With the way the city works (i.e.,the other big hole in the ground) they would get the hole started and then it would sit open for 5-10 years!

Solve the trafic flow problem by rearaging the flow on existing streets and reducing the number of lights/access points that cause the current flow to be choppy. Kinda like one of those amusement rides that never stops, but rather the cars are just removed from the track to load/unload. (I think the trafic engineer people call it a limited access road.) Some routes would be for entering the city and others for exiting.

The good news is they’ve had this problem figured out for years in many of the eastern cities that grew bigger years ago…the only people fool enough to do the Big Dig were spending someone elses money. Thank You Uncle Ted K.

And some of our politicians apparently would be very glad to never have to see their constituents (for example, the ones who were afraid to debate on live TV via the statewide public broadcasting TV system, opting instead of a “sealed” meeting that would be viewable by the public only in a taped, delayed (and possibly edited) version after the politicians involved had fled to safety — and what better way than by fleeing underground?

By the way, one of the supporters of the proposed wings — whether underground or above — pointed out that the U.S. Capitol added wings after more states were admitted to the union. Well, I did some careful checking, and determined beyond a doubt that Idaho has not annexed any other states … in fact, we haven’t even added any more counties in a long, long time. Hmmmm ….

Shealy appears to have taken these students’ rather intriguing conceptual idea, that of lowering Front & Myrtle to allow the north/south streets to run unimpeded and at-grade (and allowing pedestrians to cross at the old 8th Street alignment unharassed), and pushed it to an ugly and poorly considered conclusion.

The problem isn’t just with his idiotic comparison to Boston’s Big Dig; it also lies with his suggestion that the roads should be tunneled. This would exponentially raise the cost of the project by:

1) Taking what would be a relatively simple project with a series of vehicular and pedestrian bridges and converting it into a very wide, very long, and exceedingly complex structural problem.

2) Taking a roadway system that is currently powered by the energy of the vehicles driving the network (not counting the electricity to run the traffic lights) and converting it to a system that is completely dependent on very energy-hungry, massive air handling system. And, if the power goes out no one would be able to drive the tunnel because they would asphyxiate on carbon monoxide.

A major portion of the Big Dig involved removing an elevated roadway built in 1953, originally designed to move 75,000 vehicles a day – which at the time of its replacement was carrying over 200,000 vehicles a day. According to ITD’s traffic logs, the average combined eastbound and westbound traffic counts on the connector have never exceeded 68,000 vehicles in any 24-hour period (these logs go all the way back to 1992). This is still well within the roadway’s design capacity.

Keep in mind that the Big Dig project was built to replace an antiquated system that was forced to transport more than 1,000,000 people a day. Does anyone really think our delegates have enough political chutzpah (more than Ted Kennedy’s!) to convince Congress that the annoying street problems in Boise are almost as bad as Boston’s (which has a daytime population larger than the entire state of Idaho – and nearly double the state’s during special events like the Boston Marathon). And if we had such political geniuses, would we want to waste their talents convincing Congress to fund an idea as stupid as tunneling a 10-lane freeway beneath Boise?

Maybe Shealy is just trying to jump the gun. Not in some visionary way, but given that the Big Dig also has the Ted Williams’ Tunnel which runs under the harbor – Shealy wants to prove that his head is already frozen in a vat.

Everyone who voted Shealy into office should be embarassed, and if it happens again, they should have their voting privilages revoked.

We need to tell our legislators to NUKE the regional transit tax idea or we will be paying 10-15% sales tax in the valley to fund these really stupid, pie-in the sky ideas.

We are already seeing the childish actions of ACHD and Boise City on much smaller issues. Both already disregard the neighborhoods and make up rules as they go – it would be MUCH worse if we hand these spoiled kids more money.