Capitalism vs. Socialism

Here is a tale of two cities: Minneapolis and Boston

Conceived in the 1970’s and proposed in the early 1980’s, a ginormous public works project was envisioned in the city of Boston to ease the ever-present congestion on Interstates 90 and 93 as it passed through the center of the city. With drivers up in arms and big labor licking their chops, the ‘Big Dig‘ project began a two-decade journey and twisty as the road it was going to replace: an underground transportation artery to free the gridlocked city.

With help from House Speaker Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill, the funds for the project overcame a veto by President Reagan and the Big Dig was to become a reality.

The Big Dig

Originally, the project was to cost about $6 billion and face many environmental obstacles (which added seven years to the project). Entrenched political and labor bosses effectively used the massive project as a golden goose, which prolonged the work by a decade and boosted the final tab to almost $22 billion dollars. Despite ‘thousands’ of leaks and charges of mismanagement and use of substandard materials by the managers of the project, the project’s last phase opened in January 2006.

Just six months later, a three ton portion of the I-93 portion fell on the car of Milena Del Valle, killing her. Yesterday, after two years in the courts, the family of Mrs. Del Valle were awarded $28 million in a wrongful death suit. It was determined that the designers and contractors used incorrect bonding materials which were cited in the ceiling collapse. It was another sad, tragic chapter in an exercise of big government works project.

Just over a year ago, the St. Anthony Bridge portion of I-35 in Minneapolis fell and killed 13 people. The entire country was gripped in fear that every bridge and overpass was about to collapse and measures needed to be made immediately. Governor Tim Pawlenty threw down a challenge: get the bridge back online in less than a year and a half. Naysayers were many and believers were few. After all, how can we possibly construct a 500′ span of that magnitude in such a short time.

The governor was finally proven wrong – the project was finished in 14 months.

St. Anthony Bridge

How was this even possible? Suspension of the arcane laws regulating public works projects. The project could not wait and Gov. Pawlenty understood that this was not time for another ‘golden goose’. The project used incentives to keep the project on time and under budget. Technological advances trumped bloated time-worn labor methods traditionally used to milk works projects.

Two weeks ago, cars began to cross the new span which, according to Popular Mechanics, will serve as a model for transportation projects in the future.

Private sector versus Big Government? I think you know my vote.

$28M settlement in fatal Big Dig collapse – Boston Herald
First lesson from the bridge collapse rebuild – Hot Air