The Big Dig

The Big Dig

The Big Dig is indeed a gigantic project, and it involved 5000 employees and more than 100 big-time contractors. The number of construction equipment used was unreal, and there were more than 100 cranes. The amount of dirt excavated from the project could have filled sixteen football stadiums to the brim. There are critical lessons learned from the Big Dig project, but they have not been fully appreciated or publicized. The available information regarding the project’s various practices, strategies, and procedures is limited. Likely, there will not be another project of this magnitude and difficulty in the United States soon. Therefore, students, public policy makers, and project managers must learn from this project. There is a demand for knowledge on the management megaprojects globally. National governments, as well as regional governments, are expending hundreds of billions of dollars every year to build roads, dams, bridges, and energy generation plants resources.

The Big Dig project’s 20 years of experience provides precious lessons for learners, intellectuals, urban developers, construction engineers and managers, private and public investors, and government infrastructure corporations involved in public transport and urban planning. There is a need to find better ways of managing infrastructure projects to manage the costs, plan for delays, reduce injuries and property damage, and reduce the total cost of the risk involved in megaprojects. As global infrastructure investment continues to increase, there is a need for practitioners to understand that infrastructure development expertise is broad and integrates a vast number of disciplines like project management, risk management, corporate social responsibility, governance, project financing, and sustainability. All of these lessons can be learned from the Big Dig project; it is an invaluable resource.