Welcome to Big Dig II.
Well, not exactly, but close enough when you figure in the hellish traffic in downtown Boston and the environs as the result of the shutdown of the much-used Sumner Tunnel.
Besides, work on the tunnel will hopefully be completed by the end of August. The Big Dig was around for years.
And the cost is a little different. The Big Dig, a federal project which changed the face of Boston, was initially estimated to cost $2.5 billion when it began in 1991. It ended up costing a whopping $14.8 billion when it was completed in 1997.
The Sumner Tunnel is costing a paltry $160 million in state money, which amounts to spare change compared the Big Dig
Surprisingly upon completion of the Big Dig, no one was indicted or went to jail.
It was at the time the most expensive public works project in the country.
And that huge cost overruns are one reason why the Biden administration is reluctant to come up with any of the $4 billion it is estimated to replace the two functionally obsolete Cape Cod bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne.
Who knows how much they would end costing?
Both were built and are owned by the federal government, so it figures that the federal government would pay to replace them, like they do with old federal buildings. Not so.
Perhaps the huge cost overruns, which became a way of life with the Big Dig, have scared the Biden administration from future Massachusetts projects.
What could go wrong with the Big Dig project did go wrong. Cost overruns became a way of life.
Yet, in the end it beautified the city. It eliminated the ugly Central Artery and sent traffic underground, reconnected downtown Boston to the Waterfront, created the Rose Kennedy Greenway, paved the way for the Seaport District and led to the construction of, among other things, the iconic Zakim Bridge.
All of this is not much of a consolation if you, like most Greater Bostonians — let alone tourists — rely on cars to get you in and out of Boston.
Traffic, which was supposed to get better when the Big Dig was completed, only got worse. Better roads attracted more drivers.
That is because if you build it, they will come. And they came, clogging up Boston as never before.
Now North Shore motorists and drivers from East Boston and Revere, not to mention people getting to and from Logan Airport, must cope with a two-month shutdown of the vital Sumner Tunnel.
Plans, well-articulated by state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, call for the repair and renovations to be completed by the end of August.
While the tunnel was closed last Wednesday, the real test came the Monday following the July 4th weekend when the 40,000 motorists who normally take the tunnel faced new challenges.
It some ways it is also the first challenge for Gov. Maura Healey who so far has coasted at the State House following her submission to the Legislature of former Gov. Charlie Baker’s $52 billion budget.
Her appearance Monday at the Sumner Tunnel Command Center Monday was a good thing, given that she was away from the State House for two weeks, first for a trip to Ireland and then for a vacation in Rhode Island.
“This whole week will be a test,” Healey said of the plans her administration has put into play rides on the MBTA, including free rides on the Blue Line, free rides on busses from Revere, Chelsea and East Boston, free or reduced ferry rides, and so on.
She promised to take the Blue Line herself and “to stay on top of things and be as forthcoming and transparent with communications about what folks need to do to make their life as least complicated possible.”
Which is all well and good. But during the “test week” Healey left Wednesday for the three-day annual meeting of the National Governors’ Association in Atlantic City, and then for a gathering of female governors in Michigan. Maybe they discussed traffic.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.