Storrow Drive Tunnel Crumbling

Once you know how to use Storrow getting from your point A to point B becomes so much easier. Well, that is if you're willing to take a chance. The Herald reports this morning that they've reviewed documents and seen evidence of their own that the Storrow Drive Tunnel that runs along the Esplanade is in severe need of repair. It's something the DCR has known for a while; they've been looking into the best plans for a fix for some time, but haven't settled on a solution. They've floated the idea of a temporary detour of the roadway's traffic onto the Esplanade while construction is undertaken – an idea that hasn't met a very warm reception.

Storrow is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. So we've got the Mass Turnpike Authority, the Highway Department, and the DCR (wtf?) maintaining our major transit arteries, not to mention the municipalities who maintain the local roadways or even the MBTA who has their own set of tunnels and tracks weaving all over the city. The Herald report draws a direct line between the continued Big Dig spending and the neglect of the Storrow Drive Tunnel. The tunnel, completed in 1951 is set to live out it's useful life (by federal highway standards) in 2011. Construction and repair on the roadway is scheduled to begin in 2010. The Herald's description of the tunnel’s steel beams as "cracked and badly misaligned along its entire length" certainly strikes a sensational fear in anyone riding through the tunnel. Officials claim that the 100,000+ people who ride the roadway everyday are not in any immediate danger.

The construction and repair project is estimated at $25 million to $200
million. Do we just go ahead and multiply that by 7 ½ now, or wait until it's 10 years behind schedule and we're cursing the contractors on another hole in the ground gone wrong? Perhaps we're being pessimistic about it all, but with this project on the horizon and the proposal from Harvard to sink the roadway a bit further down the line on Soldiers Field Road as it twists along the Charles through Allston to create green space sometime in the next 25 years, Big Dig may never leave the current vernacular.

Image of another one of Storrow Drive's problems from Flickr user Paul Keleher