By Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press, 01/17/03

TUNNEL OPENING Complete coverage Message board Tell us what you think about the new tunnel. Was it confusing? Do you think it will reduce traffic jams? Read messages  GRAPHICS  See the graphic  See the graphic  PHOTO GALLERY See photo gallery  PHOTO GALLERY See photo gallery  PHOTO GALLERY See photo gallery  GLOBE COVERAGE 4/3/01 Changes throw Web maps a curve Tunnel's air kept fresh by vents Romney digs in on name of tunnel Artery managers grilled on overruns 4/2/01 Many want tunnel named for 'Tip' Audits say Big Dig firm overcharged Traffic jam clogs I-93 tunnel again Lehigh: Big Dig's founding father  LIVE TRAFFIC CONDITIONS Central Artery   Mass. Turnpike

BOSTON -- Praising years of dedication by construction workers, officials on Friday formally celebrated the opening of one of the nation's most expensive stretches of roadway, the new Interstate 90 tunnel connecting the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport.

"This is what we will tell our children -- we helped to build the largest public works project in the USA. and we helped rebuild the city of Boston," Joe Nigro of the Boston Building Trades Council told hard-hats and dignitaries gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony in the new tunnel.

"We salute those who envisioned and conceived this project, those who designed and engineered it, and most importantly those who did the work every day," added Turnpike chairman Matthew Amorello.

The $6.5 billion, 2.6-mile tunnel completes I-90 between Boston and Seattle. It will let Turnpike drivers headed for the airport avoid Central Artery traffic by cruising under the Fort Point Channel and hooking up with the Ted Williams Tunnel, Logan Airport and Route 1A north.

Traffic will begin flowing through the tunnel sometime during the next three days.

Right now a trip from the Prudential Center to the airport can take Turnpike drivers about 45 minutes in traffic. When the new tunnel opens, the trip will take about five to eight minutes, officials said.

The new tunnel should also ease traffic on the Central Artery by siphoning off between 25,000 to 50,000 cars a day, cars that will use the new tunnel instead of the Callahan and Sumner tunnels.

The I-90 connector is one of the key milestones in the $14.6 billion Big Dig, officially known as the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, which began in the 1980s.

About a month after the new tunnel opens, traffic should begin flowing through the new underground portion of Interstate 93 northbound through downtown Boston and onto the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. A year later, in February of 2003, traffic should begin running through Interstate 93 southbound.

By early 2005, the existing overhead Central Artery should be torn down and parks built over the new underground highway.

"Boston, one of the oldest cities in the country, will soon have one of the most advanced highways systems in the world," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. "Not bad for a city whose original streets were cow paths."

The opening ceremony gave officials a chance to tout the tunnel's technical triumphs and put aside its history of delays and cost overruns.

One of the first engineering challenges came when officials realized the soil under the Amtrak rail lines at the end of the Turnpike was so unstable that simply tunneling under them could cause a collapse.

Project engineers designed a massive concrete box to support the rail lines. To maneuver the box into place, workers used hundreds of probes to freeze the soil, making it more stable. They then forced the box forward at a rate of three feet a day.

Officials cheered the combined efforts of engineers and constructions workers during the hour-long ceremony.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., asked the hundreds gathered in the tunnel for a moment of silence in memory of the three workers killed during Big Dig construction.

Jason Alexander, a 19-year-old construction intern, called his two years on the project "one of the lifetime experiences I'll never forget."

"I can tell people I was down here," said Alexander. "I remember when they were floating each section (of tunnel) out here. To see how it looks now is amazing."

Terrence McCormack, a 49-year-old surveyor from Norton, also spent years on the project.

"I feel a real sense of accomplishment," he said. "There were a lot of obstacles, but the obstacles were overcome. It looks great."

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., credited former U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley for pushing for federal funding for the project. About $8 billion of the project's $14.6 billion price tag has come from federal dollars.

For the average Massachusetts driver, the tunnel is more than just a fast route to Logan, Markey said.

"It is possible now for someone in Framingham to say 'Honey, I'm going to Kelly's Roast Beef in Revere, I'll be back in an hour," said Markey, who said he'll also take pleasure in the fact that "every New Yorker who wants to go north will have to ride through the Ted Williams Tunnel."