The Federal government has a soft place in its heart for duct tape - that indispensable flexible can-do-it-all wonder that works great on everything but ducts. First, NASA puts duct tape aboard the Space Shuttle (to give the astronauts false hope, kinda like oxygen masks aboard airliners? h/t Tyler Durden).
Now, the Feds want to use duct tape to help repair Boston's Big Dig. Sadly, not kidding here.
Look up the word 'boondoggle' in any dictionary, and this is what you will find:
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The Big Dig is a salient example of 'project inflation' - "Although the project was estimated at $2.5 billion in 1985, when the last major highway section opened in December 2003, over $14.6 billion had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006."
A passenger in a car was killed and the driver injured on July 10 when a ceiling panel collapsed in a Big Dig tunnel. It is sad and pathetic when a federal project grows so big and expensive, that the very size and expense of it demands that it be completed to keep it from being a complete waste. It is tragic when such a bloated federal project actually kills someone. Apparently the epoxy bolt hangers were not strong enough to hold up the panels - and there are 1,146 bolt hangers that now need to be replaced.
69% of people polled said they would avoid using any part of the Big Dig system. The Big Dig is now officially radioactive.
Bruce F. Webster at And Still
I Persist has the complete roundup of the Big Dig Crumble fiasco as of late, including
such hits as
"Inspectors keep finding more problems, and more of the Big Crumble has been shut down."
"Back in 1999, a Big Crumble safety officer warned that the concrete ceiling panels might collapse."
Bruce's extensive Roundup of Roundups can be found here.
So just remember that when John Kerry says something really silly like "If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," he was no doubt talking about duct tape, 'cause it fixes everything.
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Federal engineers are on the job!
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Crossposted from WILLisms.com
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