Big Dig copies at $500,000 hit them as overdone

Sure, the cost of the Big Dig came in about $10 billion over what was first expected. Then there are the highly paid consultants that primary contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff keeps around.

But this line item is really eye-popping. The contractor told the state this week it needs $500,000 to copy documents. At a copy center at a Dorchester Staples yesterday, several people expressed incredulity.

''They have to be using gold paper," said Tehran Johnson, 24, of Roxbury. ''That's money they could put toward more school centers and programs for kids and more community pools. That's outrageous."

Copy clerk Youseline Jean-Louis said the biggest order she ever had cost $2,000. A half-million dollars would make 16.7 million pages of black-and-white copies at Staples, she said. ''That's just crazy," she said.

What's worse, the copies are being made because the contractor needs to furnish them to law enforcement agencies investigating the project.

Andrew Paven, Bechtel's spokesman, said the figure includes labor costs for locating, filing, and delivering the copies, as well as other tasks. ''It's not like you're standing there feeding dimes into a commercial Xerox machine," he said.

After speaking to the Globe yesterday afternoon, Paven called back at about 6 p.m. to say the the cost would actually be closer to $216,000. As the reporter pressed for details, Paven's cellphone cut out. Several subsequent phone calls made to his cellphone were not returned.

REBECCA MAHONEY