Bostonians probably figured they’d see a Red Sox championship before this.   Oh, right.   Sixteen years and $14.8 billion later, the most monumental (and expensive) highway project in United States history will finally conclude December 31, 2007.

Looking to relieve Boston’s eternal traffic gridlock, Congress passed a major public works bill appropriating money for the project back in 1987.  Although President Reagan vetoed the bill as being too costly, he was overridden (oh, those were the days) by Tip O’Neill and company, leading to a 1991 groundbreaking.

For all it’s cost overruns and the terrible mismanagement and corruption that the Dig entailed, I’ve never heard anybody from Boston complain about the end result.   The AP’s article reports that the project has cut drive times through the city from 19.5 minutes to 2.8 minutes.   I’m sure many of you are wishing your city had something like this.

Could’ve.   For the $275 million/day we spend to make war in Iraq, I estimate we’d have another major metro area ‘dug’ in just over a month.   Some other uses for our tax dollars.