For those of you who have never heard of the “Big Dig”, I learned about it in business school. I graduated before the project reached completion.
According to Wikipedia: “The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the U.S. and was plagued by escalating costs, scheduling overruns, leaks, design flaws, charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal arrests, and even four deaths. The project was scheduled to be completed in 1998 at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion (in 1982 dollars, US$6.0 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006). The project was not completed, however, until December of 2007, at a cost of over $14.6 billion ($8.08 billion in 1982 dollars)as of 2006. The Boston Globe estimated that the project will ultimately cost $22 billion, including interest, and that it will not be paid off until 2038. As a result of the deaths, leaks, and other design flaws, the consortium that oversaw the project agreed to pay $407 million in restitution, and several smaller companies agreed to pay a combined sum of approximately $51 million.”
From my recollection in business school, the consensus was that at numerous times during this project it was evident that the costs involved did not outweigh the benefits. Since so many millions had been “sunk” into this project, those who were part of this project just kept on promoting it and wasting more money. Think about it, if your paycheck was coming from “big dig” funding then of course you would want the project to continue. One of the takeaways of this project is that people involved in this project should not have been the decision makers as to whether or not it should be continued. It was in THEIR best interest that the project was continued, not necessarily in the best interest of the city of Boston.
I mention this little story because I have seen so many people lose their careers to the “big dig” mentality. People invest so much time and effort in a particular career pursuit that they often fail to see that their money or time is not being well spent and in the end, they may lose everything that have invested into this project. Usually people sink money into degrees that are useless or people fail to walk away from a business pursuit when it is failing. Read More
