I-93 tunnels to bear 'Tip' O'Neill's name

When President Bush signs the $286.5 billion federal highway and transit bill into law, the Big Dig's main artery will finally get an official name: the Thomas P. ''Tip" O'Neill Jr. Tunnel.

The late longtime US House speaker from Cambridge helped secure billions in federal funds for the project, which opened in 2003, nine years after he died.

The Tip -- as the tunnel could be called in Boston's get-to-the-point vernacular -- is ''in honor of his service to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States, and in recognition of his contributions towards the construction of the Central Artery project in Boston," the bill says.

O'Neill's name will go on the northbound and southbound Interstate 93 tunnels, and the legislation says it should be on ''any reference in law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the tunnel."

Congress passed the bill Friday; Bush is expected to sign it by next week, ending politicking for the name. In March 2003, days after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Governor Mitt Romney suggested it be named Liberty Tunnel to honor Massachusetts veterans who have fought to preserve freedom. He suggested naming the Massachusetts Turnpike extension after O'Neill.

Some Democrats said they wanted the main tunnels named after O'Neill and the turnpike extension called the Liberty Tunnel. Romney said that idea was insulting to America's military.

Quietly, US Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat who serves on the House transportation committee, added the O'Neill naming to the transportation bill.

''The thing that's silly about this is that Congress should not have had to do it," he said yesterday. ''If Tip O'Neill had been a Republican, I think Mitt Romney himself would have named it the Tip O'Neill Tunnel."

Jon Carlisle, spokesman for the Romney administration's Executive Office of Transportation, welcomed the new name. ''The Congress has spoken and we're happy to see it move forward as the O'Neill Tunnel," he said.

Jeff Larson, general manager of traffic reporting firm SmartRoute Systems, said he is pleased that both tunnels will have the same name.

''There's always some confusion between the Sumner and Callahan tunnels. If we had to name the northbound tunnel the Larry Bird Tunnel and the southbound tunnel the Bobby Orr tunnel, it would be confusing."

O'Neill's son, Tom O'Neill III, was also pleased. Just before his father died, he said he'd like Boston to forgo naming anything after him while he was alive. '' 'In 10 or 11 years, if people still want to think about me and remember me as something, then they can name something after me,' " his son recalled.

''I think about how prophetic that was for him to say," O'Neill said. ''He worked very hard to bring that tunnel and new roadway to Boston, and I think he deserves it."

O'Neill has stayed out of the naming fray because his public relations and lobbying firm represents Big Dig contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has been under scrutiny for tunnel leaks that a recent report said will require years of repairs.

He said the controversy will take nothing away from the honor.

''The leaks probably will stop now that they've changed the name of the tunnel," he said.