76

@dfoleyusa 11 месяцев назад

This series is phenomenal.

@brianvernaglia9449 11 месяцев назад

This i a great series! I have been listening and watching intently. At 51 as a life long MA resident, I never really knew what was happening beyond the "Scheme Z" and "Budget Overrun" headlines.

@carkmagus6219 11 месяцев назад

This series is not only so well done but highlights so many areas where our government can fail

@romanmarcus14 11 месяцев назад

This is the best podcast ever. Some how this episode turned into House of Cards / West Wing / Came of thrones. But it has todo with the Big dig.

@johnduchesneau8685 11 месяцев назад

Who needs true crime stories when you can have Massachusetts politics instead?

@bretsk2500 11 месяцев назад

They can definitely be one and the same.

@295g295 10 месяцев назад

19:10 - I think only Connecticut did that.

@295g295 10 месяцев назад

19:00 - Toll roads were built by states before the US Congress began to fund the Interstate highway system.

@295g295 10 месяцев назад

.. Richmond - Petersburg Virginia too

@EdisonRex 11 месяцев назад

I heard the name Jordan Levy and I thought I remembered that name. I lived in Worcester (at WPI) early to mid 80s. He was the mayor there wasn't he. I didn't know he just passed away a month ago either. This episode is fascinating. It is telling how many of the people involved declined to be interviewed. This is a great series, well done.

@bretsk2500 11 месяцев назад

Same, but I was at WPI a decade later.

@franciscampagna2711 11 месяцев назад

When I started watching, as a former New Yorker, "Robert Moses" immediately came to mind. Thank you.

@bretsk2500 11 месяцев назад

The amount of memories I've never considered remembering are all being drug up by this series. kudos to GBH!

@Sordesman 11 месяцев назад

I've never been more interested in a series than this one.

@tu__tone 11 месяцев назад

This series is amazing. I have been absolutely hooked. Waiting on each new episode like a new season of Yellowstone. Not to mention I’m from NJ, but still this is fascinating, very well done, impressive research and great attention to details. ‘The Big Dig’ has always been on my mind for some reason 😂 and this series is a MUST for any other heavy highway construction nuts like me. Five Star rating, 10 out of 10. This is good content.

@byDahlia 11 месяцев назад

This series is SOO good. New episode made my day :)

@GBHNews 11 месяцев назад

We are so glad!!

@rapman5791 11 месяцев назад

Free The Pike!!!! Doug Barth had them all sweating Tolls should have been abolished years ago

@CynicalDriver 11 месяцев назад

Congrats on another phenomenal episode! These have become highlights of my weeks for me.

@GBHNews 11 месяцев назад

We are so glad to hear it!

@jameslumbley1476 Месяц назад

I found this series whilst researching The Big DIg, for my own knowledge... Just wanted to say, this was exceptionally well made - From the in-depth nature, to editing, script, narration. I hope to see more from you soon, good luck.

@rollinwithunclepete824 2 месяца назад

I usually love process stories... seeing things get built. But this is also a process story. A most enthralling process story! Thank you so much.

@Patrick-fe6ly 11 месяцев назад

One of the best doc-u-series. 🎉 bravo. Seriously enjoy every moment. Thank you.

@disastrophi 11 месяцев назад

I’m all caught up! This is just what I was hoping to watch tonight 🎉 many thanks again for this lovely documentary ❤

@GBHNews 11 месяцев назад

Thank you for watching!

@keiththoma2559 11 месяцев назад

The main issue is lack of competence for board members and not understanding what was needed to run it. At the end of the day the legislature should mandate qualifications and competence for anyone on a board of a public authority.

@jnagarya519 2 месяца назад

Political patronage. I knew Mihos. Utterly arrogant born into wealth. Quintessential example of privilege. Street named after him. At the end he lost his money to gambling, prostitutes, and resultant divorce settlement.

@AutumnBosco 11 месяцев назад

God this is such a good series

@allyip5777 2 месяца назад

Thank you for filling in the part of history I have not experienced in my home state. I was serving in the Army during the OIF… I never even know we had a governor named “Jane Swift” and boy, she has more balls than many men I know, for better or worse.

@rapman5791 11 месяцев назад

No, you had it right!! Everyone lost when Mitt was let loose on The Commonwealth.

@Xsiondu 11 месяцев назад

This just keeps on being great

@Ebooger 11 месяцев назад

In NYS anyway, authorities were created for one reason and one reason only: to evade the state's constitutional requirement for a balanced budget.

@YesItsMeGuys68 11 месяцев назад

This was an outstanding series. Bravo to all who created this.

@jergervasi3331 3 месяца назад

Great series.

@joebehrdenver 3 месяца назад

This series is top tier. (Also, that poor tool both guy. He got lots of air time!)

