In 1991, a megaproject referred to as the “Massive Dig” commenced in Boston, Massachusetts — native and statewide officers sought to remodel the cityscape and revitalize downtown Boston. This formidable initiative, formally named the Central Artery/Tunnel Challenge, promised to enhance transportation infrastructure and reshape the town’s city atmosphere. The outcomes have been nothing in need of exceptional, turning Boston right into a extra accessible, related, and vibrant city heart.
The price of Boston’s Massive Dig was great — adjusted for inflation, the current day price surpasses $24 billion, making it the second costliest freeway infrastructure undertaking in American historical past, second solely to the nationwide interstate freeway system.
Previous to the Massive Dig, an elevated Interstate 93 ran by way of the center of downtown Boston, separating a lot of the town from the waterfront and polluting it with visitors and noise. The megaproject sought to maneuver the freeway underground, in what finally proved to be one in every of humanity’s biggest feats of engineering. Although the undertaking was lengthy, arduous and costly, the Metropolis of Boston reclaimed some 27 acres of prime actual property and, quite than turning it over to the best bidder, preserved it within the type of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, an expansive city park that now connects neighborhoods from Chinatown to the historic North Finish.
Once I moved to the Metropolis of Boston final 12 months, my high precedence was to reside on or close to the greenway — not as a result of it’s stunning and peaceable, which it’s, however due to its unbelievable accessibility. Rolling in my wheelchair, the greenway supplies an accessible path that connects me to a lot of what Boston has to supply — high sights just like the New England Aquarium, Faneuil Corridor, Boston Tea Occasion Museum, Boston Youngsters’s Museum and the Paul Revere Home are all inside just a few blocks of the greenway.
The Rose Kennedy Greenway is itself an attraction and a hub for exercise and occasions. Guests will delight within the many gardens, public artwork installations, fountains and meals vans which dot the greenway. There’s even a wheelchair accessible carousel! Lots of the metropolis’s premier accommodations, highest rated eating places and well-liked watering holes border this public park, which is simply a block away from South Station (the town’s largest transit hub, with connections to the airport and subway system). It really does carry guests to the center of Boston.
Whereas Massachusetts taxpayers could proceed to shoulder the burden of the Massive Dig for years to come back, the results of the undertaking is one thing that every one Bostonians — myself included — will be happy with. The greenway is not only a park, however an accessible gateway to our metropolis, its various neighborhoods, and the unbelievable folks and companies that make Boston one of many premier vacationer locations in america.
Within the coming months, I sit up for sharing extra of my new hometown with you — we’ll discover the greenway, every of Boston’s 23 neighborhoods, and the encircling space (together with Salem on Halloween!) collectively. I hope you’ll be impressed to go to and uncover all that Boston and larger New England has to supply and I’m assured you’ll discover it to be one of the vital wonderful cities on the planet.
