Top lawmakers rail against Big Dig hoopla

House Speaker Thomas Finneran said the glitzy celebrations for each Big Dig milestone cannot mask the fact that the $14.6 billion project was late and over budget.

"The celebration of something that's late and over budget is hardly a celebratory cause," Finneran said, according to The Patriot Ledger of Quincy.

State Senator Therese Murray, Democrat of Plymouth, who chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee, agreed with the speaker, saying that the donation of $250,000 by Citizens Bank to underwrite the Pops concert on Dec. 19 does not make it appropriate.

"Just think of what we could do with $250,000 for the poor or for food banks," Murray said in an interview yesterday. "I just think it would have been better spent. They can have their celebration, but that's a lot of money to make people feel good."

Finneran and Murray spoke out against the elaborate celebration at a meeting of newspaper publishers in Bedford on Thursday.

But plans for the celebration of the opening of Interstate 93 south through the city, set to open to traffic the weekend of Dec. 19-20 have also drawn vocal criticism from Christy Mihos, a member of the board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the Big Dig. Mihos said he was the lone vote against accepting the Citizens Bank donation.

He said he was not comfortable accepting cash from a company that had entered into a contract with the turnpike authority to run the Fast Lane toll collection program. A better gesture, Mihos said, would be to make the tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike at Allston-Brighton or Route 128 free for a day. A portion of toll revenue is going to pay for the Big Dig.

Douglas Hanchett, spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, said the criticism reflected an overly dour approach to a joyous occasion.

"This is an amazing project," Hanchett said. "It's certainly had its difficulties and that has been well publicized. But it's the biggest public works project in the history of the nation, and Massachusetts should be proud of that fact. We are celebrating Dec. 19, and fortunately, with the money that Citizens Bank has provided, it's not going to cost taxpayers a penny. We found a fiscally responsible way to do this."

The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, conducted by Keith Lockhart, has agreed to play for 90 minutes in the tunnel some 65 feet under the city at 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 19. Project officials expect some 2,000 people to attend, mostly construction workers and neighborhood residents. Citizens Bank issued 500 tickets to the general public.

After the final touches are made to the milelong tunnel, it is scheduled to open sometime during the day on Dec. 20, providing a new underground southbound route beginning at the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge by the FleetCenter.

The northbound I-93 tunnel opened in March, and the Interstate 90 connector to the Ted Williams Tunnel opened in January. Opening celebrations were scheduled on both of those occasions, and also for the dedication and completion of the bridge.

Finneran, in his comments after addressing the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, said the opening party for I-93 southbound was an example of "the most foolish thing that candidates and elected officials do" and an attempt to "paint a rosy hue" on a badly managed project.

"The celebration of something that's late and over budget is hardly a celebratory cause," he said, according to the Patriot Ledger.

Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com.