@8bitorgy 11 месяцев назад

Jane Swift was either utterly clueless or paralyzingly corrupt. I hope the door didn't hit her on the way out

@sunsetlights100 11 месяцев назад

But she was working for the state ? Meri go round

@sitdowndogbreath 11 месяцев назад

Yeah she was inconfident

@Kezza12tre 9 месяцев назад

What a fantastic series

@8bitorgy 11 месяцев назад

when I see big dig I click

@bobl6139 11 месяцев назад

Christy Mihos would have been a great governor

@scottleung9587 11 месяцев назад

Yeah, he would've been entertaining - that's for sure. And he probably would've handled the Big Dig much better.

@robalderman6979 11 месяцев назад

That acadia green Subaru 2.5 rs with the gold wheels at 50:36...rare care today

@EricBlackmer 11 месяцев назад

Wow! I didn't know about this. From a distance it all seemed to be just the way things rolled in Massatwoshits.

@Hollandsemum2 3 месяца назад

The toll issue sounds like Chicago. Part of the highway system had tolls that were meant to stop within something like 20 years of completion. Instead, they were then continued to cover 'repairs and maintenance'. All of these places find a way to keep the tolls. The PA turnpike is one of the oldest interstates, and I've never known it to not have tolls over my lifetime (plenty long). There's also the NJ turnpike, but it's always been messy. Does anyone know a highway that promised to drop tolls after a while and actually did? The Big Dig became so infamous that it was like a grim comedy for the rest of the nation.

@sarcasmo57 11 месяцев назад

Crazy story man.

@kennethvenezia4400 10 месяцев назад

Wow!😮 Did you write & play your own music for this?🙀🙀

@rapman5791 11 месяцев назад

Labeling Jordan Levy as “the radio host “ shows just how disingenuous the producer is. Instead of giving him the respect of the office of Mayor (which he was) , Jordan Levy was the Mayor of the second largest city in Massachusetts (Worcester), but he’s just a radio host according to this narrator.

@jnagarya519 2 месяца назад

Christy Mihos was born into wealth. His family owned a supermarket that charged the maximum in the market. Then he expanded it into a chain. Selling made his even more wealthy. And he never let anyone forget that he was "better than" those who weren't of his "class". And then he blew it on gambling and hookers.

@danam0228 Месяц назад

Another part of this state that I hate, the Turnpike. The Turnpike Authority was supposed to be dissolved years ago, but because of the Ted Williams Tunnel being tacked onto the Turnpike and being part of the Big Dig, the Authority was given a new lease on life to unfairly collect money from everyone west of Boston to pay for rhe prohect. Despicable!!!

@Poorschedriver 11 месяцев назад

40:56 This is quite possibly the most Massachusetts thing I've ever seen right here. Politics in the Bay State is just a different animal. In the end, you really can't blame the board. It was always the fault of the legislature creating a 3 member board accountable to no one.

@RandallFlaggNY 11 месяцев назад

$50 million? What a joke of an offer. Did Bechtel ever get sued and pay up? I doubt it.

@johnmonachelli5256 11 месяцев назад

For 26k a year 2 days a month is acceptable

@LVRugger 11 месяцев назад

Hell, I'd do that today, let alone over 20 years ago.

@rapman5791 11 месяцев назад

Jane who??? 😂😂😂

@scottleung9587 11 месяцев назад

Not sure, but she definitely took "Swift" action in firing Mihos and Levy. Guess that makes her an "anti-hero"?

@jnagarya519 2 месяца назад

Romney promised that if elected governor -- he was pro-choice -- he wouldn't use it as a platform to run for president. Halfway through his term as governor he declared his candidacy for president as anti-choice.

@295g295 10 месяцев назад

65 years ago the Central Artery was built by Mass-Pike?

@rapman5791 11 месяцев назад

The original Turnpike livery had an arrow shooting through a pilgrim hat. That stood for decades until someone got their panties in a bunch and just like Aunt Jemima it was no more.

@franciscampagna2711 11 месяцев назад

New York Thruway was paid off decades ago, and tolls supposed to be removed. Tolls are still there.

@jnagarya519 2 месяца назад

Then Republican Mihos was booted from his patronage job, given him for his vote by a Republican. So he sued all the way to the highest state court -- he had plenty of money to throw at lawyers -- to get the "job" back and lost. That suit must have cost him a quarter-million.

@c182SkylaneRG 11 месяцев назад

Wait... but the Pike STILL isn't toll-free... For that matter, neither are I-95 or I-93 in NH.

@bopete3204 11 месяцев назад

We stan a road tolling queen 👑 Pricing driving is the only way to reduce congestion, and with all the negative externalities of driving, it doesn't warrant subsidization.

@bloodorange6713 4 месяца назад

Effective public transport reduces cars. Charging people more to drive simply punishes the poor and rewards those with enough money to not care. Meanwhile, everyone still keeps driving because the T is so broken.

@Heyu7her3 4 месяца назад

@@bloodorange6713 they're not using the pike

@bloodorange6713 4 месяца назад

@@Heyu7her3 I can assure you many people commute on the Mass Pike

@bloodorange6713 4 месяца назад

It is complete bullshit that tolls still exist on the Pike

@jnagarya519 2 месяца назад

Jordan Levy, Right-wing Republican talk show host and know-it-all. Mihos would run for governor with the usual bizarre Republican policies -- totally unrelated to reality.