BOSTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The Ted Williams Tunnel, a key component of the massive Big Dig highway construction project in Boston, was officially declared finished Friday.
The opening to the general public this weekend of the Interstate 90 extension was hailed as the beginning of the end of the largest public works project in U.S. history.
Named after Boston Red Sox baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams, the new tunnel is a major segment of a $14.6-billion project that caused more than a decade of traffic disruptions in downtown Boston.
Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters told some 2,000 hard-hat construction workers, politicians and dignitaries gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremonies that the project is nearly 90 percent complete
"The tunnel completes Interstate 90 from Seattle to Boston," Peters said, noting motorists in Boston "endured years of disruption to get to this day."
The new direct connection from the Massachusetts Turnpike to South Boston and Logan International Airport and points north is expected to take some 25,000 vehicles a day off the elevated six-lane Central Artery through the center of Boston.
When it opened in 1959, the Central Artery carried about 75,000 vehicles a day. Today it carries upward of 200,000, making it one of the most congested highways in the United States.
It will also relieve the pressure on the two other tunnels in Boston -- the Sumner and Callahan tunnels -- which now carry some 90,000 vehicles a day.
Officials said what had been a 30- to 40-minute trip from the western suburbs to Logan will drop to about 7 minutes thanks to the 2.5-mile-long tunnel.
"A lot of people thought this project was impossible, it would never happen," Gov. Mitt Romney said. "In fact, this is a project that is a tribute to the people of Massachusetts, to inventiveness ... to the indomitable will of Massachusetts union workers."
Begun in 1991, the whole underground project is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2004, after which the elevated Central Artery will be torn down.
Mayor Thomas Menino said the new tunnel, part of one of the most technologically advanced highway systems in the world, will pay dividends to the entire region for years to come.
"Not bad for a city whose streets were originally cow paths," Menino said.
(For more information see the Web site bigdig.com)
