"no project is more synonymous with waste and fraud than the “big dig”, the not-so-affectionate nickname given to the rerouting of boston’s chief highway (interstate 93) into a 3.5 mile tunnel beneath the city. originally estimated to cost $2.5 billion in 1985, the project devolved into the most expensive highway project in u.s. history, costing some $14.6 billion in state and federal tax dollars by 2006. countless contractor changes and environmental obstacles later, boston.com lamented in 2008 that the big dig’s crushing debt had “engulfed the state”, ballooning to $22 billion that will not be paid off in full until 2038 – at the earliest. this assumes no more hurdles for a project whose oversights have already killed a motorist and led a massachusetts attorney general to demand $100 mill"
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