BOSTON, Dec. 15 -- The Ted Williams Tunnel, the third under Boston Harbor, opened for commercial traffic only Friday with great fanfare and backslapping. Former Boston Red Sox slugger and Hall of Famer Ted Williams was joined by an army of politicians, sports figures and other dignitaries in ceremonies opening the tunnel that links South Boston to East Boston and Logan International Airport. The guest list of 2,000 included former Massachusetts Govs. Michael Dukakis and Edward King, Rep. Joseph Moakley and Sen. John Kerry, all of whom had pushed for the project's completion to ease traffic in the city's downtown. The first commercial vehicle actually was not to be allowed into the new tunnel until 8 p.m. after the staging and bunting used for Friday's ceremonies was cleared away. The 1.5-mile-long tunnel, which will take four minutes to drive through, is to open to general traffic in 2001 when its link to the Massachusetts Turnpike is completed. After 50 years of discussion and four years of construction, the cost of the tunnel is expected to be about $2.32 billion by the time all approach roads are completed. At the dedication ceremony, Gov. William Weld hailed Williams, baseball's last .400 hitter, as a 'hero, both charitable and gifted.' Williams, 77, a revered New England sports figure who's raised millions of dollars for children at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, complained that it took him almost two hours to get from Logan to his hotel through Boston's traffic gridlock streets.
'When I came to Boston in 1938 they were talking then about the tunnel,' Williams gushed. 'Everybody in New England ought to get on their knees and say, 'Thank God it's finally here.'' Trucks and cars with commercial registration plates will pay $2 for the priviledge of driving through the four-lane tunnel, two lanes in each direction. Trucks and taxis will be able to pay tolls electronically, using a 'transponder' on their windshields or license plates which automatically registers the cost as they cruise through the toll area. The other two tunnels linking downtown Boston and East Boston arethe Sumner and Callahan tunnels, one in each direction.
