The Big Dig

Latest Episodes:

Part 9: Hearts and Minds Nov 15, 2023

It’s been fifty years since the Big Dig was first conceived, thirty years since construction began, more than a dozen years since it was completed – and the final twist is: the project has largely delivered on its promises. How do we reconcile that reality with the scandal and outrage we’ve heard so much about?

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 8: I Want Justice for What Happened Nov 08, 2023

Just as the project turns the corner towards completion, its entire legacy becomes clouded. The tunnels are leaking, concrete suppliers are being arrested, and everyday drivers are forced to wonder: are these tunnels safe?

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 7: The Turnpike Revolt Nov 01, 2023

By the year 2000, the Big Dig has passed through many hands, but in its final years a power struggle spills into public view – over who will determine the project’s fate, and who will take responsibility for its mistakes.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 6: The Up Down Charts Oct 25, 2023

As work progresses through the 1990s and the tunnels take shape, the true cost of the Big Dig remains unknown to the public, until a series of revelations pulls down the curtain and shakes confidence in the whole project.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 5: Hatchet Man vs. the 800 Pound Gorilla Oct 18, 2023

In 1991, the Big Dig is handed off to a new leader – the brash, aggressive, hatchet-toting Jim Kerasiotes – who makes it clear he plans to shake things up. The one thing he can’t shake is the equally aggressive private company managing the project. Now they have to work together.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 4: The Double Cross Oct 11, 2023

The project faces an unexpected challenge on the home front: resistance from local environmentalists and residents – the very people the Big Dig was intended to please. Now, they say that Fred Salvucci has lost his way.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 3: All Politics is Local Oct 04, 2023

The Big Dig needs federal funding. House Speaker Tip O’Neill is determined to get it; President Ronald Reagan is determined to stop it – setting up a final showdown in one of the great political rivalries of the 20th century.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 2: Unholy Alliance Sep 27, 2023

In the early 1970s a radical idea took shape: tearing down Boston’s elevated downtown highway, and rebuilding it underground. But making it happen will require a grand bargain between two competing tunnel projects, and between bitter enemies.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Part 1: We Were Wrong Sep 27, 2023

There is a strange irony behind the Big Dig: the most expensive highway project ever built in America began with a man who hated highways. This is the story of Fred Salvucci’s journey into activism, during what is perhaps the most transformative anti-highway movement in the nation’s history.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Introducing The Big Dig Sep 13, 2023

Can America still do big things? Can we build the ambitious projects we will need to survive climate change and improve our cities? This 9-part series looks for clues in the story of the Big Dig – one of the most notoriously troubled infrastructure projects in American history.

The nine episode series is produced by GBH News.

Credits:

Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss

Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins

Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss

Editor: Lacy Roberts

Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon

Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle

Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss

Project Manager: Meiqian He