The director of Boston's Big Dig project says that water leaks are a major concern to the tunnel structure and are causing damage to support girders and electrical systems. While he maintains that the tunnels are safe, I don't think lights falling from the ceiling are a good sign.
Since the Big Dig runs through downtown Boston, a collapse would probably be pretty catastrophic. The pessimist in me has to ask whether or not it would be worth the expense to just fill the thing in with the dirt and rock that were taken out to build the darned thing.
In the event that I go to Boston anytime soon, I think I'll take my chances with surface streets that aren't above the Big Dig.
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They keep talking here in Syracuse about what to do with the I81 section that runs through the city. The option to "bury it, a la big dig!" is gaining a larger footing in the idea sessions.
This past spring we had a massive rain storm that severely flooded many areas including some of the lower sections of I81, cars were flooded up to their window lines for several hours when drainage failed to cope with the massive influx of water.
I thought the whole "bury it, and make it a tunnel" idea was stupid in the first place since I was lucky enough to grow up not to far north of Boston while they tried to create the Big Dig tunnels. But I've actually had some success with some of those people lately when I point out that a tunnel will flood even faster and deeper than a low lying highway.
Luckily for us in Louisville, the limestone starts about 4 feet down and goes deep. I doubt they'll be burying too many roads.
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